Film noir movies were mostly made from the early 1940s to the late 1950s in the United States, and they were usually filmed in black-and-white. The term "film noir" comes from the French term for "black film" or "dark film". Film noir movies include many different genres of movies, such as gangster movies, police movies, and detective movies.
Film noir movies were often filmed so that there were many dark shadows in the movie, even on characters' faces. The Hollywood film noir movies were influenced by German film directors such as Fritz Lang, who used dramatic lighting techniques. Another influence on film noir movies was 1930s French books or movies about heroes who would die at the end of the story or stories with sad endings. Film noir movies were also influenced by crime fiction, such as the detective and crime stories by Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler.
Some important film noir movies are: "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940); "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) "Double Indemnity" (1944) "The Big Sleep" (1946) "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946); "Key Largo" (1948);"Kiss Me Deadly" (1955), and "Touch of Evil" (1958).
The important actors from Hollywood film noir movies were Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart, and Peter Lorre.
The film noir period was the 1940s and 1950s. Even in the years after the 1950s, some movies were made in the film noir style. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were movies like "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) and "Chinatown" (1974), which were influenced by the film noir movies from the 1950s.
In the 1980s and 1990s there were movies that were a bit like film noir movies, like "Body Heat" (1981), "Basic Instinct" (1992), "Kill Me Again" (1989)," Red Rock West" (1992), and "Fargo" (1996). In the 2000s, there are also movies that are like film noir movies in some ways. For example, there are films such as "Memento" (2000) and "Sin City" (2005).
There are also science fiction movies that look a bit like film noir movies because they look dark and they have a lead character who does some bad things, such as "Soylent Green" (1973); "Blade Runner" (1982), which starred Harrison Ford; and "Minority Report" (2002), which starred Tom Cruise.
Film noir movies are often shot in cities at night, and the stories often take place in bars, nightclubs, gambling clubs, casinos, and cheap hotels. This makes film noir movies look very dark, because the scenes are shot at night, or inside dark places like a bar or hotel.
Film noir movie scenes often have a lot of shadows, such as the shadows of window frames, blinds, or stair banisters. There are also often dark shadows on the movie scenes, even on the faces of the actors. All of the shadows and darkness make the film noir movies feel mysterious and stressful.
The characters in film noir movies are often motivated by greed, jealousy, or revenge. The characters in film noir movies are often private detectives or police officers who are investigating crimes committed by bad criminals and gang members such as murder, gambling or prostitution. In film noir movies, there are often stories about robberies, heists, extortion of money (which is called "blackmail"), or murder.
In film noir movies, even the heroes or lead characters are often bad or partly bad in some way. For example, the hero of a film noir movie may help an innocent man or woman who is being threatened by a criminal, or rescue a woman from a criminal gang. Yet the hero or lead character may also do bad things, such as commit crimes, hurt or threaten people, or tell lies.
Often, the hero or lead character of a film noir film will be bitter, sad, lonely, or depressed, because of bad things that happened to them. The person watching the movie has to decide if they think that a hero who does both good and bad things is a good person or not. The stories from film noir movies can make the audience think about how people should act, or how people should make choices in their life. This is one of the things that people like about watching film noir movies.
Film noir movies are not happy movies. In happy movies, like romance movies, people fall in love, get married, and live happy lives. In film noir movies, sad things happen. A good man with a wife might need money for their rent, and borrow the money from a criminal gang leader, because the good man has no other way of getting the money. Then the bad gang leader might force the good man to do bad things to pay back the money. Maybe the bad gang leader will threaten to hurt the good man's wife. Then the good man has to decide between protecting his wife or doing a bad crime.
People who watch film noir movies like to see stories about people who have to make hard choices, or people whose lives have sad things happen in them. Real life is not a romantic comedy; people often have to make hard choices or have sad things happen.
Robert Ottoson wrote a book in 1981 about film noir called "A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir: 1940–1958".
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (or "jazz-rock fusion" or fusion) is a genre or style of music. Jazz fusion mixes jazz with rock. Some jazz fusion also uses funk, rhythm and blues and world music.
Jazz fusion is usually played with instruments, without singing. The songs are often longer than those in pop music. A jazz fusion song could be five to ten minutes long. A pop song is usually about three minutes long. Also, jazz fusion songs have a long solo played by instruments. Frank Zappa, for example, had long guitar solos in his music, which was of the jazz fusion genre. In jazz fusion, solos are improvised, or made up as they are played, during a performance.
Jazz fusion music is not heard much on the radio in the United States or Canada. In Europe, it is more popular on radio stations.
Jazz fusion began in the late 1960s in the United States. In the late 1960s jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and a band called The Tony Williams Lifetime began using electric instruments such as electric bass and electric piano in their jazz music. As well, jazz musicians began adding rhythms or beats from soul music, rhythm and blues, and rock music into their jazz music. Two important jazz fusion albums are "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew."
In the 1970s, more people began playing jazz fusion. It became more popular, so more people began listening to jazz fusion and going to jazz fusion concerts. In the 1970s, jazz musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Jan Hammer and Chick Corea began using electronic synthesizers in their songs.
In the early 1980s, a new style of jazz fusion called "pop fusion" began being played. This new style of pop fusion was softer and slower than fusion from the early 1970s. Pop fusion was played a lot more on the radio than the fusion from the early 1970s. Pop fusion musicians include Lee Ritenour, Al Jarreau, Kenny G, Bob James and David Sanborn.
Steve Vai was an icon of jazz fusion in the 1980s and played extensive guitar based jazz fusion instrumentals.
Stadio Olimpico
Stadio Olimpico is a sports stadium in Rome, Italy.
Insulation
Insulation might mean:
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe (meaning "arch of victory)", at the centre of the place de l'Étoile and the western end of the Champs-Elysées, is a very famous monument in Paris.
Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte commissioned it in 1806 after victory in the Battle of Austerlitz. It is a large arch, but it is not possible to drive underneath it. Jean-François Chalgrin designed it, and it has roughly 300 steps that lead to the top. It has four main sculptures and six reliefs. Just beneath the vault of the arch, there is the tomb of the unknown soldier. The names of French generals and battles are engraved on the walls.
Show
Show can mean different things:
Traffic light
Traffic lights (or traffic signals) are lights used to control the movement of traffic. They are placed at road intersections and crossings. The different colors of lights tell drivers what to do.