Quick, think about the Noir. What do you see? Come up with a mental snapshot of the most Noir scene you possibly can. If you are anything like me, and I sincerely hope for your sake that you are not, you have an image similar to this: There's a trench coat and hat clad man. He's a back alley of some large, but grimy city, stumbling away from the camera into mist. Streetlights cut bright vertical lines into the mist. And that's it. My quintessential image of pretty much any other genre includes so much more action, or blatant meaning. My Western image is the moment the flawed-but-deep-down-inside-a-good-man hero, who looks like Clint Eastwood no matter how hard I try to imagine someone else, grasps his gun, about to draw in the final showdown. Science Fiction involves an epic space battle taking place with a planet in the background. Romance is, naturally, a passionate kiss involving one of those actors that girls adore but guys never really understand why, and the scorching hot female lead, next to a picturesque lake. So on and so forth. What these have in common is that they are all, in my opinion, the iconic, and somewhat cliched, moments of each of these genres. Can the same be said about my image of the Noir? I think that actually might be the case.
What makes the Noir so unique is that unlike other genres, the common ground between different Noir films isn't similar themes and narratives. Many Noir films do share common themes and narratives, but the Noir is a diverse enough group of films that those aspects can't be the what connects it. Because of this, I'm not entirely sure the Noir can be considered a genre. I see it as more of a style of film making. What makes a Noir film “Noir” is instead a combination of the style of the film, and the mood it evokes.
Perhaps the best evidence of the power of the style and mood of the Noir is that people often talk about its realism. The Noir can really only be viewed as a fantasy world. Yes, it takes place in cities, with real humans, but the real world is nothing like the Noir. The seedy underbelly of the city, the dame chasing detective, these are fantastical caricatures, complete exaggerations, which when put together form a cohesive, but unrealistic universe. Why then, do people always talk about the realism of the Noir? It's not the fictitious universe that the films are set in, and it's certainly not their narratives. Instead, the unique style and tone of the Noir, admittedly in conjunction with certain themes, holistically give an amazing impression of immersion to this gritty fantasy world.
The aesthetic style plays a huge role in this. Black and white film,while the only option at the time, made great strides in making the Noir feel the way it does. The stylistic decisions Noir filmmakers made were also huge factors. The Noir takes place almost exclusively at night, with low key lighting, allowing for the cinematographers to play with light and shadow. Light often comes down in vertical swatches, such as a search light, or my aforementioned streetlight, rather than a typical unfocused billowy lighting. These factors combine to give the Noir a feeling of darkness, grime, and loneliness.
Isolation can also be seen in other aspects of the Noir. For example, Noir films are often narrated in first person by the protagonist. This limited view point, coupled with the traditional “me against the world” situations that these characters are often put into leads to a further sense of alienation of the viewer.
What is interesting is that the aspects of the Noir that make it so unique are completely a function of the time period the films were being produced. Black and white film was the medium of the time, and black and white film just happens to be fantastic at conveying the contrasts of light and dark shadows that makes the Noir so visually appealing. It is entirely conceivable that, had color film developed earlier, the Noir would never have existed. The mood of the Noir is also a reflection of the overall mood of the country at the time. The Noir was at its peak when the country was recovering from the bloodiest war in mankind's history, which in turn sparked an economic recovery from the Great Depression. The people of the United States were, to paraphrase Paul Shrader, sick of the forced optimism during the depression, disillusioned with the war, and ready to accept a darker brand of films. In other words, it was the perfect time for the Noir to come into existence.
This lucky timing led to seemingly random factors occurring all at the same time, and resulted in the Noir, which is, in my opinion, the most cohesive and immersive group of films. They may not be the greatest films ever made (all though some are), but they do evoke their intended feeling on the audience better than any genre does. Every single aspect of them, from the narratives to the style, serves to create the lonely, gritty, and dark mood. Call the Noir what you will, a genre, a style, a reflection of the zeitgeist, but it is undeniable that it succeed at its intended purpose, to make the audience feel a particular way.
Bloggers note: I initially intended this to be defining whether or not the Noir was a genre, if not what it was, and then applying that do Chinatown. The blog took a different direction as I was writing it. I do want to answer those questions and I believe they help clarify my argument, I just couldn't find a way to integrate them into my blog. Basically, I see the Noir as a style of films. It is a style heavily influenced by the time period they were being created in, but at its core a style. I wouldn't discount neo-Noir as not being Noir because they were made outside of that particular time period, as they still contain the style that made the Noir the Noir. For example, I definitely consider Sin City a Noir film. I don't, however, see Chinatown as a Noir. Chinatown is similar to Noir films through its narrative, theme, characters, and setting. If the Noir were a genre, then Chinatown would definitely be a part of it. However, Chinatown did not stylistically elicit the same dark feeling in me that I find essential for classification as Noir. A large part of this is the use of color, and the large number of scenes during the day time. To further clarify, if there were a black and white film that was stylistically similar to the Noir, and had the same mood about it, but had an entirely different narrative, theme, and setting from the typical Noir film, I would consider it more “Noir” than Chinatown.
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