# Noir — Genre

> Crime films with cynical heroes, moral ambiguity, atmospheric darkness. Style + worldview.

## Defining elements

- Cynical worldview
- Moral ambiguity (everyone compromised)
- Femme fatale often
- Doomed protagonist
- Urban / shadow aesthetic
- Voiceover frequently
- Crime-adjacent

## Classic noir vs neo-noir

### Classic noir (1940s-50s)
- B&W cinematography
- WWII era + post
- Detective / investigator protagonist
- Femme fatale archetype
- Voiceover narration
- Examples: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity

### Neo-noir (1970s+)
- Color (often desaturated)
- Modern settings
- Genre updated
- Examples: Chinatown, LA Confidential, Drive

## Structural conventions

### Doomed quest
- Hero pursues something
- Truth darker than expected
- Cost is everything

### Femme fatale (or homme fatal)
- Seductive, dangerous
- Manipulates protagonist
- Often the killer / mastermind
- Modern: subverted often

### Voiceover
- First-person narration
- Cynical observations
- Past tense (looking back)
- Audience inside hero's mind

### Bleak ending
- Hero loses (often)
- Truth unsatisfying
- World unchanged
- Protagonist diminished

## Voice / Style

### Visual
- High contrast (chiaroscuro)
- Shadow patterns
- Venetian blinds
- Wet streets, rain
- Smoky interiors
- Practical lighting

### Dialogue
- Cynical wit
- Hard-boiled patter
- Metaphor heavy
- "She had legs that..." style
- Lies and double-meaning

### Color (neo-noir)
- Desaturated
- Cold tones
- Yellow-amber neon
- Deep shadows

## Noir mechanics

### Moral compromise
- No clean hero
- All characters flawed
- World corrupt
- "Doing the right thing" = costly

### Setting as character
- City = moral landscape
- Rain, fog, night
- Specific locations
- Atmosphere palpable

### Pessimism
- Cynical worldview
- Trust is foolish
- Justice unreliable
- Human nature dark

### Hero's flaw
- Often haunted past
- Self-destructive
- Drink, addiction, obsession
- Identifies with victims (or villains)

## Sample noir scene

```
INT. DETECTIVE'S OFFICE - NIGHT

Rain on the windows. The streetlight outside makes shadow patterns
across the desk. ASIF (50), private detective, sits in shadow.
He's been drinking, but not enough to forget.

The door opens without a knock.

NIGAR (38) enters. Furs. Pearl earrings. Eyes that have seen too
much.

NIGAR
Mr. Asif Mammadov?

ASIF
At this hour, mostly.

He doesn't rise.

NIGAR
I have a job for you.

ASIF
You have a name?

NIGAR
Nigar.

ASIF
A last name?

She doesn't answer. He smiles slightly.

ASIF
Sit down, Nigar with no last name.

She sits across the desk. Crosses her legs. He notices. He notices
that she wanted him to.

ASIF
Tell me why a woman who looks like you needs to climb three flights
to find a man who looks like me.

NIGAR
Because no one else will take this job.

ASIF
Why not?

NIGAR
Because the man I want you to find is dead.

He pauses. Reaches for the bottle. Pours.

ASIF
Then he doesn't need finding.

NIGAR
He owes me something. I don't believe him.

ASIF (V.O.)
That's how it started. With a woman who didn't believe in death,
sitting in my office at midnight. I should have walked away. But
I'd been broke for two months, and her perfume reminded me of
someone I tried to forget.

He pushed the glass toward her.

ASIF
Three days. Two hundred up front.

She opened her purse.

ASIF (V.O.)
I should have charged her more.
```

This works through:
- Atmospheric setting
- Mysterious femme fatale
- Cynical voiceover
- Doomed undertone
- Visual style (shadow, rain)
- Hard-boiled dialogue
- Hero's flaws visible

## Common mistakes

- Pastiche without substance (parody feel)
- Femme fatale without agency (sexist)
- Generic cynicism (without specific worldview)
- Voiceover as crutch (explaining what we see)
- Style over story
- Forgetting consequences
- Modern updates that lose noir essence

## Best noir films reference

### Classic
- Double Indemnity
- The Maltese Falcon
- Out of the Past
- Sunset Boulevard

### Neo-noir
- Chinatown (perfect noir)
- LA Confidential
- Blade Runner (sci-fi noir)
- Drive
- Mulholland Drive
- Sin City (stylized)
- Brick (high school noir)
- A Most Violent Year

## When to write noir

- Atmospheric mood project
- Cynical worldview to explore
- Festival or arthouse
- Genre lovers
- Period piece (1940s/50s)
- Or modern reinvention

## Combination with other genres

- Noir + Sci-fi = Sci-fi noir (Blade Runner)
- Noir + Crime = Crime noir (Chinatown)
- Noir + Mystery = Detective noir (Maltese Falcon)
- Noir + Western = Hell or High Water
- Noir + Comedy = The Big Lebowski
