Codes and Conventions of Film Noir

The structure of the film noir’s are completely different to other Hollywood films, they involve flashbacks and flash forwards, these break up the linear narrative sequence. “Double Indemnity” is marked by two timelines, real time and the character Water Neff’s remembered time. The film opens with him arriving at his office late at night and confesses killing a man for the money and love; these words then trigger a flashback in which he narrates. Gradually the narrative brings real time and memory together, this unusual structure gives the audience a premonition of what will the narrative has to come and what has happened in the past through flashback stories

Most classic Fi m noirs use a narrator, which is usually an unseen narrator or a secondary character, sometimes these voiceover are more ambiguous than the audience first thinks and you start to question how much of what they are saying is truth. In “Detour”, the leading male narrates using “you” this sounds impersonal and makes the audience feel like he is talking directly to them and makes them feel part of the film. Voice over is a key narrative aspect in “Citizen Kane”, “Gilda”, “The lady from Shanghai”, as well as many other film noirs.
Crime, usually a murder, is a common theme in film noirs, often started by jealously, corruption or greed, usually an investigation is the basic plot, and other elements are adulterous affairs and someone being deceived. They tend to involve suspicions and characters making accusations, probably about the wrong person as well. Most film noirs contain certain characters, for example corrupt police, tough detectives, jealous husbands and down-and-out writers. One of the most famous characters is the femme fatale, she is a villainous woman who uses her sexuality and beauty to ensnare the helpless hero, the phrase is French for “deadly woman”.
They are set in familiar locations such as downtown Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, these urban settings have bars, nightclubs and gambling dens and they are the scene of action. There are also factories, train yards or power plants shown in film noirs, especially near the climax of the film. In most noirs it is usually night time and it always rains.
Noirs are traditionally filmed in black and white, and have a tendency to use low key lighting using light/dark contrasts to create dramatic shadows to make the characters appear suspicious. Most film noirs were shot on location and were shot at night, using night-for-night shooting. Also common to be seen in any film noir are the shadows of a venetian blind being casted on an actor’s face, this is a very iconic visual.

Noir films used dutch angles, these make the audience feel uneasy and shows the subject being filmed
looking uncomfortable. “The third man” by Carol Reed uses many scenes filmed in dutch tilt to show the main characters alienation in the foreign countries. They also film low-angle shots, these are when the camera is low down, this shot is used sometimes in scenes of confrontation and fights to show which character has the higher status. Other cinematography characteristics are disorientation, these are shots of people in mirrors, such as in “Lady in the Lake”, the whole film is shot through the eyes of Philip Marlowe, and his face is only ever seen in mirrors and his reflection, or shots through a glass, such as during a murder scene in “Stranger on a Train”.