micro essay on genre conventions...

film noirs key conventions are that the man(antihero) who is drawn in by the femme fatalle.
the antihero is usually in the profession of an ex military man, policeman, boxer usually a respectable man.
The femme fatalle is a woman who has seductive powers over the antihero.
in film noirs they use a lot of contrasting light to show emotion it also portrays the good and bad in the character shown in the lighting.they use a lot of dutch, low, wide, angle shots also show the characters in one or more mirrors in the film so they can see what they have become and how they have changed, also the regretful decisions they have made in the past.
The main iconography of film noir is...
-trilby hat
-cigarette/cigar
-dark rooms/alleys
-alcohol
-guns (revolver)
-trench coats
they go against the transgression of the social normality of the surrounding area. such as the antihero you would not expect then to kill for love but in most old film noirs they do but are unfairly used by the femme fatalle.
the most common places for scenes in a film noir to be set are in urban areas such as bars, night clubs or gambling dens.