Bright cinema focuses on uplifting themes of joy and redemption. Film Noir (dark cinema) explores the fallen nature of man leading him into despair without redemption. Therefore you'll often find white and light representing good, black and shadows representing bad, grey representing ambiguity or good/evil combined. For this reason classic Film Noir of the 30's-50's was almost always shot in black and white (or rather, was able to extend the life of a film medium that was much cheaper to shoot in than color film). Writers, the best of which are of a philosophic nature as well as mercenary with a pen, enjoy Film Noir scripting because they also get to juxtapose, shade, and graduate black/white/grey representations... making the lovely blonde angel in white the spider woman instead of the usual dark complected/haired/eyed woman the bad girl, etc. Film Noir can be quite playful and challenging to the sensibilities and expectations of the viewer. The best of the genre has surprises and developments that the viewer can't quite predict as the drama unfolds. The worst, as with any genre, is schlock.
Conventional cinema tends to center around a strong protagonist, the one we root for, and an antagonist, the one we root against. Film Noir centers around the antagonist's role, motives, and actions. Noir Film Noir (not a typo) is a subcategory where Good is almost entirely absent. Everybody is rotten, utterly fallen from Grace. An excellent example of this double dark theme is James Cagney's 1950 "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" with Barbara Payton. "Detour" is somewhere between Film Noir and Noir Film Noir since Al,the protagonist, isn't utterly bad so much as just pathetically weak leading to consistently bad actions. We can still root for him in good conscience because throughout the film, even at the end, we're allowed to hope that somehow he'll find the strength to turn around his steady descent.
Cigarette smoke is an element in Film Noir. The wafting smoke suspended in air hints at the suspense of the approaching fires of Hell that ultimately greet the Damned.
Music in Film Noir accentuates tense moments, but other bright music is often heard that mocks moments of hope and near-redemption, the good moments, in the lives of the Fallen characters. Sardonic laughter of music at such moments reminds us not to overly get our hopes up for the characters.
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