Film Noir and Femme Fatale

Film Noir, or Black Cinema, is a term coined by French critics to refer to the films coming out of America after the Second World War when films became a lot darker and rarely had an optimistic ending. The films reflected the tension and insecurity felt by many in that time period.

It is not technically a genre but is a tone of film. It also refers to the films made in the decade after the Second World War and the name didn’t become known until the period had ended.

Noir films were usually centred on a cynical, disillusioned male who encountered a beautiful and seductive femme fatale. She would use her feminine wiles to manipulate him, usually into becoming a fall guy for a crime. After a betrayal, she would frequently be destroyed, but often at the cost of the hero’s life.

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles

The primary moods portrayed in noir films were melancholy, pessimism, moral corruption, paranoia and guilt. Heroes were usually conflicted detectives, gangsters, government agents or killers. They were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. They may also have been cynical, obsessive, menacing, disillusioned, struggling to survive – and in the end, ultimately losing.

Storylines tended to be non-linear and twisting. Narratives were maze-like and complex, witty and using flashbacks. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero’s own cynical perspective on life.

Film Noir films typically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature and emphasises the brutal, shadowy and sadistic sides of human experience. An oppressive atmosphere on dingy realism and fatalistic expectation of defeat and entrapment were also stylised characteristics of Film Noir.

Film Noir films were visually marked by disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing and circling cigarette smoke. Settings were often interiors with low-key lighting, Venetian-blinded windows with claustrophobic and gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt and dark alleyways.

Femme Fatales in Film Noir:

The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).
Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goadings of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall.