What is Neo Noir?
Neo-noir (from the Greek neo, new; and the French noir, black) is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s. Simplifying this, in this writer’s opinion there are several elements associated with a neo noir film that are similar to film noir: • A crime or crimes are the central element of the film • The crime is typically a crime of passion (anger, revenge, love) • The film has a stylized lighting and shooting (cinematography) style • A main character has a skewed sense of perspective about life, love and/or what’s right or wrong This is why “Resurrection of Serious Rogers” is such a perfect fit to the neo noir niche genre. While the film follows a thriller format — and to a lessor extent, the action format – it was conceived, written, shot and directed as a neo noir film. We also coined two new phrase
