History Main / FilmNoir

!!Characters associated with Film Noir:

Attempts to revive this style led to Neo-Noir, which with some exceptions tends to {{Flanderization}}. The tone and outlook ''must'' be [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]], [[CrapsackWorld defeatist]], and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism pessimistic]], always ''suggesting'' a sliminess beyond what it can [[CensorshipBureau show]]. Nobody gets what they want, and [[LaserGuidedKarma everyone gets what's coming to them]]. Characters are often armed -- [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]][[note]]especially [[PintSizePowerHouse Snubnosed .38's]] if you're a cop or a [[FemmeFatale dame]][[/note]], [[HandCannon Colt 1911s]], and if they need MoreDakka, tommy guns. Also, no self-respecting FilmNoir thug will be seen without his [[PowerFist brass knuckles.]] They'll probably wear a Fedora or trilby hat with a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]]. Frequently the ending will be [[AntiClimax low-key]] and [[DownerEnding leave no one character happy or fulfilled]]. Commonly, there is also a great deal of [[BelligerentSexualTension sexual tension]] between the hero and the female lead; Noir stories are quite risqué. The original Film Noir era followed the [[CensorshipBureau Hays Code]], so the odds of a female lead removing her clothing are minimal, but even so, she'll often have some fine gams on display and walk with a SupermodelStrut. This applies to modern versions; [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous nudity]] or scenes of excessive violence are [[GoryDiscretionShot hinted at]] [[SexyDiscretionShot rather than portrayed.]] It is often what is ''not'' seen that adds to the mystery and suspense.

* {{Streetwalker}}

* ''WebComic/LivingWithInsanity'' did this in its [[http://www.livingwithinsanity.com/index/?p=364 one arc.]]
* ''WebComic/TwoRooks'' combines crime noir with a dystopian setting.
* [[http://www.sintitulocomic.com/2007/06/17/page-01/ Sin Titulo]] definitely has noir undertones (and it uses color very sparingly).

* The ''ComicBook/MarvelNoir'' line. Changes to Wolverine, for example, include his signature claws actually being handheld Japanese weapons. Naturally, there's a different version of Logan on the X-Men. In normal Marvel continuity, such street-level heroes as Daredevil, Comicbook/MoonKnight and the Punisher have all had runs or story arcs that followed many noir conventions.

* The third series of ''Comicbook/XFactor'' features Jamie Madrox's attempt at a noir mutant detective agency . The prequel series, ''ComicBook/{{Madrox}}'', also has a plot with the standard tropes associated with the genre; A brilliant yet dysfunctional detective, a mysterious FemmeFatale, a rich man suspected of being a criminal and a grouchy reluctant ally. The tropes are also lampshaded by Jamie.

* ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl''

Attempts to revive this style led to Neo-Noir, which with some exceptions tends to {{Flanderization}}. The tone and outlook ''must'' be [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]], [[CrapsackWorld defeatist]], and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism pessimistic]], always ''suggesting'' a sliminess beyond what it can [[CensorshipBureau show]]. Nobody gets what they want, and [[LaserGuidedKarma everyone gets what's coming to them]]. Characters are often armed -- [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]][[note]]especially [[PintSizePowerHouse Snubnosed .38's]] if you're a cop or a [[FemmeFatale dame]][[/note]], [[HandCannon Colt 1911s]], and if they need MoreDakka, tommy guns. Also, no self-respecting FilmNoir thug will be seen without his [[PowerFist brass knuckles.]] They'll probably wear a Fedora or trilby hat with a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]]. Frequently the ending will be [[AntiClimax low-key]] and [[DownerEnding leave no one character happy or fulfilled]]. Commonly, there is also a great deal of [[BelligerentSexualTension sexual tension]] between the hero and the female lead; Noir stories are quite risqué. The original Film Noir era followed the [[CensorshipBureau Hays Code]], so the odds of a female lead removing her clothing are minimal, but even so, she'll often have some fine gams on display and a SexyWalk. This applies to modern versions; [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous nudity]] or scenes of excessive violence are [[GoryDiscretionShot hinted at]] [[SexyDiscretionShot rather than portrayed.]] It is often what is ''not'' seen that adds to the mystery and suspense.

