History of Film Noir

The term Film Noir was first introduced by Nino Frank a French critic for magazine L’Ecrain Francais, in France 1946, to describe the influx of American films with dark and downbeat themes that had been filmed during The Second World War - Film noir is not technically a genre, but rather the style and tone of film.
No one in America had previously given these types of films a name as no one had really noticed the distinct look and feel that they all had in common as it was only being under German occupation and not be able to see these films until after the war, all in one go, that it was noticed by critics in France.
Even though the term Film Noir wasn’t coined until after the war, the films in fact began at the start and in some cases even as a result of the war. The origins of film noir can be found in German Expressionism of the 1920s and 1930s, which was brought over to America from European émigré film-makers, a lot of them fleeing the Nazi invasion. Such films include; Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, released in the U.S in 1921, Fritz Lang's Fury 1936, and You Only Live Once 1937. These three films all revolve around crime and or murder – two major noir plot themes. Robert Wiene not only contributed noir-style plots, but also along with fellow German directors F. W. Murnau and G. W. Pabst, the trademark cinematography that epitomises later noir; chiaroscuro lighting and shadowy, high-contrast images, and stark camera angles and movements. The war also caused Noirs to start out low budget – it was usually the B movie shown in theatres. It thrived in 1941 as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbour – electricity was rationed forcing darkness upon Hollywood – ideal for creating the noir look. The war can even be said to have helped to create the femme fatal – while the men were out fighting, the women stepped in to their jobs making them realise that if they could do a supposedly man’s job, they could do anything. A new breed of women emerged in that era, coaxed on by images like Rosie the Riveter, they were as capable as men and they were angry about it – thus the birth of the femme fatal.
Aspects of film noir also derive from best selling detective novels and their writers such as Dashiell Hammett, 1929-1934 – his character Sam Spade was played by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon in 1941, and the femme fatal novels of James Cain, 1934-1942 – Phyllis Dietrichson played by Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity in 1944.
However it is hard to determine the first ever Film Noir; many believe Boris Ingster's Stranger on the Third Floor, 1940, as it is expressionist and is centered around a murder trial. Other claim Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane in 1941, whichever it is, Film Noir continued to gain popularity throughout the Second World War and continued up until the sixties with the so-called last ever Film Noir, Touch of Evil. Film Noir’s distinct characteristics include a cynical male protagonist, an amoral female, and plot themes such as mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence and despair.
Some modern noir films have emerged since the so-called last one of the classic era in 1958. They include, Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner in 1982, and most recently Sin City in 2005. Classic noir characters have said to have been found in Fatal Attraction in 1987 – Adrian Lyne is a jealous and vengeful femme fatal and L.A Confidential in 1997 – the typical ‘hardbolied’ and cynical cops.