Writing Noir

This week, we read A LOT of Noir. It was gripping, dark, and all contained a murder motif. The females were all hyper-sexualized and broke the traditional female characteristics of the time. Instead of being prim,unkempt, and prudish they were gritty and promiscuous (all had a hinted preference for S&M sexual preferance).The men fell into extremely masculine roles and the foil for the antagonist was usually another male.
Noir style is defiant of the cultural dynamics everyone was desperately tying to convey. As people, we have this sick craving for the twisted human nature. We become addicted to the shock and marvel at how cold the human heart can be,especially if the culture surrounding you is trying to give the appearance of put-together and innocent. The creators of Noir recognized this and appealed to our need for some perversion. This subject material is very controversial, but yet the style is still around. In fact, very popular film and T.V shows are based directly from Noir. It’s a brilliant style and took cahones to make, but it’s become the most important revolution to American film and culture to date.