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Classic film noir developed during and after World War II, taking advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety, pessimism, and suspicion, and possibly reflecting male fears of female liberation and independence during the war years. Film noirs first evolved in the 1940s, became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in a classic "Golden Age" period until about 1960. A film noir story was often developed around a cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character [e.g., Robert Mitchum, Fred MacMurray, Glenn Ford or Humphrey Bogart] who encountered a beautiful but promiscuous, amoral, double-dealing and seductive femme fatale that was often surrounded by deadly circumstances. The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femmes fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, subversive, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him). Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these sexually-attractive, cunning dames (or "spider women"). The goadings of the traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love, in order to gain wealth or power. >> See Also: History of Film Noir, Further Background Information on Femmes Fatales |
  
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About Filmsite.org
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About Film Historian Tim Dirks
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Roger Ebert Endorsement
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Filmsite.org
is an award-winning website for classic film buffs, students,
moviegoers and anyone else interested in the great movies of the
last century. Detailed plot synopses, review commentary and
Tim Dirks created the popular
filmsite.org website, aka Greatest Films,
in mid-1996, and the site has now celebrated its landmark 25th
anniversary in 2021. He has been writing about and reviewing
films on the site ever since. Tim originated
Filmsite and has remained its sole contributor,
manager, and editor - he adds significant content to the site
spanning all the years of cinematic history, often writes
blogs and other film-related articles, and has engaged in a
number of on-camera interviews about film.
Film critic and columnist Roger Ebert, author of
The Great Movies (2002), The Great Movies II (2005), and The Great Movies III (2010) made many