What is Neo Noir? Definition and Essential Examples

You don't need a detective to figure out the meaning of the term neo-noir.

neo noir definition and meaning

'Body Double'

CREDIT: Columbia Pictures

Hollywood exists in movements. We often see movies that are popular come and go or get reinvented when a new generation rises to power. One of those cycles came from noir, a popular genre in the early days of Hollywood that came back in the 70s and 80s as neo-noir.

But what's the definition of neo-noir? And are they still making those kinds of movies today?

Today, we will go over the meaning, examples, filmmaking lessons, and essential films within the genre. I want to look at its origins, extrapolate meaning, and go over the details that will make you an expert in the movement.

So gather your detective knowledge, check your social mores at the door, and watch out for femme fatales. It's noir time.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Brick'Credit: Focus Features

What Is the Neo-Noir Definition? And What Are Some Essential Examples?

Are you a noir fan?

I remember the first time I saw one of the films from the 30s and how much I loved the low-key lighting, the story twists, and hard-boiled detectives. But as the movies have changed, so has the definition of film noir.

Some of my favorite writers like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy B. Hughes, and James Ellroy cut their teeth writing noir. And many of their works have been adapted into film and television series.

The Neo-Noir Genre in Movies | Video Essaywww.youtube.com

Neo-Noir Meaning and Origin

You cannot have a neo-noir without film noir.

The term film noir came from the French for "black film" (literal) or "dark film" (closer meaning). French critic Nino Frank coined the term in 1946, but most people didn't acknowledge it until later. The term is usually identified with a visual style that emphasizes low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions.

Noir films usually deal with things outside of the mainstream, like grisly murders, gangsters, and gothic romances. Many times they focus on social problems and can have melodramatic overtones.

The term film noir was popularized in 1955 by French critics Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton. They said it covered crime and gangster films of the 1940s and 1950s produced in the United States (among other places) and adopted 1920s/1930s Art Deco visual stylings.

Film noir ended in 1959. Everything that came after was neo-noir.

Blood_simple_neo_noir_meaning 'Blood Simple'Credit: River Road

Neo-Noir Definition

Neo-noir is the reimagining of the genre of film noir, which was a term was coined by French film critic Nino Frank in 1946, for movies that had an emphasis on criminal psychology, violence, misogyny, and the. breaching of a previously steadfast moral system.

Neo-noir comes from the Greek "neo," meaning new. So, "new noir."

Mark Conard defines neo-noir as "any film coming after the classic noir period that contains noir themes and noir sensibility." It refers to noir films made after the 50s, particularly in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, through today.

How Can You Identify a Neo-Noir Film?

One of the most difficult things about noir is that there is no strict definition. You have to see it to understand it. They were black and white detective pictures in the old days, but as the definition evolved, so did the directors and their stories. Some ways to pull out neo-noir films from the crowd are the use of tilted camera angles, the interplay of light and shadows, and obviously unbalanced framing.

You can also rely on violence, sex, moral ambiguity, and criminal activity to be at the center of the story.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Blade Runner'Credit: 20th Century Fox

Why Filmmakers Love Neo-Noir

So much of the joy of writing and directing is taking the lessons you may have gleaned from the stories of the past. Writing and directing neo-noir allows filmmakers to pay homage to the greats of the past, while reinventing the genre for themselves, using their own voices to riff on what came before them.

It also allows them to play in stuff outside the mainstream. They can experiment with film lighting, camera angles, cast against type, dig into dark territories, and talk about social problems that can echo through generations.

The pioneers of noir are also some of the most famous filmmakers of all time, so you get a chance to walk in their shoes. Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, and many other famous directors made their mark on the industry through this genre. They allowed us to be involved in mysteries and thrillers all juxtaposed with the underbelly of America.

In neo-noir you get to use a lot of colors as well. It even has broken into its own offshoot, neon-noir, which replaces the black and white or stark images with bright colors and fantastical sets. You can constantly keep inventing and changing the story as you go.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Chinatown'Credit: Paramount Pictures

Neo-Noir on Television

Lest you think movies are the only outlet for neo-noir, we also see it on TV all the time. Shows like True Detective and Mare of Easttown use typical noir plot points to plan out who seasons worth of character arcs and MacGuffins.

