What do you mean by "noir?"

(Note: This was written for the FAQ for my online noir-themed store, Big Shadows.)

This, it turns out, is a fairly complicated question. "Noir" has its roots in film noir, "a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity" (Oxford Languages). Originally, these were films from the 1940s and 1950s, often based on "hard boiled" pulp novels, that explored the seedy and usually criminal underbelly of urban life in (almost always) America. Some famous examples include "The Maltese Falcon," "The Third Man," and "The Big Sleep." These movies were usually highly stylized in two ways - in terms of character and narrative, and in terms of lighting and camera work. The former, character and narrative, is all about plot, action, and morality. The latter, lighting and camera work, is about cinematic style, setting, and atmosphere.

When it comes to characters and narratives, film noir has its share of tropes and motifs. Characters include the cynical and world-weary private detective. The glitteringly dangerous femme fatale. Corrupt or clueless police officers and politicians. Eccentric and self-indulged millionaires with dirty secrets to hide. Morally compromised doctors. Ruthless gangsters and their hired muscle. Narratives are varied, of course, but often include some kind of investigation, during which characters are tempted, seduced, betrayed, manipulated, blackmailed, drugged, and/or murdered. A typical story-line: "...a man, often embittered by life or tarnished by his past, meets a beautiful, mysterious woman (femme fatale). He is sexually and fatally attracted to her. Either as a result of their relationship or because she manipulates him, he cheats, murders or attempts to murder, a second man attached to the woman and with whom she is unhappy (eg: husband, lover, etc.). This causes the destruction of one or all of the group" (*). Everyone is on the take, has an angle, is looking to score, or is covering something up.

Visually, film noir developed a style that served as a foil to the brightly lit and polished movies that were its contemporaries. The look was moody, partially lit with an emphasis on chiaroscuro, high contrast, deep focused, expressionistic (as in German expressionism), distorted, and favoured extreme camera angles such as "Dutch angles." Settings were all about contrasts, with dark, misty and rainy city streets, dingy and unglamorous offices and apartments, cheap diners, police stations, warehouses and waterfronts on one side, and luxurious and elegant homes, apartments, casinos, and hotels on the other. Of all the visual tropes of film noir, none have more resonance than that of a figure wearing a trench-coat and fedora, wielding a gun, either lurking in a misty, rain-soaked alley or lit by streetlight through louvered blinds.

It's from this fairly straightforward and uncomplicated genre that "noir" in general and "neo-noir" evolve. It's more difficult to define just what is and isn't noir and neo-noir from the 1960s onward, because in some cases the themes/narratives/characters are relevant, in other cases the style of cinematography is the reference, and in some cases, both. One unambiguous example of a neo-noir film is Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" from 1982, with versions of characters lifted from the film noir playbook, a plot that centers around an investigation, and design elements that evoke the 1940s. A less obvious example of a neo-noir is "The Big Lebowski" by the Coen brothers in 1998. A comedic homage to film noir, the film uses tropes from the genre in a hilariously distorted manner that respects the source material too much to be called parody or satire. An example of a neo-noir that is, essentially a modern version of a film noir is "L.A. Confidential" by Curtis Hanson in 1997; themes, characters, plot, setting and time period make this film about as noir as possible, despite a notable lack of expressionistic cinematography.

There are so many examples of noir and neo-noir in popular culture that it's impossible to list them all or even to set a hard line as to what does and doesn't qualify. The "genre" or "aesthetic" or "convention" has seeped its way into films, television, literature, video games, and animation. From Batman to Pulp Fiction, L.A. Noire to BioShock, Elmore Leonard to Mickey Spillane, the influence of noir is deep and widespread.

It's this wider and more generalized version of the noir aesthetic that the designs in this store draw upon. I derive a lot of joy and satisfaction from applying the noir vibe to incongruous subjects. Lovecraft, underwater, cats, surrealism, aliens - these are just some of the areas I've explored using a noir lens. I'm not the first to do so and I certainly won't be the last, but if your boat floats tied up to a shabby pier next to a warehouse bathed in moonlight and wreathed in mist while unpleasant characters plot within, then you will likely find something here that appeals to you.