Editing Film noir (section)

===Plots, characters, and settings===
Crime, usually murder, is an element of almost all films noir; in addition to standard-issue greed, jealousy is frequently the criminal motivation. A crime investigation—by a private eye, a police detective (sometimes acting alone), or a concerned amateur—is the most prevalent, but far from dominant, basic plot. In other common plots the protagonists are implicated in [[heist film|heists]] or [[confidence trick|con games]], or in murderous conspiracies often involving adulterous affairs. False suspicions and accusations of crime are frequent plot elements, as are betrayals and double-crosses. According to J. David Slocum, "protagonists assume the literal identities of dead men in nearly fifteen percent of all noir."<ref>Slocum (2001), p. 160.</ref> [[Amnesia]] is fairly epidemic—"noir's version of the common cold", in the words of film historian [[Lee Server]].<ref>Server (2006), p. 149.</ref>

[[File:PursuedPoster.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Black-and-white film poster with an image of a young man and woman holding each other. They are surrounded by an abstract, whirlpool-like image; the central arc of the thick black line that define it encircles their head. Both are wearing white shirts and look forward with tense expressions; his right arm cradles her back, and in his hand he holds a revolver. The stars' names—Teresa Wright and Robert Mitchum—feature at the top of the whirlpool; the title and remainder of the credits are below.|By the late 1940s, the noir trend was leaving its mark on other genres. A prime example is the Western ''[[Pursued]]'' (1947), filled with psychosexual tensions and behavioral explanations derived from [[Psychoanalysis|Freudian theory]].<ref>Ottoson (1981), p. 143.</ref>]]

Films noir tend to revolve around heroes who are more flawed and morally questionable than the norm, often [[fall guy]]s of one sort or another. The characteristic protagonists of noir are described by many critics as "[[Social alienation|alienated]]";<ref>See, e.g., Naremore (2008), p. 25; Lyons (2000), p. 10.</ref> in the words of Silver and Ward, "filled with [[existentialism|existential]] bitterness".<ref>Silver and Ward (1992), p. 6.</ref> Certain archetypal characters appear in many film noirs—hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, intrepid [[claims adjuster]]s, and down-and-out writers. Among characters of every stripe, cigarette smoking is rampant.<ref>See, e.g., Hirsch (2001), pp. 128, 150, 160, 213; Christopher (1998), pp. 4, 32, 75, 83, 116, 118, 128, 155.</ref> From historical commentators to neo-noir pictures to pop culture ephemera, the private eye and the femme fatale have been adopted as the quintessential film noir figures, though they do not appear in most films now regarded as classic noir. Of the twenty-six National Film Registry noirs, in only four does the star play a private eye: ''The Maltese Falcon'', ''The Big Sleep'', ''Out of the Past'', and ''Kiss Me Deadly''. Just four others readily qualify as detective stories: ''Laura'', ''The Killers'', ''The Naked City'', and ''Touch of Evil''. There is usually an element of drug or alcohol use, particularly as part of the detective's method to solving the crime, as an example the character of Mike Hammer in the 1955 film ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'' who walks into a bar saying "Give me a double bourbon, and leave the bottle". Chaumeton and Borde have argued that film noir grew out of the "literature of drugs and alcohol".<ref>{{cite book  | last=Abrams |first=Jerold J. |title=The Philosophy of Film Noir| publisher=University Press of Kentucky |date=2006}}</ref>

Film noir is often associated with an urban setting, and a few cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, in particular—are the location of many of the classic films. In the eyes of many critics, the city is presented in noir as a "labyrinth" or "maze".<ref>See, e.g., Hirsch (2001), p. 17; Christopher (1998), p. 17; Telotte (1989), p. 148.</ref> Bars, lounges, nightclubs, and gambling dens are frequently the scene of action. The climaxes of a substantial number of film noirs take place in visually complex, often industrial settings, such as refineries, factories, trainyards, power plants—most famously the explosive conclusion of ''White Heat'', set at a chemical plant.<ref>Ballinger and Graydon (2007), pp. 217–18; Hirsch (2001), p. 64.</ref> In the popular (and, frequently enough, critical) imagination, in noir it is always night and it always raining.<ref>Bould (2005), p. 18, on the critical establishment of this iconography, as well as p. 35; Hirsch (2001), p. 213; Christopher (1998), p. 7.</ref>

A substantial trend within latter-day noir—dubbed "film soleil" by critic [[D. K. Holm]]—heads in precisely the opposite direction, with tales of deception, seduction, and corruption exploiting bright, sun-baked settings, stereotypically the desert or open water, to searing effect. Significant predecessors from the classic and early post-classic eras include ''The Lady from Shanghai''; the [[Robert Ryan]] vehicle ''[[Inferno (1953 film)|Inferno]]'' (1953); the French adaptation of [[Patricia Highsmith]]'s ''[[The Talented Mr. Ripley]]'', ''[[Plein Soleil|Plein soleil]]'' (''Purple Noon'' in the United States, more accurately rendered elsewhere as ''Blazing Sun'' or ''Full Sun''; 1960); and director Don Siegel's version of ''[[The Killers (1964 film)|The Killers]]'' (1964). The tendency was at its peak during the late 1980s and 1990s, with films such as ''[[Dead Calm (film)|Dead Calm]]'' (1989), ''[[After Dark, My Sweet]]'' (1990), ''[[The Hot Spot]]'' (1990), ''[[Delusion (1991 film)|Delusion]]'' (1991), ''[[Red Rock West]]'' (1993) and the television series ''[[Miami Vice]]''.<ref>Holm (2005), pp. 13–25 passim.</ref>