The difference between film noir and other genre conventions

By Daniel Vidal

Concept
Film noir was made in the 1930s to the late 1950s, this genre consisted of good cop vs. the organised crime lords. All characters in film noir are all bad in one way or another. The two main characters are a dame with a past and a hero with no future. In the 1930s the top film makes were driven out of Germany because they didnt believe in Hitlers views or they was Jewish. Most of the directors went to America to start to make film noir.

The Hays Code

The world of film noir was an unpleasant world that wasnt normally shown in films at the time, The hays code was made as guide lines by the directors to make sure that the films didnt start getting censored. The films could be censored by the Government, even though today we see sex, drugs and violence which seem mild by our standards. Most films from this genre was written in 2-3 weeks and the cheap crime novels were called pulp fiction.

Dead-voice over narrative

These films concise of a narrative speaker who is a main character of the film which is also called the protagonist. The opposite character to the protagonist is the antagonist. Sunset Boulevard 1950 the story is told by a character who is already dead which is called a dead-voice over narrative. It starts at the end and flashes back until we are back at the start of the film.

Still used today

Classic film noir, proto-noir, neo-noir, technoir and even B-movie noirs of the 1940s are still being used as ironic images for big blockbuster films for a greater effect on the audience.