How to Spot a Film Noir When World War II ended, and films could be seen across country borders
again, there was a certain backlog of unseen movies. By the 1950s, the
French cinema scholars began writing about a certain style that had emerged
in movie making during the 1940s. They dubbed it film noir. There is a case
to be made that it may not have become a codified genre had it not been for
the glut of movies and the insatiable appetite of French audiences for
American films. By seeing so many in concentrated quick succession, a list
of shared characteristics became a tip sheet for films noir.
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