https://sundayeveningreview.com/tags/film-noir/Recent content in Film Noir on Sunday Evening ReviewHugoen-usThu, 02 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0500https://sundayeveningreview.com/screen/what-is-film-noir/Thu, 02 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0500https://sundayeveningreview.com/screen/what-is-film-noir/<p>The term &ldquo;film noir&rdquo; was coined by French critics in the summer of 1946, when American films blocked from European distribution during the war finally arrived in Paris simultaneously. Critics who watched &ldquo;Double Indemnity,&rdquo; &ldquo;Laura,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Maltese Falcon&rdquo; in quick succession noticed something they hadn&rsquo;t seen before: a consistent darkness, not just in subject matter but in the way the images themselves were built. They borrowed a phrase from literature. &ldquo;Serie noire&rdquo; was already the name for French translations of American hard-boiled crime fiction. The films needed a name too.</p>