Film Noir

1) In the 1940s and 50s, a film style called film noir filled the cineam screens in America. Film Noir movies often portrayed the dark side of American life, full of urban crime. Film noir also had a distinctive style, with shadow-filled low-key lighting. As the Night ruled in film noir, the shadow was more important than the light.


The low-key lighting used in many classic film noirs are associated with light and dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning a style known as chiaroscuro (a style associated to art). Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle shots.

2) This image from a piece of Film Noir  text consists of Back lighting and this is why it is an image of Low-Key lighting. Back lighting is used in this image to create suspense around a character as you cannot see their face but you can definitely see a siloheutte through the light. 


The camera angle within the image is wide-angle shot which looks directly at the character. Also as you cannot see the characters face this immideatley connotes that evil is associated to the character as dark colours usually denote trouble. Furthermore, the characters body language and pose suggest he is agitated and seeking or creating trouble.


3)
In this short film extract from a piece of Film Noir is used to show the huge contrast in the colours used as this shows Low-Key lighting. The shadow sorrounding the main character suggests that he has a split personality as the lighting in the film extract draws attention upon the gun and other weapons such as knifes held by the characters. Most of the male characters facial expressions within the film extract are intense.


Whereas, the female characters within the extract do not have intense facial expressions but instead are made to look sexy under the lighting and this is shown within the film extract as we only see the colour red within the extract when love and romance is being connoted. This is shown when we see a dead woman lying down on a bright red heart shaped bed to show the links between the one of the main characters and the woman lying on top of the bed.