Film Noir: Anxieties Of The Great Depression

Film noir came into the public gaze in the post-war 1940’s. The American film industry continued to make and produce films during World War II and because the German’s where occupying France, they stopped all American films from being screened in the French theaters. When World War II had ended and the Nazi regime had collapsed in 1945 the France audience where greeted with a back log of American films. American films that reflected the anxieties of the American nation at that time and of the years that came before. Anxieties of the Great Depression that had taken place just two decades ago and the effects that the wars where having on the country.

The French audiences where shocked with what they saw at their theatres. These new American films had a different tone about. They were darker and moodier than their 1930’s Hollywood film that showcased

6-11.

Film noir then is hard to pin down as a genre, yes it has a set on well defined systems that in works within, low lighting, fixed character types and narrative patterns that are well known to the audience. And yes it has a set of expectations to follow in that the femme fatale will use her sexual charm to lure the male hero into a false sense of security which will lead to him giving into his morals, which will lead to her getting her way for it all to go wrong at the last minute.

But do these well defined systems and expectations determine film noir as a genre or do they just reflect the style in which film noir is distinctively known for, its dark, moody bleak, low lighting appearance. If we suggest that film noir is known for it style, then it is hard place as genre. Belton states, “But style is a feature that rarely, if ever, figures in the definition of a genre.” p.228

So if we can not label film noir as a genre what can we say it is? Again Belton suggests, “…film noir is not a genre but a series or cycle, and view it as an aesthetic movement…”