Film Noir literally means ‘black film’ and this came from the French critic Nino Frank in 1946, for how dark the American crime and detective films were. Classic film noir films were made in the 40’s and 50’s. This was because of mood of the people in the cold war period.

This comes from: www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

1940 Strangers on the Third Floor (Boris Ingster) 1941 Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock) 1943 Shadow of a 1945 Spell Bound (Alfred H) Doubt (Alfred H) 1944 Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder) 1947 Odd Man Out (Carol Reed) 1946 Notorious (Alfred H)

These are all Examples of classic and neo noir. 1948 The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed) 1949 The Third Man (Carol Reed) 1951 Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock) 1953 I Confess 1956 The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock) (Alfred Hitchcock) 1958 Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

Carol Reed was born on 30 th December 1906, in London, to the stage actor, dramatics teacher, and impresario founder of the Royal School of Dramatic Arts Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

Carol Reed was a film director and he directed a few film noir films. These were:  Odd Man Out(1947)   The Fallen Idol (1948) The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man was released on 31 st August 1946, and is a classic noir film. It also won grand prize of the Cannes film festival and a BAFTA Award for best British film.

      The Third Man is about a writer called Holly Martins.

Holly goes to Vienna to start working with an old friend Harry Lime.

When he gets there he finds out that Lime is dead.

He decides to discover the truth about his death as it seems suspicious.

Meets Lime’s love Anna and she helps him to try to unravel the mystery.

It gets more and more suspicious and in the end Holly joins forces with the police and they discover that Lime is actually alive.

Film noir is often associated within an urban setting and big cities. Some cities that you often see in classic film noir films are; Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.

The main places for the scenes of action taking place are; bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens. They are also mainly in dark places like alley ways to create a tension.

    The Third Man is set in Vienna.

Mainly in the evening.

The main locations are: bars, the street, alley ways and the sewers.

These are all typical settings for film noir as they are urban locations.

When it comes to lighting in film noir it is mainly low key lighting. This is because it keeps it mysterious. Another reason for this lighting is the light and dark patterning they use mainly around the eyes, the face is dark and there is a light shinning on the eyes.

This lighting is also reflected in the background. Sometime when the character is walking through a dark place they will have mist and a venetian blind effect on the wall were it is dark and light lighting on it.

   The mood in The Third man is quite down as there are a few murders and deaths.

The majority of The Third man is either at night time or in a dark place. Some lighting that is used is shadows on peoples faces to hide part of them in the dark.

Most of him is in the shadow but his face is still in the light.

The protagonist was usually a male character who wished to escape his past of being mysterious and choose what path that he should take. If he didn't decided then his fate would be chosen by someone else. There fate was generally chosen by whether the female character was loving or a femmes fatales.

     The main character is Holly Martins.

Holly Martins- He is an author who discovers that Harry Lime is dead and tries to discover the truth about how he died.

Harry Lime- He is believed to be dead until Martins discovers the truth. Martins also join the police against Lime as he has been involved in dodgy dealings.

Martins is the protagonist who is playing detectives to try to find out what has happened to his friend who he believes to be dead.

Lime in the antagonist as he is involved with dodgy dealings and is pretending to be dead to avoid being arrested.

With the female characters in film noir they were one of two things. Either; reliable, trusting, loving and respectful or they would be; mysterious, devious, double crossing, unloving and beautiful women. These women are known as femmes fatales. The femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman. Because of this the man who falls for her normally ends up in danger.

The classic femme fatale will end up murdering her husband to get out of an unbearable relationship as he is trying to possess and control her, as if she were a piece of property.

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/noir/np05ff.html

  Anna- She was in love with Lime. The femme fatal character but she is vulnerable. She also helps Martins to help find out what happened to Lime.

Anna is the femme fatal character but instead of being devious and mysterious she is the vulnerable character who is respected and loving.

Alfred Hitchcock was a famous film director who directed 67 films. His first film was Number 13 in 1922 and his last was Family Plot in 1976. he was born 13 th August 1899, London, to a greengrocer, William Hitchcock.

Out of his 67 films, 7 of them were of the gene film noir. During the 40’s and 50’s the only films that he made were film noir. This was because all directors were reflecting the tension of the public as it was the cold war period.

Even though he only done 7 films that were particularly film noir, most of his others were horrors or thrillers, and extremely dark and disturbing. He is remembered as a man who was before his time in film making and as a very clever man.

  Alfred Hitchcock made Spellbound in 1945. It is a film noir with a hint of mystery and romance.

It is about a female psychiatrist who tries to protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.