* The ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series constantly [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] elements of the genre. A dark-yet-stylized and moody atmosphere (not to mention a setting where you aren't quite sure who to trust--or who the real "bad guy" is) permeates the first two, and the third has you play a private detective. Bonus points for the first ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'' DLC being a straight-up NoirEpisode.

* ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'' (1999) - ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Its sequel even used the tagline "A Film Noir Love Story", which is somewhat ironic, given that the protagonist is much less cynical and jaded in than in the original.

Film Noir, and the literature from which it is drawn, is the progenitor of several modern genres, particularly {{cyberpunk}}. Common plots of noir films include murder (and subsequent murder investigations), [[TheCaper heists]], [[TheCon con games]], {{blackmail}} schemes, and (mostly) innocent men or women {{wrongly accused}} of crime. Use of the [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder double-cross]] and [[SmokingIsCool cigarette smoking]] are mandatory. [[KudzuPlot Complicated plots]] may be further convoluted by {{flashback}}s and {{flash forward}}s, with the [[{{Narrator}} narration]] tying everything together--[[UnreliableNarrator assuming we can trust it]].

''Noir'', in the classic and stylistic sense, is visually darker than your average gangster picture, [[{{Chiaroscuro}} playing with light and long, deep shadows]] instead of bright, documentary-styled camera work. This visual motif is so iconic that homages and parodies are almost universally DeliberatelyMonochrome, using a transition between colour and black and white where necessary. Scenes are often filmed on location, and night scenes are shot at night. Camera angles are often very creative and unusual, heightening the viewers’ sense of unease, adding to the atmosphere. The contrast between light and dark is sometimes used in the cinematography to reflect the difference between the [[BigBad villain]] and the protagonist(s). [[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain It rains most every night]] in Film Noir; filmmakers admit that this is entirely because at night wet pavement [[RuleOfCool looks cooler than dry.]] Also, the rain makes it plausible that no one else is around.

Film Noir is not really a genre in any sense, rather it reflects a tendency in certain American films of the 40s and 50s where crime and gangster stories are infused with an excessive visual style, a modern urban sensibility and a powerful sense of moral ambiguity. These movies differed from the crime movies of the 30s, the Depression Gangster films such as ''The Public Enemy'' or the original ''Film/{{Scarface|1932}}'', in that criminal behaviour is no longer relegated to gangsters or ethnic ghettos, and the plots don't usually revolve around turf wars or police clampdowns.

Protagonists in films noir are often normal people who get involved in crime, and the motivations are no longer just social or circumstantial but psychological and personal. The standard noir plot is, in broad terms, best summed up as centering around a protagonist who, usually by pure chance, is placed in a complex and dangerous situation completely beyond their control where they are pitted against an adversary whose identity and motives are not immediately obvious. The system and the law is usually either [[PoliceAreUseless apathetic to their plight]] or is even [[CorruptCop outright working against them]], meaning that they will have to take up the fight and make sense of it all by themselves or die trying. As a style and sensibility, Film Noir was flexible to include hybrids such as the Western-Film Noir (The 1947 film ''Pursued'' with flashbacks, DarkAndTroubledPast, high contrast black and white lighting and weird Freudian themes), and even the film-noir musical (''The Man I Love, Love Me and Leave Me'') and in the case of ''Leave Her to Heaven'' a Film Noir in technicolor.

Trying to explain Film Noir is hard, since it's kind of a mix of European cynicism and post-war American angst. It involves a clash between crude pulp fiction narratives and complex storytelling and characterization, which itself derived from emerging psychological research on criminal behavior, as well as wider influences in modern art and literature. The term was first used by French critics (hence the name) and it derives from "Serie Noir," the label of French translations of American pulp fiction, and French imitations thereof, [[ForeignCultureFetish which were highly popular in France at the time]]. French critics looked at the American crime films from ''their'' perspectives of post-Occupation France, which to some extent led them to overemphasize the doom and gloom of American films by projecting their experiences onto their interpretations of these films. Later, American writers when translating these articles into English brought this into PopCulturalOsmosis.

