Tuesday, 4 November 2008

Film Noir..

Image-BigComboTrailer.jpg

'The Big Combo', 1955


Is a cinematic term to describe low key, black and white visual style films. 

Film Noir was popular around the 1940's to late 1950's, especially during the time of The Great Depression in the USA.


The genres film noir covered were usually crime fiction and violent gangster films. The common similarities that film Noir films share are often dark/mysterious settings with a gloomy atmosphere e.g., a film set in the darkness of night with rainy streets.

As you can from the picture above (taken from the film 'The Big Combo' ,1955) the two characters are silhouetted to add to the mysterious atmosphere along with the backing of the white smoke. The contrast of the black silhouette set against the white smokey background draws focus to the characters, creating to the sinister and gloomy atmosphere - a key ingredient to the overall effect of Film Noir.


Becky and Luke.

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