Film noir is often the put into use to describe the movie category outlining sophisticated Hollywood crime dramas, in particular those which focus on callous behaviours and sexual attitudes.

Hollywood's typical motion picture noir time period is normally viewed as stretching from the early nineteen forties to the later fifties. Film noir of this period of time is of a low key black and white style that has its roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Numerous prototypical tales and much through the perspective of classic noir be a consequence of hard school of crime fiction that blossomed in the usa through the Great Depression.

The phrase film noir (French for "black film"), first appeared in Hollywood motion pictures by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry experts from the classic period.

Cinema historians and pundits explain the noir canon history prior to the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, lots of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. The question of whether film noir qualifies as a unique style is a matter of ongoing debate between scholars.

Film noirs involve an array of plots the central figure could be a private eye (The big Sleep), a plain clothes policeman (The big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a hapless grifter (Night and the City), a law abiding homeowner lured to a life of crime (Gun Crazy),or perhaps a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.).

Even though the noir mode was at first discovered among Usa productions, motion pictures now usually described as noir have been made all over the world.

From the 60s onward, many pictures have been released that share attributes with film noirs of the classic period, often treating noir conventions in a self-reflexive manner.

Such latter-day works in a noir mode may be termed as neo-noirs. The tropes of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.