ABSTRACT
The visual look of noir films, created by talented Hollywood film factory-
taught cinematographers, was to the eye what jazz was to the ear and noir
gowns were to female stars. It was exciting, risqué and often unpredictable,
especially in the terms of what the standard Hollywood movies had always
looked like. Rather than the more typical soft, high-gloss, glamorous look,
these films featured gritty high-contrast images, filled with hard shafts
of light through windows, downward puddles of light surrounded by
darkness, stark silhouettes and faces in half-shadow. This new visual motif
was the direct result of the stories the noir films were based on. The pulp
mystery stories were often set in dark alleys, sleazy nightclubs, forgotten
back roads and lonely offices in a shady part of town.