* GreyRainOfDepression

* CyberPunkIsTechno

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' (2001) - Also [[Film/MaxPayne a movie]]. The second game was even billed with the tagline "A ''film noir'' love story".

* The ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' series constantly [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] elements of the genre. A dark-yet-stylized and moody atmosphere (not to mention a setting where you aren't quite sure who to trust--or who the real "bad guy" is) permeates the first two, and the third has you play a private detective. Bonus points for the first ''Burial At Sea'' DLC being a straight-up NoirEpisode.

* ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'' (1999) - ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
** Its sequel even used the tagline "A Film Noir Love Story". Which is somewhat ironic, given that the protagonist is much less cynical jaded in the sequel than in the original.

* ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight: Sins of the Fathers'' Combines Noir with horror much the same way as the film ''Film/AngelHeart''.

* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' (2010) Shelby's character is homage to Noir while Jayden is homage to its more modern counterparts.
* The later ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games start to veer into this territory by virtue of GrowingTheBeard and aiming for a more DarkerAndEdgier feel. Several missions in the third and fourth game (''Contracts'' and ''Blood Money'') have a genuinely noir tone.

** ''VideoGame/TheBlackwellSeries'' uses some elements of noir (one of the protagonists is a DeadpanSnarker ghost from the 30's).
** ''{{VideoGame/Unavowed}}'' is mainly UrbanFantasy, but the aesthetic is soaked in the atmosphere of neo-noir featuring constant rain, which of course gives the colored lighting of various businesses the chance to spill on the street, and pretty much each mission sees the player tasked with getting to the bottom of a mystery and then having to make a heavy moral choice at the end.
* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' which is {{Cyberpunk}} so Noir is bound to be there.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' also heavily borrows from the noir aesthetics and narrative structure. Technically, this is a noir game with government agent and conspirators replacing more common private dick and crooks.

* ''VideoGame/KillerIsDead'', as well as ''VideoGame/Killer7'', from Creator/Suda51, features some heavy surreal film noir looks, down to [[DressedToKill badass assassins in suits]], heavy shading and shadows, hypnotic soundtracks and weird characters. They're much more SciFi that film noir, though the influence is clearly there.

* By virtue of evoking late 80s scifi movies, ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' evokes this in parts, especially on Omega, Ilium and the Citadel. Thane and Samara's loyalty missions are even investigations with much less action than the rest of the game (oddly enough, both characters are stoic badasses with philosophical sides).
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s Citadel DLC has among its tidbits a brief audio recording of Mordin Solus narrating his own SelfInsertFic in a film noir hardboiled style as an homage, starring himself as the detective and Aria T'Loak, unofficial ruler of [[WretchedHive Omega Station]], as the FemmeFatale.
-->''"Had broken Omega's one rule...in more ways than one."''[[note]]Said rule states that you "Don't ''fuck'' with Aria".[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/TheWolfAmongUs'' is a murder mystery set in 1986 New York, and starring Sheriff Bigby Wolf, a DeadpanSnarker[=/=]HardBoiledDetective type investigating Fairytale characters in a noir setting.

The standard Noir landscape is [[CityNoir a large, oppressive city (filmed in dark and dusky conditions to create a moody atmosphere)]]. Familiar haunts include cheap hotels, dimly-lit bars, [[DenOfIniquity nightclubs filled with questionable clientele]] (including the {{Gayngster}}) whom the lead may intimidate for information, gambling dens, juke joints and the ubiquitous seedy [[AbandonedWarehouse waterfront warehouse]] filled with crates that FellOffTheBackOfATruck. At night in the big city, you can bet the streets are slick with rain, reflecting streetlights like a Hopper painting. [[HumansAreBastards Most of the characters (including the lead) are cynical, misanthropical and hopeless]] all the way through the film, and never find [[RedemptionQuest true redemption]].

