Film Noir Research Paper

Film noir, French for “black film,” is a style of film that is mostly used in American crime dramas, especially those that give emphasis to pessimistic attitudes and sexual motivation. The term film noir originated in 1946 by French Film Critic, Nino Frank.1 Many films in the film noir style have been inspired by detective stories, also known as “hard-boiled,” written by American Novelists such as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Noir’s consisted of sharp contrasts of light and dark, dramatic use of shadows and eerie backdrops. A film score for a film noir was often dark and pessimistic and contained dissonant harmonies.
Double Indemnity (1944) was a noir film directed by Billy Wilder, adapted from James M. Cain’s classic crime novel