Elements of Film Style: Film noir

"Film noir" (French for "blaxploitation"; ignoring Robert Osborne's example, the French pronounce the final "r") refers to 1940s and 1950s movies that, like the mudskipper and former Netscape executives, adapted to environmental pressures in a most peculiar way.

Postulates: a) Many cheap movies had to be made. b) According to the Production Code, any action too emotionally complex for Margaret O'Brien to handle before breakfast had to be punished.

1. If Cheap, then No Spectacle.
2. If Many, then Low Interference from Executives.
3. If Low Interference from Executives, then Interesting.
4. If Interesting and No Spectacle, then Emotionally-Complex Action.
5. If Emotionally-Complex Action, then Punishment.
6. Therefore Punishment is Inevitable.
7. If Inevitable, then Fate.
8. If Punishment and Interesting, then Sadism.
9. Therefore, Sadistic Fate, or Film Noir. Q.E.D.

Happily, Sadistic Fate also happened to be of special interest to artsy filmmakers who found themselves trapped in Hollywood.

A few years before it was named, film noir died at the hands of TV, which, aside from the rare throwback like "Green Acres," was blocked from the Sadistic Fate route by sponsor qualms and the demands of series-plotting.

In contrast, the contemporary genre sometimes called "film noir" derives from the need to show recognizably female breasts while avoiding recognizably human characters.