Trying to explain Film Noir is hard, since it's kind of a mix of European (especially French) cynicism and post-war American angst. It involves a clash between crude pulp fiction narratives and complex storytelling and characterization, which itself derived from emerging psychological research on criminal behavior, as well as wider influences in modern art and literature. The term was first used by French critics (hence the name) and it derives from "Serie Noir," the label of French translations of American pulp fiction, and French imitations thereof, [[ForeignCultureFetish which were highly popular in France at the time]]. French critics looked at the American crime films from ''their'' perspectives of post-Occupation France, which to some extent led them to overemphasize the doom and gloom of American films by projecting their experiences onto their interpretations of these films. Later, American writers when translating these articles into English brought this into PopCulturalOsmosis.

The standard Noir landscape is [[CityNoir a large, oppressive city (filmed in dark and dusky conditions to create a moody atmosphere)]]. Familiar haunts include cheap hotels, dimly-lit bars, [[DenOfIniquity nightclubs filled with questionable clientele]] (including the {{Gayngster}}) whom the lead may intimidate for information, gambling dens, juke joints and the ubiquitous seedy [[AbandonedWarehouse waterfront warehouse]] filled with crates that FellOffTheBackOfATruck. At night in the big city, you can bet the streets are slick with rain, reflecting streetlights like a Hopper painting. [[HumansAreBastards Most of the characters (including the lead) are cynical, misanthropical and hopeless]] all the way through the film, and never find [[RedemptionQuest true redemption]]. It is important to note that the term "Film Noir" was not available to the people who made them in the '40s and '50s. As Robert Mitchum famously stated, "We called them B-Movies." It comes from later audiences and critics who rediscovered these films in revival theaters and clubs and picked up the subtext, visual clues and other HiddenDepths. Many historians feel that the classic Film Noir genre died when it became self-conscious. Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumenton cite the MGM musical ''The Band Wagon'' (made in 1952), where the final number featured a technicolor parody of a Mickey Spillane crime setting, with Creator/FredAstaire and Cyd Charisse playing the detective and femme fatale in an obvious send-up. Others feel that Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TouchOfEvil'' was the real end, since it was made by the director of ''Film/CitizenKane'' (which, while not a Noir, influenced the lighting and style of several other films noir), and the genre conventions were pretty much stretched inside and outside. They also argue that Noir only worked in a climate of censorship, as the crime genre often fell BeneathSuspicion allowing writers and directors more chances to subvert cliches. Once censorship eroded, Film Noir had pretty much served its purpose and achieved its goals.

Film Noir (literally "black film" in French) is a genre of stylish crime dramas, difficult to define, but the [[TheForties 1940s]] and [[TheFifties '50s]] were the classic period. Whether works since then can be accurately classed as Noir is a subject of much debate among film critics.

Attempts to revive this style led to Neo-Noir, which with some exceptions tends to {{Flanderization}}. The tone and outlook ''must'' be [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]], [[CrapsackWorld defeatist]], and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism pessimistic]], always ''suggesting'' a sliminess beyond what it can [[CensorshipBureau show]]. Nobody gets what they want, and [[LaserGuidedKarma everyone gets what's coming to them]]. Characters are often armed -- [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]][[note]]especially [[PintSizePowerHouse Snubnosed .38's]] if you're a cop or a [[FemmeFatale dame]][[/note]], [[HandCannon Colt 1911s]], and if they need MoreDakka, tommy guns. Also, no self-respecting FilmNoir thug will be seen without his [[PowerFist brass knuckles.]] They'll probably wear a Fedora or trilby hat with a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]]. Frequently the ending will be [[AntiClimax low-key]] and [[DownerEnding leave no one character happy or fulfilled]]. Commonly, there is also a great deal of [[BelligerentSexualTension sexual tension]] between the hero and the female lead; Noir stories are quite risqué. The original Film Noir era followed the [[CensorshipBureau Hays Code]], so the odds of a female lead removing her clothing are minimal, but even so, she'll often have some fine gams on display. This applies to modern versions; [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous nudity]] or scenes of excessive violence are [[GoryDiscretionShot hinted at]] [[SexyDiscretionShot rather than portrayed.]] It is often what is ''not'' seen that adds to the mystery and suspense.

