Film noir
Film noir encompasses a range of plots: the central figure may be a private investigator ("The Big Sleep"), a plainclothes policeman ("The Big Heat"), an aging boxer ("The Set-Up"), a hapless grifter ("Night and the City"), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime ("Gun Crazy"), or simply a victim of circumstance ("D.O.A."). Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, the term has been used to describe films from around the world. Many films released from the 1960s onward share attributes with films noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such latter-day works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.