20 Best Film Noir Movies of All Time Ranked by Looper

"Taken from the French phrase meaning 'dark film,' film noir movies are typically known for duplicitous characters, cynical protagonists, femme fatales, complex & interweaving plots, and exquisite use of light and shade. While it tends to be defined as more of a style than a genre, these types of films began to emerge in the late 1930s, and dominated the cinematic landscape in the '40s and '50s in particular. The increasing popularity of film noir ushered in a new era and changed the way movies told their stories. Many of these films used flashback narrative devices & featured more characters that sat in the moral grey area as opposed to the clear-cut good and bad guys. Film noir shifts the viewer away from the position of moral security that earlier Hollywood films tended to offer and disconcertingly toward sympathy for the devil. It is a fascinating area of film to explore, so if you're looking for the best place to start, here are 20 of the very best film noir movies. - looper.com

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from looper.com · made by SteveAzo

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Shadow of a Doubt (1943)