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The term neo noir is primarily associated with the subversion of classic film noir tropes, the anti-hero, the femme fatale, the bad town, etc.
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Narratively, film noir blurred the lines between good and bad, although under the Hays Code’s strictures, this was often muted. For example, film noir is known for its titled camera angles, interplay of shadow and light, and often-unbalanced framing, all of which owe a debt to pre-war European cinema and the writers and directors who fled Nazism in the 1930s and early 1940s. But at the very least, both classic film noir and neo noir embody definite stylistic techniques and thematic trends. Neo noir’s origins are also heavily contested. Some argue classic film noir continued to be made until the mid-1960s, when black and white ceased being commercially viable. I also realise that it is impossible to put firm boundaries between periods of cinema. I have no desire to reprise the ‘what is noir?’ debate. I find it interesting that so many of the films made during this time remain unknown and underappreciated relative to the classic film noir period, generally regarded as beginning with John Huston’s 1941 classic The Maltese Falcon and ending in 1958, and the body of American crime cinema known as neo noir, which took off in the early 1970s. While preparing for a recent appearance on a podcast episode about John Boorman’s 1967 film, Point Blank, I thought a lot about American noir cinema of the very late 1950s and the 1960s.