[Link] The 5 Essential Rules of Film Noir

Editor's Note: This applies also to you folks writing Noir-inspired fiction, not just to the films themselves.

by Jonathan Crow

“That’s life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you.”

– Al Robert (Tom Neal), Detour

Film Noir. When you think that phrase, the mind is immediately drawn to images of leggy ice queens, rumbled losers in fedoras, guns, neon and certain deadpan cynicism. Film Noir wasn’t a self conscious movement in the way the French New Wave was. It wasn’t a brand name like a Marvel superhero epic. But it did tap into something dark in the American postwar zeitgeist and became for a spell hugely popular. It also created some of the most unforgettable images in film history.

Film Noir hit its zenith in the late ‘40s, a time when veterans were returning home in droves after having witnessed unimaginable horrors. Under the weight of war trauma, men felt the brittle veneer of traditional masculinity – strong, stoic and dominant — crack and crumble. Film Noir tapped into this anxiety. It’s no accident that film scholars have called Film Noir the male weepy.

Read the full article: https://www.openculture.com/2014/06/the-5-rules-of-film-noir.html