Noir Example: Carmen Jones

After thinking long and hard about what example of Noir I could use, I kept coming back to just one idea. I had the thought of the early 2000s computer game “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” stuck in my head. So, naturally, I turn to Google to see if this is an idea actually worth using as an example. Flipping through a few pages of google search containing the title of the game and “noir example” or “noir characteristic,” I stumbled across the old 1954 film Carmen Jones. After reading the plot summary of the film, I became intrigued. So I took a chance, rented the movie and ended up loving it. Although this is a very recent discovery of mine, I think it’s a great example of the noir theme we are going for in this course. Here’s a very short summary (spoiler alert) and my reasoning for considering it a good example of noir:

Carmen Jones is a 1954 musical film. It is filled with infidelity, crime, running from the cops, and eventually ends in an unfortunate death for the main character, Carmen.

I believe this is an example of noir because of the production characteristics as well as other key features. Throughout the story, there is a healthy mix of doomed romance, desperate desire, strayed innocence, and cynicism. It’s set in the time period directly following World War II which makes the previous characteristics a reality for the people who were living in that time.

This film can be either rented or bought online. One of the most popular sites is below: