History of Film Noir

1) film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946
2) Film Noir was prominent, during the Depression, however it had started already at the very beginning of the 1900’s, at first it was in all the major arts, but as soon as film started It quickly used the resources and created lighting and the psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène and brought it to Hollywood.
3) During the 1940’s and 50’s Film noir was making headway. World War 2 was at its thickest, many directors, artists and such had immigrated to America due to the Nazi Regime, thus bringing with them all their ideas.
4) Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Nicholas Ray, Walter Wanger...etc. They are mainly Europeans, because that was where film noir first started and they all escaped Europe, from the threat of the Nazi s.
5) Film noirs embrace a variety of genres many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that there is no such thing. Though noir is often associated with an urban setting, for example, in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road, so setting can’t be what determines it. However, because of the difference of noir certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a "style”. Other critics treat film noir as a "mood," a "movement," or a "series," or simply address a chosen set of movies from the "period."
6) +7) B-Movies, low budget films, smaller B-movies