Defining neo-noir and its antecedent, film noir, is an ongoing debate that enjoins the usual suspects - writers, cinephiles, critics, buffs, academics and filmmakers - in invigorating disagreement.  Unlike the judge who struggled to define obscenity by acquiescing to, “I know it when I see it’, herein is a brief effort to provide greater clarity to film noir and neo-noir.

Since it follows that neo-noir is the cinematic progeny of film noir, one must first examine the family line.

Film noir specifically refers to a group of films produced during 1940-1960. These so-called ‘classic period’ noir films were characterized by distinctive cultural imperatives and thematic visual attributes:

The story of a crime from the perspective of the criminals rather than that of the police. The setting is usually urban and dark.

Stories laden with elements of corruption, double-crosses, and devious plot twists; things are never what they initially seem to be.

Distinctive protagonists including the femme fatale, her man who acquiesces to manipulation even though he knows better, and the hard-boiled hero who lives by his own rules that don’t always conform to conventional law and society.

Thematic elements of alienation, nihilism, existentialism and fatalism.

Narrative yarns adapted or used directly from hard-boiled crime fiction writers such as Hammett, Chandler, Cain and Woolrich. These stories typically employed literary devices such as flashbacks and voice over narratives.

Low key, chiaroscuro lighting and visual depiction influenced by German expressionistic filmmakers such as Lang, Siodmak, Wilder and Preminger.

Post World War II realism that necessitated that the maturity forged in war and tempered by return to an incongruous world required a different type of cinematic entertainment that was crafted by and for adults.

Film noir remains a visual and cultural movement that is less wedded to a particular genre of films but more to a specific time in our cultural history.

Neo-noir borrows what it can from film noir: hard-boiled stories, protagonists, themes and darkly lit visuals – and leaves behind what it cannot appropriate from the popular culture of a different historical era – German expressionism, World War II realism, period pulp fiction and screenwriting regulated by a production code sensor.

Not a movement and less than a genre, Neo-noir is a trend of modern filmmaking that incorporates classic film noir elements into post classic period films.

Since film noir is so elusive in definition, it lends itself to the compilation of titles.  Nearly every film noir book has a glossary, appendix or filmography of noir titles.

This predilection for titles is from the ‘know it when I see it” school of thought. If film noir can’t be explained, it most certainly should be listed.

Neo-noir is no different, and often it is just that there are fewer movies and less written about them. Examples of neo-noir films include: “Chandler” (1971) “Body Heat” (1981), “No Way Out” (1986), “The Usual Suspects” (1995), “The Grifters” (1990)m “Miller’s Crossing” (1990), “After Dark, My Sweet” (1990), and “L.A. Confidential” (1997). There are also a plethora of remakes of original noir films including: “D.O.A”, “Crisscross”, “Out of the Past”, and others that make the neo-noir hit parade.

Since the word ‘neo’ indicates ‘recent’, neo-noir is a term that has might have outlived its relevance. Noir is now a popular marketing cachet for perfume, books and music. Since the neo-noir period is presently over two decades longer than the classic film noir period and all American cultural styles appear to come full circle, it would seem that a return to the singular terminology of the noir movie might be forthcoming.

So there you have it.  My view is that film noir and neo-noir are dark cinematic relations and I’m sticking to it. As Mark Hellinger put it in 1948, “There are a million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them”.

Or, to paraphrase that well-known line from the film “The Naked City” (1948): “There are a million stories, opinions and discourses on this theoretical question - this one is all mine.”

Alan K. Rode is a writer and film historian who is one of the board of directors of the Film Noir Foundation www.filmnoirfoundation.org as well as a Senior Staff Writer for Filmmonthly.com

His book on actor Charles McGraw, film noir, and Hollywood is due out in 2007.