Noir

This is the blog for the week of January 21.

So, before we started reading Crime and Punishment, I mistook it for a member of the Film Noir genre. Popularized in the 40's, noir is the typical "crime drama" style, before crime dramas inundated the prime-time TV scene. Noir typically featured your private gumshoe, your street hustler with a heart of gold, and other hard-boiled smooth-talker types. The words "dame" and "doll" are thrown around a lot.

In visual media, Noir is striking based on its light and dark contrasts. Shadows are long and often partially obtrusive to faces (known as chiaroscuro), and light will be used sparingly, often for dramatic effect (horizontal blinds are a staple). Dutch angles and other atmospheric positions are fair game. Authentic noir is shot in black and white of course, given the era.

Cynical, fast-talking, and never far from his cigarette, the protagonist will often be less then wholesome, but never genuinely evil. His outlook on the city he lives in (and it's always a city) is, as a rule, bleak and defeatist, often disillusioned by an event from his past.

Venerated printed examples include The Maltese Falcon and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Those two books were adapted into movies, the latter of which starred Humphrey Bogart, famous for Casablanca, another Noir Film.