Page "Film noir" Paragraph 12

Italian neorealism of the 1940s, with its emphasis on quasi-documentary authenticity, was an acknowledged influence on trends that emerged in American noir.

The Lost Weekend ( 1945 ), directed by Billy Wilder, yet another Vienna-born, Berlin-trained American auteur, tells the story of an alcoholic in a manner evocative of neorealism.

It also exemplifies the problem of classification: one of the first American films to be described as a film noir, it has largely disappeared from considerations of the field.

Director Jules Dassin of The Naked City ( 1948 ) pointed to the neorealists as inspiring his use of on-location photography with nonprofessional extras.

This semidocumentary approach characterized a substantial number of noirs in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Along with neorealism, the style had a homegrown precedent, specifically cited by Dassin, in director Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street ( 1945 ), which demonstrated the parallel influence of the cinematic newsreel.