Noir! The very word sounds like a French lion's growl. In its undiluted form, film noir (named after Serie Noir, a French publisher's line of crime novels) is tart and murky, like cheap Parisian coffee, and as mean as any Marseilles street a gangster could skulk down. These dank moral tales are about the evil that taints everyone--especially the hero, who must end up dead or disgraced. This disqualifies Hollywood neo-noir like L.A. Confidential, where at the fade-out two guys and a gal grin as if they'd just seen Singin' in the Rain. In true noir there is no reprieve.
Maybe...
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