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After the Second World War, a curious change came over the outlook of Hollywood films. Rather than the positive, happy-ending stories that dominated the silver screen before the war, pessimism and negativity had entered American cinema. This post-war disillusionment was evident in Hollywood and the movement became known as film noir.

One would be mistaken to call film noir a genre. Unlike westerns or romantic comedies, film noir cannot be defined by conventional uses of setting or conflict in a way that is common to genre films. Film noir is more of a movement, pinned to one specific point in time in much the same way as Soviet Montage or German Expressionism was. Instead, the defining quality of film noir was linked to tone, lighting and an often sombre mood.

True film noir refers to Hollywood films of the 1940s and early 1950s that dealt with dark themes such as crime and corruption. These films were essentially critiquing certain aspects of American society in a way film had never done before. Since that time there have occasionally been other great noir films made, such as Chinatown, but the mood and tone are often different to the original film noir movies. One possible reason for this is the time in which the films were made. A common perception of art is that it reflects the society and time in which it is made. That makes film noir of the Forties and Fifties quite inimitable because, luckily, the world has not had to endure a war of the scale and destruction of the Second World War again.

Paul Schrader, a writer of films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, sees film noir as one of Hollywood's best and least-known periods. In his essay Notes on Film Noir, he admits that classifying film noir is almost impossible because many films considered as film noir vary greatly in style. He observed that there were four main traditions in film noir. First were the films specifically about war and post-war disillusionment. Schrader believes these films were not only a reflection of the war but also a delayed reaction to the great economic depression of the 1930s. The trend in Hollywood throughout this period and into the war was to produce films aimed at keeping people's spirits up, hence the positivity. As soon as the war ended, crime fiction started to become popular, which mirrored growing disillusionment in America. Films such as The Blue Dahlia and Dead Reckoning picked up on a trend started during the war with The Maltese Falcon in 1941, which is seen as the first example of film noir. Another film noir tradition was post-war realism. This style of the film was similar to some European films of the same era, such as Italy's neorealist films like Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Roberto Rossellini's Open City. Part of this style was created by filming in real locations and away from constructed sets. The honesty of this style of film suited the post-war mood in America and is demonstrated well in Jules Dassin's Night and the City, much of which was filmed in and around London.

The third tradition of film noir according to Paul Schrader involves what he characterises as 'The German Influence'. Especially during the 1920s German Expressionism was one of the most unique and creative forms of cinema. Many German, Austrian and Polish directors immigrated to America before or during the rise of Hitler and in part due to the increasing control and prevention of artistic freedom. Many of them, such as Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder, would find their way into the Hollywood system and to this day remain some of the most celebrated directors of all time.

It was the lighting developed in German Expressionism, in particular, that was most influential on film noir. The interplay of light and shadow created by chiaroscuro was highly suggestive of hidden darkness and was largely responsible for creating the mood and feeling of film noir. But it was the coupling of expressionist lighting with realistic settings that really gave film noir its authenticity. It is no surprise then that two of the most popular film noir feature films, Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole, were both directed by Billy Wilder.

The final tradition of film noir noted by Schrader is what he dubs 'The Hard-Boiled Tradition'. He notes how American literature of the time was the driving force behind much of this style of film noir. Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain were tough, cynical and uncompromising and their work reflects this type of attitude. If German Expressionism influenced the visual aspect of film noir, it was this hard-boiled writing style that influenced the characters, stories and scripts depicted on screen. Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay for the film noir classic Double Indemnity from a James M. Cain story. This writing team, with Billy Wilder, again directing, was the perfect combination for one of Hollywood's most celebrated films.