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The character played by Humphrey Bogart is not driven by an idealistic approach, but by the financial motivations that different characters will offer him throughout the movie.
At the same time, the main female character is usually the femme fatale type, dangerous, yet attractive, with whom the main male character tends to bond. This is not, however, the usual Hollywood type love story: the characters have a non-committal relationships and, like the other characters, are ready to betray one another if the situation imposes this.
In my opinion, following the definitions of genre and style and the discussion previously presented on this topic, as well as the main assumptions related to the film noir, we can argue that the film noir is a film genre rather than a film style. The main reason for this is the fact that there are several common characteristics of film noirs that group this type of movies into the respective category. It is not the particular way in which the director decides to express himself artistically or a certain particular interpretation of one of the artists that denote the film noir style. It is a whole category of such movies reuniting common characteristics as the ones mentioned in the previous paragraphs.
Further more, the film noirs are not a limited expression in the context of movies. There was a period of time when this type of movies was created on an extended scale and when this mean of expression was characteristic for many of the movies during the period...
The film noir was thus more than a style, much like a category and genre.
The common characteristics of the film noir are structured around those elements that form the common denominator for classifying movies, namely elements such as setting, theme or mood. All film noirs share similar styles in the approaches of all these categories. Following all the arguments presented, film noir is definitely a film genre.
Bibliography
1. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
2. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/style[1].Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
3. Characteristics of Film Noir. On the Internet at http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/filmnotes/filmnoir.html.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/style[1].Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Characteristics of Film Noir. On the Internet at http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/filmnotes/filmnoir.html.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Bibliography
1. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
2. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/style[1].Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
3. Characteristics of Film Noir. On the Internet at http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/filmnotes/filmnoir.html.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. On the Internet at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/style[1].Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
Characteristics of Film Noir. On the Internet at http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/filmnotes/filmnoir.html.Last retrieved on October 22, 2008
film noir movement by examining two films from the genre made at two different times within the movement. This will first mean looking at definitions of what classifies a film as noir and then looking at conventions of the movement such as: story, character and setting. This will explore how production value expresses the story and acts as an important filmic tool. The first movie to be discussed is
EuropaThe film Europa by Lars Trier uses the film noir style to create an aesthetic of moral ambiguity, guilt, and innocence: the theme of the film is found in the overwhelming interplay of these three components�moral ambiguity, guilt, and innocence. Leo represents innocence and naivety. He is plunked into Germany in 1945 as though by the persuasive powers of narrative voice alone. The film is bookended by a hypnotic sequence,
Film Noir Among the various styles of producing films, it has been observed the noir style is one that has come to be recognized for its uniqueness in characterization, camera work and striking dialogue. Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s were quite well-known for their feminine characters that were the protagonists, the femme fatale. This was most common with the French, later accepted in the United States. There might have
In the heist itself, time overlaps, and actions that have already been shown are repeated from another character's point-of-view. The audience is left to pout the pieces together so that we see a character do something and then se how it helps the next action lead to the desired conclusion. At the racetrack, with the announcement of the start of the fifth race, the film cuts to Johnny, in the
Sunset Boulevard is a classic film noir produced in 1950 and directed by Billy Wilder. The film begins with the murder of Joe Gillis, a floundering screenwriter who ends up dead in a swimming pool. "Poor dope," the voice over says. "He'd always wanted a pool. Well, in the end he got himself a pool, only the price turned out to be a little high." The voice over, delivered in
Memento as Film Noir Christopher Nolan's Memento as Film Noir Film noir rose to prominence in the late 1940s and was at first described as being "murder with a psychological twist (Spicer 1). Since the 1940s, the film noir genre has undergone a few changes, yet the central concepts of the genre remain the same. Christopher Nolan's 2000 film Memento is a neo-noir film that integrates many of the concepts found in