Characteristics of Film Noir

Characteristics which may be seen throughout film noir would be things such as a beautiful but promiscuous female. A typically blonde woman would usually fit this character. These women were deceptive and always seemed to manage to trap the hard-boiled detective into falling in love with them. Smoking was also a common theme seen in film noir. Often, the attractive female would be the one seen smoking as it was seen to be a ‘sexy’ thing to do. However, a great amount of the characters would have been seen to be smoking due to how popular it was at the time. In the 1940s, the health risks of smoking were not as well-known as they are today, meaning that smoking was a common thing which most people did. This would have been seen in film noir to make it more realistic to the time. Dark shadows (the unknown) and low key lighting, were also seen to be shown throughout film noir. This links directly with the name of the film type. ‘Film Noir’ or ‘Black Film’ does exactly what it says it does, the film would be very dark and would encourage people to think about the unknown.