Glossary

avant noir Films that were released before the classic period of film noir and that show at least some of the characteristics of classic noir. I have chosen to use the term avant noir instead of proto-noir, although proto-noir is used more often. Use of the French term avant noir is true to the French origins of classifying some film with the term film noir, which French writers started over seventy-five years ago. See also classic film noir; film noir.

chiaroscuro lighting The use of light and shadow to accentuate the mood in a film.

choker close-up An extreme close-up that shows only one actor’s face, usually from the neck or chin to the forehead.

classic film noir The classic period for film noir is generally recognized as spanning the years 1941 to 1958. Some consider the first film noir to be I Wake up Screaming (1941) or The Maltese Falcon (1941); others consider the period to begin even earlier with The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940).

diegesis A Greek word for “recounted story.”  The film’s diegesis is the total world of the story action. For example, diegetic sound can be either onscreen or off-screen, depending on whether its source is within the frame or outside the frame.

film brûlant French for “burning film.” Films brûlant are modern films noir or neo-noirs that take place in the desert or in broad daylight where the heat itself plays a role in the film.

film noir Film that was usually billed as a B movie and tells a realistic story, with no apology, about the human condition. Films noir often include many of the following characteristics:

• Chiaroscuro lighting.

• The use of flashbacks.

• Unusual narration or plot.

• Crime and/or planning a crime (usually—but not always—murder).

• Femme fatale.

• The instrument of fate.

• Angst (for example, guilt, fear, self-doubt, confusion, anything that contributes to angst).

• Violence or the threat of violence.

• Urban and nighttime settings.

• Post–World War I to Cold War time frame.

• Philosophical themes (existentialism in particular) involving alienation and loneliness.

• Psychology (manipulation, amnesia, and so on).

• Greed.

• Betrayal.

MacGuffin Something that the characters in a film care about but that viewers practically ignore. The term MacGuffin, as a film term, was coined, of course, by Alfred Hitchcock. The film critic Richard Schickel talks about the definition of the term during his audio commentary on the DVD for Gilda, which was released by The Criterion Collection in 2016.

neo-noir I’m defining this term very loosely to include films that display many of the characteristics of film noir. Examples of such characteristics include the following for neo-noir:

• Chiaroscuro for black-and-white films, intense or muted color in movies filmed in color (in either black and white or color, the technique is used to enhance the mood and/or the emotional content).

• The use of flashbacks.

• Unusual narration or plot.

• Crime and/or planning a crime (usually—but not always—murder).

• Femme fatale and/or homme fatale.

• The instrument of fate.

• Angst (for example, guilt, fear, self-doubt, confusion, anything that contributes to angst).

• Violence or the threat of violence.

• Urban and nighttime settings.

• Allusion to the post–World War II period or other postwar period in recent U.S. history.

• Philosophical themes (existentialism in particular) involving alienation and loneliness.

• Psychology (hypnosis, brainwashing, manipulation, amnesia, and so on).

• Greed.

• Betrayal.

precursors to film noir See avant noir.

proto-noir See avant noir. I have chosen to use the term avant noir instead of proto-noir, although proto-noir is used more often. Use of the French term avant noir is true to the French origins of classifying some film with the term film noir, which French writers started over seventy-five years ago.