Those ever-seeking the definitive definition of noir may be interested in an
article in today's NY Times. Dave Kehr, for my money the paper's best movie
critic, examines new noir movie DVD collections and provides the following
requirements of classic film noir: "a pervasive sense of urban menace and
malign fate, conveyed by a Germanic visual style full of threatening shadows
and forced perspectives; a fall-guy hero wrenched out of a comfortable
existence by an arbitrary twist of fate or a moment of moral weakness; a
femme fatale who leads the hero on with her sexuality but ultimately only
wants to use him and toss him away; a downbeat ending that finds the
protagonist defeated or dead - or, preferably, both."
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