11. Film Noir

Translated literally into "Black Film", the primary moods of classic Filmnoir are melancholy, bleakness, pessimism, and corruption which can be morally too along with desperation and paranoia. These are powered by the theme of evil and guilt. Far-fetched ideas and superpowers do not exist and instead a corrupt world is presented by commonly using a male detective and a female in distress (femme fatale) which is a metaphor for the Spider and the fly. Typically,low key lighting is used to enforce ythe underlying tone of corruption and unpleasant times which was made possible due to advancment in lighting in the 1920's. Crime novels also helped to form the basis of Filmnoir.

In the 1920's and 1930's, Noirs were made  through German expressionism  such as  Metropolis (1927) and You Only Live Once (1937).A German film director Robert Weine used shadowy lightning and stark camera angles which were used later in the genre.  Also, the crime/gangster and detective/mystery from the 1930's  but had different characterisation as there were no character requirements in Filmnoir. The stories originated from across Europe where film makers came to Hollywood and produced the ideas into films.After the second world war, there was social insecurities and anxiety. A lack of purpose and injustice meant there were rarely joyous endings as the themes often reflected the hardship and little optimism in society. The disillusionment and lack of trust were a common theme.

Between 1930 and in the 1940's sprung the Golden Age of Hollywood where B movies popularity increased."Block booking" enabled  movie theatres to purchase a large selection of films often before they were produced from studios which were A films and B films ( the latter were the less desirable but this cut down costs). Hollywood and trips to the films by the public had become a way to escape the harsh economic times so to make more money more genres were made.

Horror, Sci-fi and genres that hadn't been seen before such as Mary Shelleys Frankenstein became popular. Gangster portrayed a stereotypical view on America and helped audiences explore more genres.

Attracting audiences was made easier due to the release of Filmnoirs arriving in a time of post-war and even before in the 1930's when the Great Depression hit. A social bleakness and paranoia made the films theme relatable as well as the pessimistic mood the films portrayed, (contrast to Hollywoods musicals). Also, audiences favoured the dark natured plots to Filmnoir and grew to like the Iconic conventions they were now seeing in the genre.