Film noir originally referred to the classic period of 1940s-1950s films during and after World War II. The period is usually defined between the release of films like Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and Touch of Evil (1958). Such films were generally made in black-and-white with cheap production values, but often with shots using the hand-held cameras developed during the war for documentary use. Few are shot on location, but care was taken to provide inventive lighting techniques, such as employing venetian blinds and drastic contrasts.

Modern films that evoke this period and style may be referred to as neo-noir.

A film noir usually have the following characteristics:

• pessimistic atmosphere;
• a plot in which the characters are either: involved in a mystery, committing crime, in a love triangle, or facing a desperate situation;
• characters either devoid of glamour (criminals, low-class people, policemen, detectives, addicts), financially broken or morally decadent;
• an unhappy (or vaguely bitter) end;
• dense music.

Although of French origin, the term is applied mostly to American films and, rarely, British films.

Film styles | Films by genre

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