Film noir, a term first coined by French film critics named Nino Frank in 1946 who notice the darkness, violence and downbeat in the Hollywood crime field (Langford, 2005) . Film noir is not a genre but it is a type of film that only defined by more subtle qualities of tone, style, mood, point of view from the film (Dirks, 1996) . Film noir released in many American crime and detective film such as The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944), Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944) and Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944). Film noir is a type of American film that invaded French cinemas after World War II Noir is seen as a trend in film production. Noir is almost entirely a creation of postmodern culture which is a belated reading of classic Hollywood that was popularized by cinéastes of the French New Wave (Naremore, 1998) . Among all these film, The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) will be a good example for further discussion in film noir. According to Thomas Schatz, he suggests that the dark visual of film noir reflected the darkness side of cultural attitudes during and after the World War II (Chopra-Gant, 2006) . Noir film reflects the resultant tensions and insecurity of the time period such as fear, loss of innocent, despair and paranoia. Women were attempting to gain more power within the workforce, and the previous patriarchal order was threatened. This led to the questioning of masculine identity versus national identity.
Rick Altman suggested two approaches which are semantic and syntactic whereby semantic approach provides visuals with the elements of mise-en-scene while syntactic approach provides the themes that are able to derive from the narrative of the film (Altman, 1984) . The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) has fully utilized the approaches of visual and theme that suggested by Rick Altman. Film noir visually provides dark with ominous shadows where rooms are always full of darkness, associate with low key lighting that has roots in German- expressionistic which oblique vertical and horizontal lines. Setting is usually city bound and always locates at dark alleyways, cramped corridors and low rent apartments which scenes are normally lit for night to show the visual contrast such as comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors. Moreover, thematically in film noir such as a cynical, hard-boiled antihero versus femme fatale, tales of criminal motives, corrupted characters, fatalistic theme, hopeless tones, blurred moral and intellect are shown in film noir to match with the semantic approach.
As the time flow, film noir evolved and developed. The films were ‘noired’ in the styles and tones. The movement has changed into a genre of late. In 1940s and 1950s, most of the films are generally regarded as “classic period” of American film noir. However, City Streets and other pre- World War II crime melodramas such as Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937), both directed by Fritz Lang, are categorized as full-fledged noir in Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward’s film noir encyclopedia, other critics tend to describe them as “proto-noir” or in similar term.
Film noir was in an embryo state in 60s and 70s. In this state, film noir is still not mature. In this decade, films began to appear that self-consciously acknowledged the conventions of classic film noir as historical archetypes to be revived, rejected or reimagined. These efforts typify what come to be known as neo-noir. Neo-noir film genre developed mid-way into Cold War. This cinematological trend reflected much of the cynicism and the possibility of nuclear annihilation of the era. This new genre introduced innovations that were not available with the earlier noir films. The violence was also more potent than in earlier noir films (Schwartz and Ronald, 2005). The first major film to apply this method was a director from French, Jean-Luc Godard's A bout de souffle (Breathless; 1960), which pays its literal respects to Bogart and his crime films while brandishing a bold new style for a new day.
Film noir hatched in 80s and became maturity and blooming when came to 90s and onwards. From 1981, the popular Body Heat, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, invokes a different set of classic noir elements, this time in a humid, erotically charged Florida setting, its success confirmed the commercial viability of neo-noir, at a time when the major Hollywood studios were becoming increasingly risk averse. The film also demonstrates how neo-noir’s polychrome palette can reproduce many of the expressionistic effects of classic black-and-white noir. As the time passed, unlike the previous film noir, these neo noirs are shot in color and featured diversity in the handling of the femme fatale or shown nostalgic of the conventions.
Film noir had evolved and developed to neo noir. What are the factors that caused the evolution? The first reason is there are a lot of films featuring the similar conventions and codes with film noir. This caused audiences difficult to differentiate film noir with the other films. Therefore, film noir began to feature changing trends of the characters and treatments, incorporating more iconic and thematic development. For instance, addition of female anti-heroes and femme fatales lives on. Film noir also add on the changing social and cultural perspectives, women’s liberation, Vietnam War and etc.
After evolution, neo noirs are easier to understand for the audiences. Film noirs are realistic in portraying audiences’ desires and fears much better than any other genre because it reflects our suppressed impulse and fears, showcasing them as responses, instead if individual feelings. We can identify the issues of corruption, loyalty, lust, greed and redemption very easily.
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