Page "Film noir" Paragraph 3

Film noir encompasses a range of plots: the central figure may be a private eye ( The Big Sleep ), a plainclothes policeman ( The Big Heat ), an aging boxer ( The Set-Up ), a hapless grifter ( Night and the City ), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime ( Gun Crazy ), or simply a victim of circumstance ( D. O. A .).

Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world.

Many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially.

Some refer to such latter-day works as neo-noir.

The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.