Night fever

When you see film noir, you know it.

Scenes – seemingly all scenes – filmed at night, and mostly in Los Angeles. Low, if any, lighting. Sudden flashes of gunfire. It’s Humphrey Bogart in hat and mac, lurking in the shadows in The Big Sleep (1946). Lauren Bacall smouldering in To Have and Have Not (1944) and Dark Passage (1947). And Jack Palance – the genre’s assassin of choice – about to ruin someone’s night with a pull of his trigger finger.

For the uninitiated, the term ‘film noir’ is given to black and white crime films of the 1940s and ’50s. Employing a stark cinematic style influenced by German expressionism, the plots usually involve a cynical private detective or cop investigating nefarious goings-on – often by the rich and powerful. To complicate matters further, the hard-bitten cop is then bewitched by a beautiful/deranged femme fatale.

While film noir stars have long since passed to the great film set in the sky, they live on in their iconic performances and unforgettable images – the best of which have been collated in a stunning photo book, Film Noir Portraits. When you see Robert Mitchum – with ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tatts on his knuckles – or Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, you’re taken back to a world of ‘dames’ and ‘broads’; where men wear immaculate three-piece suits and women break your heart just by looking at you.

While no one has made true film noir since the early 1960s, its influence has been felt ever since in colour movies like Chinatown, Seven , Mulholland Drive and A History of Violence. And if you’re hankering for the real thing, a flick through the monochrome pages of Film Noir Portraits will transport you back there – just don’t forget your gun, cigarettes and mac.