Conventions of Film Noir

Film noir is normally to do with dark themes such as murder, corruption, crime, loss of love and romance.

The films that are themed around love generally include femme-fatale who are women who try to seduce men and lead them astray. The romance films often have woman who are better known as 'traditional' or 'marrying' type women who try and force the main character of the film into stability which is shown in most of the films as being unwanted and boring. The femme-fatale women are opposite of traditional women becasue they don't want commitments or marriage and give the illusion of more freedom for the male although that is not so in most cases.

The films use lighting to create atmosphere and suspence, becuase the films are in black and white the light and shadows have to be used to create mystery unlike in colour films which can use all sorts of dark colours to create the same atmosphere. In some scenes the shadows are contrasted with light to draw attention to certain things such as an object or person that will be important later in the film. The objects in the scenes are often highly contrasted, for example in "The Third Man" the setting of the film is in Vienna that was bombed in the war which means that many buildings are in ruins but the film also shows scenes of churches and angel which show and visual contrast of good and evil. Good and evil remain a running theme throughout many film noir films becuase it makes more tension and mystery about what will happen in the film.

Directors sometimes angle shots a certain way to make scenes look more scary and unnerving, some of these shots include high angle shot that make the subject look smaller and more vulnerable and this is normally used on victims or innocent characters. Long shots are used in some chase scenes or confrontational scenes so all the characters and surroundings can be seen which creates suspence, for example if a chase scene ended in an alley or enclosed space it would add more expectancy and apprehension becuase the surrounding space is small and can cause a feeling of claustrophobia and anxiety. Many scenes are medium shot becuase the objects and scenery in the backgroun help establish different expectations when coupled with the action in the scene and background music if there is any. A camera angle that is used in "The Third Man" is the 'canted' shot where the camera is tilted some degrees to the right or left to make the audience feel uneasy because it is an unnatural angle it makes the audience feel unbalanced and suggests instability.

There are commonly used iconic items in many film noir films to imply certain things. For example femme-fatale women normally wear black gothic clothing that symbolises evilness and villiany but the clothes are often very revealing that adds a seductiveness to the gothic style, on the other hand the"traditional" women are most likely to wear pale or white clothing that is very modest. The males in the films normally wear either black suits or black suits with a light coloured trench coat with it (possibly beige if colours could be seen). The colours they wear imply whether they are good or criminals, but the man have more subtle clothes so it is difficult to tell just from the clothing. Generally good male characters have one or more items on them which are white or light coloured such as a scarf, coat or shoes, while criminal males normally wear all black with a white shirt that can only just be seen under the black jacket. Sometimes the male character goes through some moral dilemma and the line between good and evil is blurred so the male characters clothing is very similar for both types to show this very thin line between good and evil. Most male characters wear hats and smoke so this could imply masculinity or mystery.