How did classic noir evolve into neo-noir?

1. Noir is a term related to films. It was Nino Frank who

coined the term noir in 1946.
2. The films that came under the category of noir typically dealt
with psychological thrillers and crime dramas.
3. Neo-noir was a term that came to be used in the 1970s.
Unlike noir films, the neo-noir films made use of modern
technology that was unknown to noir films.
4. The characters in noir films were often depicted as antiheroes who had to face difficult situations. Noir films often deal
with the underworld, gangsters, and criminals fighting each
other and against the world.
5. Some of the themes that are seen in neo-noir films include
identity crises, subjectivity, technology, social ramifications,
and memory issues.
6. It can be seen that noir films made the audiences build a
relationship with the anti-heroes, but this was often revised in
neo-noir films.
Classic film noir was a popular format characterized for its
amoral characters, dark settings, and cynical view of the
American cultural landscape. But as cinema incorporated more
violent imagery and the social climate began to intensify, the
classic film noir phase quickly deteriorated. Taxi Driver is an
example of a neo-noir film that while utilizes some traditional
elements of film noir, it greatly departs from the early
conventions of film noir through its psychologically disturbed
character and it use of extreme violence.
Film noir is a style of film-making that is used to mainly
describe Hollywood crime dramas from the early 1940s to the
late 1950s. These crime dramas usually have a low-key blackand-white chiaroscuro style. Neo-noir is a style employed in the
period following the film noir. Neo-noir essentially means newnoir. Neo-noir films are the post-1970 films that were
reminiscent of the noir films of the 1940s and 1950s. However,
they also incorporated updated themes, content, style, visual
elements or media to make the films appear more up-to-date.
Elements of neo-noir

Chiaroscuro lighting - On the black & white film stock,

this high-contrast lighting produced brilliant focus points

and deep shadows.

Bars, Diagonals & Frames within frames - The

chiaroscuro lighting techniques were often used with
objects such as railings, banisters, blinds, doorways, or
other objects to present the illusion of bars, like those of a
jail cell, across the characters, or frame the characters
within a scene to create a sense of confinement or
entrapment.

Long tracking shots & Deep Focus - Orson Welles

and his cinematographer Gregg Toland perfected some
techniques that became characteristic of film noir,
including deep focus (closed aperture shots that allowed
floors and ceilings to be in the frame) and long tracking
shots, such as the opening scene from Touch of
Evil (1958). These techniques often required modifications
to camera, lenses, and other equipment.

Obscured scenes - Film noir often used scenes

obscured by smoke, steam, fog, rain, or just darkness to
highlight the confused emotions of the characters.

Urban settings filmed mostly at night -Most films

noir were set in the big city and many scenes were filmed
at night. The setting enhances the feeling of entrapment
and contributes to the angular imagery borrowed from
German expressionism. It is very common for the films
climactic scenes to be set in a heavily industrialized
environment, such as a factory or warehouse district.

Dutch angles & inverted frames - Many films noir

also used strange camera angles, such as the so-called

Dutch angle, which tilts the scene at a drastic angle. This

technique was used so heavily in the British noir The Third
Man (1949) that after filming, the crew gifted director
Carol Reed with a level. Other related techniques include
distorting or inverting frames, or turning the camera
horizontally.

Crime & violence - Film noir was most heavily

associated with being films about or dealing with crime or
violence. Due to the Hays Code, the violence had to often
be hinted at or take place off-screen, but it was there.
Frequently, the protagonist was a police officer or
detective who was hired to solve a crime, or a person who
was, either knowingly or unwittingly, drawn into a crime,
either as the victim or the perpetrator.

First-person voice-over narration - Many films noir

include voice-over narration that guides the viewer using
the first-person perspective.

Water & reflections - Films noir often included shots of

water or convoluted reflections, either in water, using
mirrors, or even on rain-slicked streets or walls.

Cynical, world-weary male protagonists - Many of

the protagonists of film noir were cynical, world-weary
men with shady pasts. They either possessed crippling
character flaws or sordid criminal pasts, both of which
often came back to haunt them at inopportune moments.
Even the most heroic of film noir protagonists are often
reluctant heroes who are wrapped up in their own issues,
but become the hero because there is nobody else to take
up the crusade.

Femme fatale - The femme fatale was a standard

character of film noir. She was present to seduce the hero
and lead him astray, though sometimes the femme fatale

could be sympathetic to the heros plight. Often, the

sympathetic femme fatale was plagued by character flaws
or a sordid past that served to cause harm to the
protagonist even if she herself did not intend to cause him
harm.

Complex plots & analepsis - Film noir often features

an incredibly complex plot that can be difficult to follow on
first viewing. This is often compounded by analepsis,
which is a technique wherein a film flashes backward or
forward in-time, forming an achronological narrative. An
excellent example of these techniques is found in Billy
Wilders Double Indemnity (1944).

False accusations & betrayal - The characters in film

noir, including the protagonist, are often suspected or
falsely accused of crimes they did not commit. Just as
often, they are betrayed or double-crossed by other
characters.

Unreliable narrators - Many film noir protagonists are

unreliable narrators due to skewed perspectives or
medical/psychological conditions like amnesia.

Protagonists personal code - As broken and

downtrodden as the protagonist can be, most film noir
protagonists possess a nearly unyielding personal moral
code of behaviour. Many of them are similar to chivalric
codes.

Eroticism & sexuality - Though the Hays Code greatly

restricted the things these films could show onscreen, and
sometimes what they could even hint at taking place off
screen, directors still found ways to include a great deal of
sexuality and eroticism in films noir. Included in this were
scenes that depicted not just heterosexual eroticism, but
also homosexual eroticism.

Film noir

Neo noir