Film Noir is not really a genre in any sense, rather it reflects a tendency in certain American films of the 40s and 50s where crime and gangster stories are infused with an excessive visual style, a modern urban sensibility and a powerful sense of moral ambiguity. These movies differed from the crime movies of the 30s, the Depression Gangster films such as ''The Public Enemy'' or the original ''Film/{{Scarface|1932}}'', in that criminal behaviour is no longer relegated to gangsters or ethnic ghettos, and the plots don't usually revolve around turf wars or police clampdowns. Protagonists in films noir are often normal people who get involved in crime, and the motivations are no longer just social or circumstantial but psychological and personal. The standard noir plot is, in broad terms, best summed up as centering around a protagonist who, usually by pure chance, is placed in a complex and dangerous situation completely beyond their control where they are pitted against an adversary whose identity and motives are not immediately obvious. The system and the law is usually either [[PoliceAreUseless apathetic to their plight]] or is even [[CorruptCop outright working against them]], meaning that they will have to take up the fight and make sense of it all by themselves or die trying. As a style and sensibility, Film Noir was flexible to include hybrids such as the Western-Film Noir (The 1947 film ''Pursued'' with flashbacks, DarkAndTroubledPast, high contrast black and white lighting and weird Freudian themes), and even the film-noir musical (''The Man I Love, Love Me and Leave Me'') and in the case of ''Leave Her to Heaven'' a Film Noir in technicolor.

Trying to explain Film Noir is hard, since it's kind of a mix of European cynicism and post-war American angst. It involves a clash between crude pulp fiction narratives and complex storytelling and characterization, which itself derived from emerging psychological research on criminal behavior, as well as wider influences in modern art and literature. The term was first used by French critics (hence the name) and it derives from "Serie Noir," the label of French translations of American pulp fiction, and French imitations thereof, [[ForeignCultureFetish which were highly popular in France at the time]]. French critics looked at the American crime films from ''their'' perspectives of post-Occupation France, which to some extent led them to overemphasize the doom and gloom of American films by projecting their experiences onto their interpretations of these films. Later, American writers when translating these articles into English brought this into PopCulturalOsmosis.

The standard Noir landscape is [[CityNoir a large, oppressive city (filmed in dark and dusky conditions to create a moody atmosphere)]]. Familiar haunts include dimly-lit bars, [[DenOfIniquity nightclubs filled with questionable clientele]] (including the {{Gayngster}}) whom the lead may intimidate for information, gambling dens, juke joints and the ubiquitous seedy [[AbandonedWarehouse waterfront warehouse]]. At night in the big city, you can bet the streets are slick with rain, reflecting streetlights like a Hopper painting. [[HumansAreBastards Most of the characters (including the lead) are cynical, misanthropical and hopeless]] all the way through the film, and never find [[RedemptionQuest true redemption]]. It is important to note that the term "Film Noir" was not available to the people who made them in the '40s and '50s. As Robert Mitchum famously stated, "We called them B-Movies." It comes from later audiences and critics who rediscovered these films in revival theaters and clubs and picked up the subtext, visual clues and other HiddenDepths. Many historians feel that the classic Film Noir genre died when it became self-conscious. Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumenton cite the MGM musical ''The Band Wagon'' (made in 1952), where the final number featured a technicolor parody of a Mickey Spillane crime setting, with Creator/FredAstaire and Cyd Charisse playing the detective and femme fatale in an obvious send-up. Others feel that Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TouchOfEvil'' was the real end, since it was made by the director of ''Film/CitizenKane'' (which, while not a Noir, influenced the lighting and style of several other films noir), and the genre conventions were pretty much stretched inside and outside. They also argue that Noir only worked in a climate of censorship, as the crime genre often fell BeneathSuspicion allowing writers and directors more chances to subvert cliches. Once censorship eroded, Film Noir had pretty much served its purpose and achieved its goals.

