Film noir is like pornography: you know it when you see it. Crime films, detective stories, melodramas - some can be described as film noir, others not, and some might be debatable. Arguably classics like The Big Sleep (1946) and And Then There Were None (1945) are a detective story and a whodunit, respectively, but not film noir. The term is, unsurprisingly, French, coined by Nino Frank in 1946 but coming into common parlance years later.
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These "dark films" tended to have common characteristics: shadowy, black and white cinematography; a doom-laden, fatalistic air; a narrative told in flashback; a hero or anti-hero who's involved in criminal matters, willingly or otherwise; a femme fatale. Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, The Big Heat - all are classics well worth watching.
Some are available free on YouTube. D.O.A. (1949) has an arresting start: a man (Edmond O'Brien) comes into a police station and says he wants to report a murder. Asked who was murdered, he replies, "I was." He was slipped a slow-acting poison with no antidote and set out to discover who did it and why before his death.
The low-budget Detour (1945) is also prime, grim, noir. Al (Tom Neal), a hitch-hiker, is picked up by a man who later dies accidentally. Al hides the body and takes the man's car, wallet and ID. He's already put himself in danger but when he picks up Vera (Ann Savage), things get worse.
In The Woman in the Window (1944), academic Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), whose family has gone on vacation, has a chance encounter with Alice Reed (Joan Bennett). She invites him home for a drink but when her lover arrives, a fatal fight ensues and Wanley and Alice decide to cover it up. But getting away with murder isn't easy and when you are friends with the District Attorney and hear details of the crime, it's even trickier. This was controversial for its ending but I think it works.
Chinatown (1974) is one of the best neo-noirs. Set in the 1930s, it has many of the classic elements: a private eye, a mysterious woman, crime, corruption and despair.
It's no surprise the murky, bleak depths of film noir have retained their appeal in our cynical times.
Ron Cerabona
As arts reporter I am interested in and cover a wide range of areas - film, visual art, theatre and music, among others - to tell readers about what's coming and happening in the vibrant and varied world of the arts in Canberra. Email: ron.cerabona@canberratimes.com.au
As arts reporter I am interested in and cover a wide range of areas - film, visual art, theatre and music, among others - to tell readers about what's coming and happening in the vibrant and varied world of the arts in Canberra. Email: ron.cerabona@canberratimes.com.au
