A loose term used to describe films made from the late ‘50s onward that tried to recapture the mood, styles and themes of the classical film noir of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Also known as neo-noir, many of these films (The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and Night Moves) surfaced in America in the ‘70s within the hard-boiled detective formula and featured even bleaker variations on the nihilistic themes running through classical noir. Before this domestic resurgence, noir's influence was felt in France, particularly with the stylistic, pessimistic and near-mythical gangster films of Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samourai, Bob le Flambeur). Like classical noir, both of these movements featured cynical leads trapped by fate, seedy underworld characters, and grim fatalistic views of humanity. Photography tends to be dark, camera angles skewed, the lighting shifts and casts shadows, and such motifs as rain and urban landscapes dominate this form. Like classical noir, American neo-noir sprung from disenchantment, instability and social corruption that plagued the country following Watergate, Vietnam and the turbulence of the ‘60s. During the ‘80s and ‘90s, post-noir continued to offer dark, skeptical visions of society in films like Blue Velvet, Blood Simple, The Underneath, House of Games, Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, a feminist version of the subgenre. Also popular during this period was a sub-type of neo-noir that detailed the fears, anxiety and obsession that arose from our increasingly technological society; termed tech-noir, examples include Blade Runner, Strange Days and Dark City.
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