History of FIlm Noir

Film Noir has been highly influenced by German expressionism, a movement that included film, theatre, sculpture, painting and architecture, which had its heyday between 1910 and 1930, this was transferred to the American stage during the late 30’s and early 40’s, as many advocates of the expressionist movement in Germany, began to be persecuted for numerous different reasons, by the newly elected Nazi party. Directors such as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak and Michael Curtiz, brought in a new era of film style that had never been seen before in Hollywood. This new movement brought in harsh lighting styles and overwhelming amounts of shadow, to portray the underworld of the American cities that had been largely ignored in films before this time. These three directors and many others used these parameters in their home countries, to create some of the most classic film noirs of all time including Fritz Lang’s “M”, which was released in 1931, two years before he emigrated from the increasingly authoritarian and nationalistic Germany. “M” was one of the first crime-based narratives in the “post-sound” era of the late 20’s and early 30’s. In which the protagonist is a criminal, which was almost un-heard of before the film was released and was known as one the first anti-heroes to be portrayed in a film. But by this time Michael Curtiz had been in Hollywood for nearly 5 years making around 6 films in a year, including 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and Private Detective 62 (1933) which are among the early Hollywood sound films arguably classifiable as noir. These films were developed into a full genre during the pre-war years, expanding numbers of directors joined the genre. Among those movies not themselves considered film noirs, perhaps none had a greater effect on the development of the genre than America's own Citizen Kane (1941), the landmark motion picture directed by Orson Welles. Its visual intricacy and complex, voiceover-driven narrative structure are echoed in dozens of classic film noirs.