What is film noir?
Los Angeles, 1947. A private detective in a worn trench coat strikes a match and lights a cigarette. His face is alternately illuminated by the light from a flashing neon sign. He walks lethargically along the rain-soaked sidewalk to a nearby nightclub. He is there to investigate a murder. One of the main suspects is a charming bar singer who knew the victim – an infamous underworld boss. Is it possible that she committed such a heinous crime? And if so, did she kill out of passion or for money? The detective wants to get to the bottom of it, but he must be careful not to fall under her spell himself…
The scene described is not explicitly taken from any specific film, yet it will be familiar to many people. In more than 80 years of its existence, film noir has firmly established itself as an integral part of the cultural heritage of people around the world. Its iconography and characteristic techniques – the cynical antihero, the seductive femme fatale, retrospective narration, the modern metropolis as a labyrinth of dark alleys – have become so recognizable that they border on cliché. Nevertheless, the combination of a dark visual style and a hopeless atmosphere has seduced one generation of film fans after another.
Moreover, despite the stability of its basic devices, film noir has proven to be surprisingly malleable. As early as the 1940s and 1950s, it managed to infiltrate the genres of western, science fiction, and comedy, and its local variants have established themselves in a number of national cinemas outside the US, from Mexico and Argentina to France, Britain, Japan and Korea. Its enduring popularity is also evidenced by other media and formats, from television series to comics and video games and advertising design. Today, it is considered one of the few truly transnational and transmedia phenomena. In short, we can’t get rid of film noir, and that’s a good thing.
The Noir Film Festival has been around since 2013 to explore the various forms of noir aesthetics and introduce them to the general public, whether seasoned film connoisseurs or relative newcomers.
Milan Hain, NFF programmer
