film noir

film noir

n.

1. A movie characterized by low-key lighting, a bleak urban setting, and corrupt, cynical characters.

2. The genre or style of such movies.

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[French : film, film + noir, black.]

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film noir [nwɑː]

n

(Performing Arts) a gangster thriller, made esp in the 1940s in Hollywood characterized by contrasty lighting and often somewhat impenetrable plots

[French, literally: black film]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

film noir - a movie that is marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical characters; "film noir was applied by French critics to describe American thriller or detective films in the 1940s" motion picture, motion-picture show, movie, moving picture, moving-picture show, pic, film, picture show, flick, picture - a form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement; "they went to a movie every Saturday night"; "the film was shot on location"