ABSTRACT
The term “film noir” was created by the French to describe certain American
crime movies made during the 1940s that didn’t make their way to France
until after the end of the Second World War. The first use of the term has
been credited to cineaste critic Nino Frank in 1946 in his article “A New
Kind of Police Drama: The Criminal Adventure,” published in L’Écran Français
in August 1946. Jean-Pierre Chartier also used the term in his article in the
November 1946 issue of La Revue du Cinéma entitled “Americans Also Make
Noir Films.” Other French critics picked up the term and began brandishing
it about, culminating with the publication of Raymond Borde and Etienne
Chaumeton’s 1955 Panorama du Film Noir Americain.