* ''VideoGame/LastCaseTheDisappearanceOfAmandaKane'' is a mostly black and white crime drama about a private investigator trying to look for a mission person. The protagonist drinks, recently lost his partner, and the game has smooth, somewhat somber accompanying the setting (which seems to take place in the mid to late nineties).
* ''VideoGame/{{Snatcher}}''. Cyberpunk, deeply inspired by (almost to the point of plagiarism) Film/BladeRunner.
* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' is an UrbanFantasy Noir with a 1970s aesthetic, and can perhaps best be described as ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' meets ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas''. It is also somewhat of a GenreDeconstruction, turning a critical eye to some of the stable tropes of the genre such as the DefectiveDetective, the FemmeFatale, and the AssholeVictim and taking them apart.

* ''Webcomic/AntiBunny'' draws heavily on Film Noir in its visual and storytelling style. As a call out to the visual style in Chapter 5 of The Gritty City Stories Pooky cynically narrates "No one gets film noir these days anyway."
* ''Automata'', and it's sequel ''Blood and Oil''; two short stories created by the ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' duo. [[http://penny-arcade.com/archive/results/search&keywords=automata/]]

Attempts to revive this style led to Neo-Noir, which with some exceptions tends to {{Flanderization}}. The tone and outlook ''must'' be [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]], [[CrapsackWorld defeatist]], and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism pessimistic]], always ''suggesting'' a sliminess beyond what it can [[CensorshipBureau show]]. Nobody gets what they want, and [[LaserGuidedKarma everyone gets what's coming to them]]. Characters are often armed -- [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]][[note]]especially [[PintSizePowerHouse Snubnosed .38's]] if you're a cop or a [[FemmeFatale dame]][[/note]], [[HandCannon Colt 1911s]], and if they need MoreDakka, tommy guns. Also, no self-respecting FilmNoir thug will be seen without his [[PowerFist brass knuckles.]] They'll probably wear a Fedora or trilby hat with a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]]. Frequently the ending will be [[AntiClimax low-key]] and [[DownerEnding leave no one character happy or fulfilled]]. Commonly, there is also a great deal of [[BelligerentSexualTension sexual tension]] between the hero and the female lead; Noir stories are quite risqué. The original Film Noir era followed the [[CensorshipBureau Hays Code]], so the odds of a female lead removing her clothing are minimal, but even so, [[ShesGotLegs she'll often have some fine gams on display]]. This applies to modern versions; [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous nudity]] or scenes of excessive violence are [[GoryDiscretionShot hinted at]] [[SexyDiscretionShot rather than portrayed.]] It is often what is ''not'' seen that adds to the mystery and suspense.

* NordicNoir, SnowMeansDeath

* The BBC two part Drama "Exile"

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' was heavily influenced by Film Noir, mostly up to about half way through the third season, but it retained certain Film Noir traits until the very end, such as the moral abiguity. [[spoiler: The final scene of the show is in the classic Film Noir setting of rainy alleyway]].

* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''
** Especially the movie ''Anime/GhostInTheShell2Innocence'', which even mimics typical designs for cars and buildings from the classic Noir movies.

* The Mina Davis books ''[[Literature/HungoverAndHandcuffed Hungover and Handcuffed]]'' and ''[[Literature/AssholeYakuzaBoyfriend Asshole Yakuza Boyfriend]]'' are extremely noiry, and their covers evoke classic noir imagery (Creator/HumphreyBogart and Film/{{Gilda}} specifically).
* Most of Lawrence Block's work, Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries in particular.

* The ''Literature/JoGar'' series by Raoul Whitfield, set in UsefulNotes/{{Manila}}, capital of the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, then under U.S. colonial rule.
* Literature/TheDresdenFiles, which is Noir [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] UrbanFantasy.
* And Literature/TheAutomaticDetective is Noir [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] RaygunGothic.
* ''{{Literature/Felidae}}'' is a Film Noir [[RecycledInSpace WITH CATS]].

