Given the fact that several films noirs were included in the Otto Preminger retrospective, and the mini-series on French crime master Jean-Pierre Melville is still to come, I  thought it might be a good idea to re-launch the debate on whether film noir is an actual genre (as opposed to a style or a movement).

In his famous article "Notes on Film Noir," Paul Schrader argues that film noir is a style rather than a genre because film noir "is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood." However, Schrader undermines his own argument by pointing out that the American city is the setting for most films noirs; indeed, the city often is a character in itself. Moreover, Schrader argues that conflicts in films noirs are solved visually rather thematically. I strongly have to disagree with Schrader here: most film-noir plots do have a solution, but it is often a dis-heartening, open-ended solution. In Preminger's WHIRLPOOL, the villain (Mr. Korvo) indeed dies in the end, and Ann Sutton is rehabilitated from the accusation of being a murderer. But this ending does not include a solution for the troubles of her relationship with her husband. I guess you could summarize it like that: gangster films usually chart the hero's rise and subsequent fall, whereas films noirs simply chart the hero or heroine's fall from grace....

• But what exactly makes film noir a genre? Here is a short list of important characteristics. I think that a film that has a combination of these characteristics qualifies for a film noir:
  1. Film noir has its own iconography: the streets of American cities by night, bars and nightclubs, guns and other weapons, cars, men in trench coats and with hats, cigarettes, dollar bills etc.
  2. Like many other genres, film noir does not subvert the dominant ideology. According to, Robin Wood und Judith Hess, genre films "came into being and were financially successful because because they temporarily relieved the fears aroused by a recognition     of social and political conflicts; they helped to discourage any action that might otherwise follow upon the pressure generated by living with these conflicts. Genre films produce satisfaction rather than action, pity and fear rather than revolt."
  Indeed, many films noirs have a clear message to the audience: Crime does not pay (cf. WHIRLPOOL or ANGEL FACE)!
  3. Films noirs have their own archetypal figures: the lonely/desperate hero, the femme fatale, the nurturing woman.
  4. Films noirs have prevalent themes: the characters' past, the American city, crime and violence, tragic plot twists, the ambivalent portrayal of good and bad, and - of course - the failure of romantic relationships.
  5. Films noir have their own style: the preference for darkness and low-key lighting and for expressive and extreme camera angles and shots; the Mise-en-scène is "designed to unsettle, jar, and disorient the viewer in correlation with the disorientation felt by the noir heroes" (Schrader); the use of indirect narrative strategies such as flash-backs etc.
  6. Like all other genres, classic films noirs were part of the Hollywood system, i.e. of the industry: indeed, the studios marketed them like other genres by applying certain labels:
      a. Stars like Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner were used as vehicles to draw audiences.
      b. The film titles often already suggest murder, foul play, and other intrigues: for instance, the title for the original FAREWELL, MY LOVELY was switched to MURDER MY SWEEt so that the audience would not consider the film a musical.
      c. Finally, taglines such as "She loved one man... enough to kill to get him!" (ANGEL FACE) helped the studios guide audience expectation.
  Film genres are categories produced by the industry to target a certain audience. The marketing campaigns around classical films noirs suggest that the studios treated these films as a coherent genre (maybe a bastard genre because of its dark themes).
  7. The cycle of Genres: Generation - Stabilization - Exhaustion - Rebirth
  Every film genre passes through these four periods, and many critics have argued that this was not the case for film noir. However, I would argue that recent re-interpretations of the noir-genre like RESERVOIR DOGS, BOUND, and BRICK show that the genre is very much alive and capable of evolving!

I hope this entry is not too long, and I look forward to your comments! I think that Melville's LE DOULOS and LE SAMURAI are great examples of how the genre was picked up and refashioned by directors in Europe.