Film Noir's Distinctive Lighting Style

...Film Noir...

Film Noir is a film genre often classified as providing dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality, meaning "black film" in French it is a cinematic term predominantly used to describe Hollywood crime dramas mainly for those that emphasise the moral ambiguity and sexual motivation seen within them. The term is applied to the films of the late 1940s to the early 1950s that often portrayed a rough or criminal underworld and cynical characters. Films seen within that era were often noted for their use of harsh, expressionistic lighting and stylised camera work which was often employed in urban settings.

Stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s film noir has always been associated with the low key lighting seen within the genre's films as often being weak shades of black and white. Although film noir does mean "black film" the emphasis of light and dark is deeply shown by the high key and low key lighting used within the films of that genre which makes it appear as being very accurate and precise.

One of the key features of film noir lighting is the intensity of the darkness which is provided by the low key lighting of the shadows, due to the single light source used to create a film noir film it is often easy to create a superb cinematic lighting. The use of stark, high-contrast lighting is the most noticeable visual feature of film noir. The shadowy noir style can be traced to the German Expressionist cinema which has greatly influenced film noir.

These lighting effects were often used in films such as:-

Rebecca (1940)                                                This Gun for Hire  (1942)

                                               

The Big Heat (1953)                                                      Loophole (1954)

                                             

Night scenes often filmed in glistening wet streets also connote the cinematic attribute of low key, chiaroscuro lighting due to the use of shadow to comment on a character's mental make-up such as blocks of shadow which can often suggest that the character has an unrevealed "dark side". These lighting effects are often put across as being striking in black and white which greatly represent the film noir genre. 

The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods would often provide an iconic visual in film noir due to the use of low key lighting; these were regularly cast upon an actor, a wall or an entire set which had become well known to be done during the film noir era. Characters' faces were usually cast out from the scene because of the low key lighting shone upon them initially providing the murky darkness that the character may entail, this was regularly done partially or wholly which was a key feature in Hollywood film making of that time.