1. Films of the 1940s and the genre of film noir
Film Studies PPT #2
Films of the 1940s and the genre of film noir

2. Films during this time were often dramatic, melodramatic, or considered a film noir. Other genres like the musical and comedies were around still too.
WWII influenced what was made in Hollywood since it was a dark time in the US and films reflected it.
Stars like Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, Abbott and Costello, Katherine Hepburn, Judy Garland, and many others.
And films like: Bambi, Casablanca, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Citizen Kane and many others.
Films of the 1940s
Genres and stars

3. Film Noir Crime dramas or others with a dark/cynical mood
1940s to 1950s
Influenced by German expressionist cinematography by using low-key black and white visual style (very dark hence noir)
The term, by the way, was not accepted until the 1970s
Usually melodramatic in acting but also can have melodramatic elements like music, recognition, and in other story elements.
Often features stereotypical characters like the femme fatale (a mysterious and seductive woman), or the private eye (or investigator)
Often, but not always, takes place in a city
Film Noir
Characteristics

4. The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart http://www. cleanvideosearch
The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart
Classic Film Noirs

5. Casablanca (1942) Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart http://www
Casablanca (1942) Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart Double Indemnity (1944) Barbara Stanwyck
Film Noirs cont’d

6. The Third Man (1949) with Orson Welles http://www. cleanvideosearch
The Third Man (1949) with Orson Welles Sunset Boulevard (1950) with William Holden
Film noirs cont’d

7. Mildred Pierce (1945) Directed by Michael Curtiz
 Film Noir about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter
Joan Crawford (the main character who plays the mother) won an academy award for best actress.
Tells the story in the third-person in chronological order in flashback with voice-over narration from the main character’s perspective.
This is also a crime drama.