Film Noir

The exploration of the movie genre begins with a look at the origins of the cinematic term, stemming from pulp fiction crime novels and owing a visual debt to the German expressionist films of the silent era

With film noir in full flight, a slew of now-renowned noir 'bad girls' take centre stage, from Rita Haworth in Gilda to Ava Gardner in The Killers.

Private eye arrives as a noir counterpart to the femme fatale in the form of 1944's My Sweet, with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe.