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Featuring exclusive film previews, interviews and much more, this is the place for anyone slightly obsessed with cinema.
Featuring exclusive film previews, interviews and much more, this is the place for anyone slightly obsessed with cinema.
04 Dec 24
Coined by Italian-born, French film critic Nino Frank, the term 'film noir' was first used in 1946 to describe a cycle of cynical Hollywood features that had recently become available in Paris. Referring specifically to films from earlier in the decade such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944) and Laura (1944), the phrase directly translated as 'black' or 'dark' film. Notoriously a slippery and elusive term (is it a genre? Is it a style?), film noir can broadly be attributed to films released in the 1940s and '50s which share a distinct set of narrative tropes and stylistic conventions: dark and pessimistic themes; morally ambiguous characters; flawed and cynical anti-heroes; seductive yet dangerous femme fatales; flashbacks and world-weary voice-overs; shadowy, chiaroscuro cinematography, all indebted to European silent cinema – the makers of which had recently departed for America, fleeing the rise of fascism.
Shaped by the pervading mood following the Second World War, the tone of film noir is perhaps the most distinctive feature of all: these films are laced with an overwhelming sense of malaise, a feeling of post-war anxiety and alienation. America had grown darker and full of dread, and Hollywood was quick to pick up on the sentiment that the nation would never really shake that off. While the original cycle of noir came to an end in the 1950s, the term continues to have cultural relevance. From the late 1960s, we've seen the rise of neo-noir, with titles such as Chinatown and Blade Runner in the '70s and '80s to Mulholland Drive, Drive and Nightcrawler in the 2000s, all adopting the sentiment of peeling back America's shiny façade to reveal something altogether more grubby, cynical and pessimistic.
- Rose Butler
As shrouded in mysticism as it is in shadow, Howard Hawks beguiled his contemporaries with this cryptic foray into the criminal world. The Big Sleep begins with blackmail and ends in murder, told through the private eyes of Philip Marlowe. Starring decade-defining duo Bogie and Bacall (whose offscreen chemistry was the catalyst of as much intrigue as it is onscreen), the film underwent significant reshoots to feature more of the pair to take advantage of audiences' fanaticism. The AFI lauds Bogart's Marlowe as the 32nd greatest hero in film, and Bacall's tough-talking Vivian gloriously embodies the archetypal Hawksian woman.
– Hope Hopkinson
German director Robert Siodmak, one of '40s Hollywood's many illustrious expats, exemplified noir's chiaroscuro style with his 1946 take on Ernest Hemingway's thrilling short story – and kickstarted the careers of both Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner doing so. With a dazzling flashback structure that allowed its director (and uncredited screenwriter John Huston!) to flex his narrative and visual muscles, this gritty, heady tale is the tragedy of Lancaster's 'the Swede', a hapless boxer pulled into a life of crime by the heartstrings Gardner's tempestuous moll has wrapped around her fingers. As Lancaster stumbles, Gardner smoulders; their chemistry is electric.
– Lara Peters
Introduced with the hair flip seen around the world, Rita Hayworth lights up the screen in Charles Vidor's cinematic landmark, referenced in everything from The Shawshank Redemption to Notting Hill to Mulholland Drive. Hayworth stars opposite Glenn Ford (performances infused with the real chemistry of their decades-long affair) as the titular, sultry Gilda, a role that encapsulates and deftly deconstructs the femme fatale. As she flits between the affections of a former lover and her criminal kingpin husband, the line between desire and darkness grows increasingly thin – but can we really 'Put the Blame on Mame'?
– Lucy Fenwick Elliott
John M. Stahl's 1945 noir takes its name (and its venom) from Shakespearean tragedy. Prince Hamlet is told, of his guileful mother, "leave her to heaven…to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her" – instructions that could aid those encountering Gene Tierney's deliciously monstrous Ellen Berent. Along with engrossing melodrama, Leave Her To Heaven – a tale of Tierney's femme fatale and her plot to destroy anyone separating her and her novelist love (Cornel Wilde) – provides something one might not expect from noir: a shock of colour. Often considered the first 'Technicolor noir', its lush images earned cinematographer Leon Shamroy an Academy Award.
– Lara Peters
A classic hard-boiled yarn of a hardened police sergeant on a one-man collision course with a grubby underworld mob boss and his ruthless right-hand man, The Big Heat is a subversive tale of a good cop in a bad town. Starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin, it's also directed by the masterful Fritz Lang.
– Rose Butler
A down-at-heel journalist (Kirk Douglas) spots an opportunity to shoot himself back to the big time when he stumbles across a desert mine cave-in – provided the miner stays trapped long enough for the story to build. Inspired by real events, this biting satire on media and political ethics and the American public's insatiable appetite for sensationalism pulls no punches. Although shot for the most part in documentary style under the searing New Mexico sun, Ace in the Hole is as noir as noir can be. Director Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment) considered it his best film.
– Deborah Allison
Film Noir goes nuclear in Robert Aldrich's Atomic Age thriller, rich in paranoia, existential dread, and violence. Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is a brutish private investigator who specialises in divorce – basically, honey traps – who bumbles into a Cold War conspiracy involving a rogues gallery of LA high rollers & lowlifes. The MacGuffin tying this together (or "the Great Whatsit," as Maxine Cooper's Velda, the closest thing Hammer has to a love interest, memorably describes it) is a mysterious case, hot to the touch, with blinding contents. Ever wondered what the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction was all about? The 'Great Whatsit' is (probably) the answer.
– Simon Ragoonanan
The quintessential British noir, Night and the City was made by Twentieth Century Fox with a dominantly American cast and crew, combining the studio's characteristic style and polish with iconic London locations. Adapted from a British novel by Gerald Kersh, it centres on a ducking-and-diving, self-serving spiv as he chases fame and fortune as a wrestling promoter. Richard Widmark's stellar lead performance pulls off the remarkable feat of drawing sympathy for a man with no moral compass. Director Jules Dassin, fleeing his addition to the Hollywood Blacklist, achieved further acclaim in France with his next picture, the equally accomplished Rififi (1955).
– Deborah Allison
It's love (and death) at first sight when Barbara Stanwyck's hard-hearted, scheming and seductive housewife colludes with an insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) to murder her husband – and make a tidy sum from his new policy. Director Billy Wilder collaborates with co-writer Raymond Chandler to craft a sordid, chiaroscuro-drenched nod to German expressionism, sitting comfortably on just about any list of the best film noirs ever made.
– Lucy Fenwick Elliott
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