The term film noir, meaning "dark cinema," was coined by French film critics to describe the American films that arrived in Europe in the years after World War II (1939–45). Emerging in the 1940s as an alternative to "classical" Hollywood cinema, film noir is a curious blend of violent crime, national identity crisis, and budget moviemaking. It takes a bleak view of human nature and American life. Its shadowy photography and troubled characters perfectly capture the turmoil of the postwar years.

Filmed on cheap black-and-white film stock, most film-noir movies were low-budget affairs. Their style owes much to the European filmmakers who arrived in Hollywood in the years leading up to the war. German directors such as Fritz Lang (1890–1976) and Robert Siodmak (1900-1973) found expression for their cynical outlook in adapting American "hardboiled" crime novels onto film. The look of film noir also came down to cost...