TV watch: Film Noir

I watched this programme on Sky Arts yesterday evening (this one channel is on Freeview in the UK, you don’t need to have Sky). I love black and white films. I love films of the 1940s. So, I was pretty sure I would enjoy this programme and I did. Sky Arts produce a lot of film programmes and you always get intelligent comment from film critics. All agreed that black and white gave lighting effects which are impossible in colour. All seemed to think that film noir showed a world out of kilter, where you can’t be sure of anything, an uneasy reaction to the Second World War. Many of the Hollywood producers who made these films had fled Europe and had trained in the German expressionist tradition. I hadn’t realised that the term ‘film noir’ came from French film critics after the war. They’d been deprived of American films for five years and were thrilled by these.

When you think, ‘film noir’ you probably think first of Double Indemnity which is of course wonderful. But there were so many other great films, often starring Humphrey Bogart, who was the perfect actor for the genre. British films mentioned were Brighton Rock and The Third Man, both written by Graham Greene, who was pretty noir himself. Someone, it might have been Derek Malcolm (best film critic ever?) said that The Third Man was the best British noir film except for Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. I’ve never seen this film or even heard of it! Definitely one to look out for. These programmes are often repeated, so this one is bound to be on again.