The time of the antiheroes and the femme fatale is not over. This is shown by the latest new neo noir movies such as "No Country for Old Men"(2007), "American Gangster" (2007) and Martin Scorseses "Departed" from 2006. The film noir stream is thus not just a stream, because it is not temporally limited. Can we call it a genre?

Until now you do not find the description "Film Noir" or "Neo Noir" as a genre on the back of a DvD or on film posters, the genre will be melodrama, thriller or else. Most of the Neo Noir movies are definitively melodramas or thrillers but they all have the facette that they give a deeper insight into the main character, often the whole movie concentrates on one character. If you combine this psychological analyse  with the common topics of thriller and melodrama you will get a Ne0 Noir movie. The film noir can be called stream because it is temporallly limited from the 1940ies to  1958, but neo Noir is definitively more than a stream but maybe too complex for a genre.

For all interested parties and further information I suggest the book "Film noir and Neo-Noir" by Paul Werner

My 5 favorite neo noir movies with trailer are:

number 5 :

Ethan and Joel Cohen, "No Country for Old Men" 2007,

number 4:

Christopher Nolan, "Memento", 2000

number 3:

Curtis Hanson,  "L.A. Confidential", 1997

number 2:

Roman Polanski, " Chinatown" 1974

...and number 1:

Quentin Tarrantino, "Pulp Fiction", 1994

The difference of Neo Noir to Film Noir is probably that Neo Noir is not necessarily in black and white, neither with low key photography. It is more that the topics and especially the mood of the movies are similar to Film Noir.

Here an example of film noir, the trailer of "Dark Passage" with Humphrey Bogart of 1947

Here an example for Neo Noir, martin Scorseses "Taxi Driver" from 1976

Neo Noirs favourites

Film noir is considered to be born in the early 1940ies, being a new genre (or not?) from the United States. The first movie which appeared was probably " The Maltese Falcon" from 1941. The french filmcritic Nino Frank was the first to give this new stream a name in 1946. He saw a new style of criminal movie, focussing more on the characterisation of the main character than o the actual action. An american approach to this new genre is to call it psychological melodrama or psychological thriller. Low key photografie gives film noir a special depressive, negative, pessimistic worldimage. There is no one right definition of film noir, but several criterias which can be discussed. The central topic is most often criminality or  murder. Aspects like avarice, greed or jealousy are important motives of the characters actions. Orson Wells " The Badge of Evil" from 1958 is supposed to be the last movie of the film noir stream. The name for movies with the same characteristics but a later appearance are called Neo-Noir.