Film series: Noirvember
Film noir deals with the darker side of humanity. From the French word for black, the term film noir was coined by French film critics to describe a proliferation of film adaptations of popular crime novels and, more broadly, to encapsulate a pessimistic turn that emerged in American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.
There are arguably three defining features of a film noir: sinister plots rooted in crime, violence, or corruption; duplicitous characters and narrative twists that shock and thrill; and dramatic, high-contrast lighting—heavily influenced by German Expressionism—that amplifies a sense of moral crisis at the heart of each film. Other commonalities include the use of flashbacks, an omniscient narrator, and fatalistic heroes who operate according to their own code of ethics.
Defined more by style than by any singular topic or thematic approach, there remains some debate amongst film scholars as to whether film noir can be understood as a standalone genre. Nevertheless, film noirs are recognizable as a distinct chapter in American cinema history and marked by an overall sense of cynicism and anxious disillusionment brought about by the aftereffects of World War II, McCarthyism, and the Great Depression.
Our “Noirvember” series will feature Stanley Kubrick’s third-ever directorial effort The Killing (1956); Charles Laughton’s deeply disturbing Southern Gothic thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955); and The Hitch-hiker (1953), accomplished actress Ida Lupino’s directorial debut and the only film noir directed by a woman.
