10 film noir stills

These are 10 film noir stills that I have selected over various websites. These all show the characteristics of the film noir genre.

"Film Noir" What is it?

Film noir (French for 'black film') was first represented with Hollywood crime dramas. This was first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946. They're known for their high contrast black and white visual style and they are usually melodramatic. The film noir carried out through the 1940s to the late 1950s. 
Most moods of the film noir were very pessimistic. Characters were always seen as desperate with a sense of fatalism and menace. Tones are usually bleak with low key lighting.

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How 'I Am Legend' conventional or unconventional?

Watching the exposition of 'I am Legend', we had to concentrate on whether it had the typical conventions of an exposition. First of all, it starts off with what  sounds like they are running audio and no clip, it then looks like archive footage of a news programme, it gives what you think is a basic plot (they've cured cancer), and then it just goes silent with some non-diegetic sound. Diegesis and archive footage are typical conventions of an exposition but further through, you hear nothing but silence. The silence however, amplifies the contrast. They also show an establishing shot of New York City. The only way you can tell is the yellow cabs. The yellow cabs are a clear symbol of New York. This is also what is part of the mise-en-scene.

In some ways the exposition of 'I am Legend' is unconventional. The exposition takes ages to really get a story going which is called breaking. Also, there are no titles to explain what the film is called, who directed it, and who is even in it. However, we all know Will Smith doesn't need an introduction. If they did have titles, it would take away the engagement which means that we would forget the realism of the film. Overall, I think that the exposition is a mixture and it's hard to tell whether it's conventional or not. Others may have a different opinion but that's how I see it.

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