Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? There are those who have deep reservations about applying the noir label to any film not shot in black and white. Personally, I don’t share that feeling but I can understand where those who hold the view are coming from. In purely visual terms, film noir inhabits a landscape of shadows and high contrast photography. Effects such as those are much more difficult to achieve when shooting on color stock, although it’s certainly not impossible.
Of course this also raises the question of whether or not one ought to define film noir in visual terms alone. I don’t see how such a narrow definition can be applied to so amorphous a style of filmmaking. For me, film noir must have an essential darkness, a bleak view of humanity and human relations, at its heart. I guess the point I’m leading into here is that there are a good many movies that utilize classic noir imagery and visuals yet couldn’t, by virtue of their theme, be considered true film noir. The 1940s in particular boast an abundance of movies, especially although not exclusively crime thrillers, which look like typical examples of film noir, but clearly they are not. As such, is the reverse not also true? Can’t a movie be shot in vibrant color but still contain that dark core that is unmistakably noir?
Wikipedia offers a list of movies which it claims are films noir shot in color:
- Accused of Murder
- Bad Day at Black Rock
- Black Widow
- Dangerous Mission
- Desert Fury
- Hell on Frisco Bay
- Hell’s Island
- House of Bamboo
- I Died a Thousand Times
- Inferno
- A Kiss Before Dying
- Leave Her to Heaven
- Niagara
- Party Girl
- Rope
- Second Chance
- Slightly Scarlet
- The Trap
- The Unholy Wife
- Vertigo
- A Woman’s Devotion
While I haven’t viewed every one of these, I have seen the majority. I suppose I would have a few quibbles but I reckon the list is a reasonable one overall. How do others feel about this? Would you exclude the above titles on the basis of their being shot in color? Or, neo-noir excepted, should that list be expanded?