This paper will explore the film noir movement by examining two films from the genre made at two different times within the movement. This will first mean looking at definitions of what classifies a film as noir and then looking at conventions of the movement such as: story, character and setting. This will explore how production value expresses the story and acts as an important filmic tool. The first movie to be discussed is Double Indemnity; the second film will be Bound. There will also be mention of other films where warranted to prove that noir in its new forms of neo-noir and independent story-telling still exists as a movement within American cinema. .

             Film Noir as Genre.

             Before defining the term genre within the filmic context, one must look to one's self for the social, personal and psychological rules in which decisions and expectations are born. Thomas Schatz simply states, "a genre film involved familiar, essentially one-dimensional characters acting out a predictable story pattern within a familiar setting" (6). Within film history there is a distinction between genre and non-genre films. Genre films work within a reality the public can understand. John Ford was famous for saying of genre "the secret is to make films that please the public and also allow the director to reveal his personality" (Schatz 9). Still it was the Hollywood production system that formed the genre formula as variations of theme and character allowed filming to remain within practical parameters of budget and talent. By controlling the film's environment, they could control the expenses. As a result, many films of this era have the same feel. Still with this in mind, the success of genre remains in the hands of the director or the auteur (author) of the film as each work becomes a unique creation over and over as the studios mass-produced them. In other words, genres resulted from the material conditions of commercial filmmaking itself.