You typically see this in detective TV shows, but you can also see it in a comedy like Bored to Death, which follows private investigators, or even in the reimagining of old intellectual property, like the remake of Perry Mason.

Let me know your favorite noir TV shows in the comments.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Bored to Death'Credit: HBO

The 10 Best Neo-Noir Films and Other Examples

For this section, I want to look at neo-noir films I think are essential to understanding the genre as a whole. I didn't include many new ones—for those you'll have to look at the list I'll add below. But let's go over what I deem to be the 10 best neo-noir films ever made.

To start, I have a special love for John Boorman's Point Blank. It has one of the coolest intercut tracking shots in film history and tells the story of a man just trying to get the money he's owed after his wife and friend betray him.

More on the contemporary side, I also love Rian Johnson's Brick. This movie takes the old-timey speak and then adds it to a contemporary high school, where people are trying to figure out what happened to a classmate.

I'm also a huge fan of Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat. It is a riff on Double Indemnity and uses the erotic thriller genre to expand on older tropes, allowing the audience to feel sleazy in the best way.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Body Heat'Credit: Warner Bros.

I also think Brian De Palma's masterpiece Body Double should be studied in this list. It is his pastiche of Hitchcock homages, which features the underbelly of Los Angeles film production. Sort of a play on the movies that would come before and after.

Many great filmmakers get their start in this genre too. The Coen brothers gave us Blood Simple, which also introduced us to Frances McDormand as she played someone trying to get rid of her husband. It also has a darkly hilarious death scene with a shovel.

Curtis Hanson delivered his masterpiece, L.A. Confidential, in the mid-90s, seemingly reviving the genre once again. It gazed back at Hollywood and its superficiality and fame obsessions.

I also can't write this list without mentioning Blade Runner, a movie that took neo-noir into science fiction, tracking a detective hunting robots. This showed how flexible the genre could be and how filmmakers could truly make it their own.

Still, 1970s hits like Chinatown also bolstered the roots of the genre, showing private eyes digging into a fruitful past to talk about the problems of today; greed, aristocracy, and violence.

The Long Goodbye is the rare neo-noir that is set in that movie's present, dealing with someone who goes missing again. Robert Altman was able to keep his auteur sensibilities inside the story and still have an entry that is considered one of the best all-time neo-noirs.

Shane Black broke into the world writing scripts that could be classified as neo-noir, but I love his movie The Nice Guys, and think it belongs on this list because it shows how comedy still have a place within the hardboiled world, something that film noir never could have seen coming in the 1930s.

That rounds out our top 10, but let's dig deeper into a much more complete list of these kinds of films. These stories are told with light, shadows, and color.

neo noir definition and meaning 'The Nice Guys'Credit: 20th Century Fox

Books on Neo-Noir

When I was researching this article, I picked up an excellent book called The Philosophy of Neo-Noir. The book was edited by Mark T. Conard. In it, he and the other contributors examine neo-noir films as a means of addressing huge philosophical questions about guilt, redemption, the essence of human nature, and problems of knowledge, memory and identity.

They use many of the specific movies we mentioned above to look at the moral grey areas of most of these movies. The lines between right and wrong and good and evil are blurred inside neo-noir, and the main character of the detective and the criminal frequently mirror each other's most debilitating personality traits. It also goes into detail about how the antiheroes of this genre is usually morally compromised and spiritually shaken individual whose pursuit of a criminal covers for the search for lost or unattainable aspects of the self.

List of 330 Neo-Noir Films

Wikipedia has a massive list of neo-noir titles from the 1960s all the way to today. But I wanted to put together one that you could pull from as a primer for where this story could go. So here are over 300+ neo-noir films for you to see how filmmakers reinvented aspects, tropes, and ideas.

neo noir definition and meaning 'Zodiac'Credit: Paramount Pictures

Summing Up the Neo-Noir Meaning and Examples

So what did you learn from the breaking down of this genre? I hope it's that you can use noir elements in anything you write. While you don't have to make a straightforward neo-noir movie or TV show, you can pick and choose what parts fit your work best.

The older movies are always there to inspire you as well. Great filmmakers know how to reimagine and repurpose ideas—there's no shame in taking the key plot points from some of these stories and changing them to fit your needs.

Also, I hope you found a ton of movies and shows you want to watch in the future. Hollywood needs more neo-noirs. They give this town some meaning.

Let me know your favorites in the comments.

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