* ''Literature/AllTheWrongQuestions'', a prequel series to ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', is a big homage to noir and stars a young Creator/LemonySnicket as a KidDetective.

* ''Literature/{{Millennium|Series}}'' (''Literature/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'' and its sequels), along with [[Film/TheMillenniumTrilogy its movie adaptations]], is [[NordicNoir noir set in modern-day Sweden]], with heavy emphasis on computer technology.

Attempts to revive this style led to Neo-Noir, which with some exceptions tends to {{Flanderization}}. The tone and outlook ''must'' be [[DarkerAndEdgier bleak]], [[CrapsackWorld defeatist]], and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism pessimistic]], always ''suggesting'' a sliminess beyond what it can [[CensorshipBureau show]]. Nobody gets what they want, and [[LaserGuidedKarma everyone gets what's coming to them]]. Characters are often armed -- [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolvers]][[note]]especially [[PintSizePowerHouse Snubnosed .38's]] if you're a cop or a [[FemmeFatale dame]][[/note]], [[HandCannon Colt 1911s]], and if they need MoreDakka, tommy guns. Also, no self-respecting FilmNoir thug will be seen without his [[PowerFist brass knuckles.]] They'll probably wear a [[NiceHat Fedora or trilby hat]] with a [[BadassLongcoat trench coat]]. Frequently the ending will be [[AntiClimax low-key]] and [[DownerEnding leave no one character happy or fulfilled]]. Commonly, there is also a great deal of [[BelligerentSexualTension sexual tension]] between the hero and the female lead; Noir stories are quite risqué. The original Film Noir era followed the [[CensorshipBureau Hays Code]], so the odds of a female lead removing her clothing are minimal, but even so, [[ShesGotLegs she'll often have some fine gams on display]]. This applies to modern versions; [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous nudity]] or scenes of excessive violence are [[GoryDiscretionShot hinted at]] [[SexyDiscretionShot rather than portrayed.]] It is often what is ''not'' seen that adds to the mystery and suspense.

* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'' combines Film Noir with UrbanFantasy spiced with (un)healthy dose of RuleOfCool, everything turned UpToEleven.

* CorruptHick

Film Noir is not really a genre in any sense, rather it reflects a tendency in certain American films of the 40s and 50s where crime and gangster stories are infused with an excessive visual style, a modern urban sensibility and a powerful sense of moral ambiguity. These movies differed from the crime movies of the 30s, the Depression Gangster films such as ''The Public Enemy'' or the original ''[[{{Film/Scarface1932}} Scarface]]'', in that criminal behaviour is no longer relegated to gangsters or ethnic ghettos, and the plots don't usually revolve around turf wars or police clampdowns. Protagonists in films noir are often normal people who get involved in crime, and the motivations are no longer just social or circumstantial but psychological and personal. The standard noir plot is, in broad terms, best summed up as centering around a protagonist who, usually by pure chance, is placed in a complex and dangerous situation completely beyond their control where they are pitted against an adversary whose identity and motives are not immediately obvious. The system and the law is usually either [[PoliceAreUseless apathetic to their plight]] or is even [[CorruptCop outright working against them]], meaning that they will have to take up the fight and make sense of it all by themselves or die trying. As a style and sensibility, Film Noir was flexible to include hybrids such as the Western-Film Noir (The 1947 film ''Pursued'' with flashbacks, DarkAndTroubledPast, high contrast black and white lighting and weird Freudian themes), and even the film-noir musical (''The Man I Love, Love Me and Leave Me'') and in the case of ''Leave Her to Heaven'' a Film Noir in technicolor.

* Many books by Creator/EdBrubaker, especially when he's working with Sean Philips. ''Comicbook/{{Criminal}}'' and ''Comicbook/TheFadeOut'' are straight noir. ''Comicbook/SleeperWildStorm'' and ''Comicbook/{{Incognito}}'' are superhero/pulp hero noir, and ''Comicbook/{{Fatale}}'' is noir where the FemmeFatale's supernatural allure [[CosmicHorrorStory actually is supernatural.]]