Film Noir. The Black and White Candyland we can’t have enough of. High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Murder My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), Laura (1944), Phantom Lady (1944), The Woman in the Window (1945), Scarlet Street (1945), Fallen Angel (1945), Detour (1945), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Lost Weekend (1945), Gilda (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946,) The Killers (1946), Notorious (1946), The Big Sleep (1946),Out of the Past (1947), The Lady From Shanghai (1947), Crossfire (1947), Kiss of Death (1947), Secret Behind the Door (1948), The Naked City (1948), Key Largo (1948), They Drive By Night (1948), He Walked By Night (1948), Whirlpool (1949), The Set-Up (1949), White Heat (1949), Criss Cross (1949), Gun Crazy (1950), In a Lonely Place (1950), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), The Asphalt Jungle (1951), Strangers on a Train (1951), Pickup on South Street (1953), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Night of the Hunter (1955), The Killing (1956), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Paths of Glory (1957), Touch of Evil (1958). The contrasts, Femme Fatales, paranoia, deadly games. What personifies the genre? And most moves you?
An appropriate subject for Noirvember.
In a Lonely Place is my favorite, but after that, you have the usual suspects… Maltese Falcon, Sunset Boulevard, The Third Man, Out of the Past
I’m a fan of Chandler’s novels, and like the adaptations - Hawks’ The Big Sleep, and Dmytryk’s Murder My Sweet, the best
Love the look of Robert Siodmak’s noir - see, The Killers, Phantom Lady, Criss Cross
The men of noir? Edward G. Robinson, Bogart, Mitchum, Dick Powell
Favorite femme fatales?
Jane Greer in Out of the Past
Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven (rare classic era noir in color)
And of course, my favorite Neo-Noir
My favorite noir, and favorite film in fact, is The Third Man. I just think it’s ingenious and visually really appealing.
One mustn’t leave out that score. So distinctive. The Zither transports you to another dimension and is much of The Third Man’s (1949) charm. That and Joseph Cotten’s Devil May Care personality topped by Harry Lime himself. The Ferris Wheel scene is a standout. “Cuckoo clocks…”
I would recommend This Gun For Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), Ministry of Fear (1944) and Black Angel (1946).
Say that five times real fast!
Chinatown (1974) is the Muhammad Ali of Neo Noir. No contender touches it. It ages like a fine wine. A few may argue the point. Eyeing the cast, Towne’s script, Goldsmith’s score, Polanski’s direction, and the look and feel very few compare to its perfection. One of the 70s finest moments.
Well, yeah, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Actually, Lebowski is more post-neo-noir, heh.
You know, before the term “noir” was coined, it was just called “melodrama”.
Yes. While stylistically the noir form evolved into its own discipline distinct from melodrama even if sharing common dynamics and both blurring together in later films.
Also, noir is so attached to war and post war malaise, which sets it apart. There are debates as to whether it’s actually a genre, or simply a style - but I think there’s enough there, genre wise, that one isn’t completely wrong in defining it thusly.
Even if it is drawing from a multitude of sources. Melodrama was mention, and its look, the chiaroscuro lighting technique from German expressionism and later French poetic realism - pulp crime novels are a huge influence of course. But it’s all wrapped around the war, that loss of innocence, loss of self, there’s a sense of post war exhaustion, that leads men and women (who are both a little broken inside) down dark paths.
Thread necromancy time!
When I work at home, I have a lot of free time, so I’ve been watching a lot of Film Noir lately. Recently, I’ve been going through this list and watching ones I haven’t seen. It’s especially easy since many of them are on YouTube.
Most recently, I saw Nightmare Alley with Tyrone Power, which is an amazingly good film that I wish I had seen sooner.
Power plays a con man who becomes a famous psychic and, eventually, medium, until his inevitable downfall.
Came here to see if anyone listed Lebowski as a noir. 
When you see it, it all comes together. Even The Stranger makes sense.
Is it? Its comic drollness, surrealism, and contemporary take then sidesteps the timeless quality noir typically exhibits. Lebowski (1998) is far too precious and self-serving of the main character which most noir depersonilizes or humbles not turn him into a folk hero topped by Sam Elliott eugolizing him. The Coen whimsicalities and optics are not noir despite the crime aspects of the story. It is a 90s cult pastiche of several genres clumped into one amalgamation known as The Big Lebowski. It has its fans. I can’t say I’m one of them. Though I don’t dislike it either.
The Batman used a good dose of Film Noir to very good effect, which is a lot more like what Batman (the character) should be.
I’ve seen it on neo-noir lists. Of course it fits the bill for the definition Google gives (from Oxford)
“a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace”
It’s not all fedoras and German expressionism.
Actually, yes, very much so. Also, has some elements of Noir from Batman stories of the 1970s, too. Good stuff.