As a cinematic genre dating back to the mid 1930's, film noir is
             generally defined as a dark, suspenseful thriller with a plotline revolving
             around crime or mystery. Following World War II, film noir gained much
             recognition when Hollywood thrillers, such as The Maltese Falcon (1941)
             with Humphrey Bogart and Sidney Greenstreet, could be seen in the French
             cinemas. The term itself is derived from the roman noir, used in the 19th
             century to describe the English romantic horror novel, better known as
             Gothic Romanticism and linked to such authors as Horace Walpole, Ann
             In the genre of film noir, a particular blackness of physique, such as
             dark, wet city streets or the use of shadowing, tended to be an important
             element as well as the depiction of a dark world of corruption, violence
             and crime. In France during World War II, the genre provided a vehicle for
             films of a high caliber that were not objectionable to the occupying
             authorities, in this case the Nazis. Soon after the war, film noir became
             popular with the French post-war generation of filmgoers and was
             enthusiastically adopted by some filmmakers, especially Melville Godard in
             In most instances, film noir involves the use of several special
             techniques usually brought about through photographic ingenuity and
             innovation. Basically, film noir includes the application of sharp-edged
             shadows and camera shots, strange angles and settings which are often bleak
             and mundane. In addition, film noir is often incorporated into an
             atmosphere of hard urban reality, such as city streets, back alleys,
             rundown hotels, dark, smoke-filled barrooms and dimly-lit cafes. One of the
             most familiar themes associated with
             film noir contains a hero who is not a criminal but a weak, ineffective man
             who is tempted by a beautiful and mysterious woman, a motif that can be
             traced back to Homer's Odyssey. In this so-called "double story," the wom...