Film Noir is a pretty self-explanatory name. French for “Dark” or “Black Film,” this style (not genre) of film is pretty much summed up in these two words. These films began to be made in the paranoia of the 1940s, post-World War II, with the threat of nuclear missiles looming over the heads of every citizen of the United States, including Hollywood. This paranoia led to disillusioned attitudes and existential feelings, which in turn were reflected in Film Noir through things like characters, with the two most prominent types being hardened male protagonists and femme fatales. Furthermore, the “Darkness” of Film Noirs was not only a metaphor for the content of the film, but also a quite literal description of the visual style. Taking inspiration from German Expressionism, among other things, film noir images were often of gritty city streets, dark alleys, or smoky, cramped rooms. To increase the dark appearance, the lighting featured heavy use of chiaroscuro, a style characterized by a dark environment with single-source, high-contrast lighting on the subject. While many noir films fall into the detective genre, as well as the detective genre, there are some exceptions, such as the black comedy/drama Sunset Boulevard. Although the setting and characters are a bit unconventional for the Film Noir style (the film was a fairly realistic account of what goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood), Sunset Boulevard is definitely Film Noir, thanks to its use of an archetypal Film Noir. hero, a femme fatale, and the conventional cinematography and storytelling of film noir. One characteristic that almost all noir films have in common is a certain type of protagonist. While most film genres have a heroic, or at least optimistic and generally positive character... middle of paper... the visual examples, in addition to the situation and Norma's now completely crazy attitude, show very well that Sunset Boulevard is, in fact, a film noir. Many people say that what makes a film good is how it manages to stand out enough from other films to be groundbreaking and original, while still staying true to the style it was created for. If you believe this, you could easily say that Sunset Boulevard is an extraordinary film noir. Despite having a story that is far from traditional for the Film Noir style, Sunset Boulevard uses character types such as a hardened male protagonist and a femme fatale, along with the classic Film Noir visual style, to create a unique film that certainly fits to the definition of what a film noir is. The truth is that Hollywood is not as bright and happy a place as it might seem, and Sunset Boulevard goes above and beyond to represent this using the Film Noir style..