LA Film Noir: The capital of Hollywood's most pessimistic era

Film noir describes a kind of movie dealing with crime, private eyes, plain clothes policemen, hapless grifters, law-abiding citizens lured into a life of crime or simply victims of circumstance and often in the presence of a "femme fatale".

The term "film noir" was originally coined by the French film critic Nino Frank and taken from "série noir" which was a popular collection of detective stories in France. Film historians still argue whether there is such a genre. It occurred mainly in the 40s and 50s with a revival in the 70s. The first true film noir is supposed to be the Maltese Falcon (1941). Others think it was Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1943) or even Josef von Sternbergs Underworld (1927).

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Film noir is inspired by writers such as Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. The low key black-and-white visual style obviously had its roots in German Expressionist cinematography. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari immediately comes to mind. There were also the theories of Freud and psychoanalysis which pictured humans suffering from amnesia, tortured souls, people haunted by their past or craving for an identity of their own. All these features can be found in the anti-heroes of the film noir. They also reflected the fears and preoccupations of the Americans at the time.

Original title: Los Angeles Film Noir
Directed by Clara & Julia Kuperberg
Produced by Wichita Films
Licensed by Poorhouse International