Noun: film noir
- A movie that is marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical characters
"film noir was applied by French critics to describe American thriller or detective films in the 1940s";
- noir
Derived forms: film noirs, films noir
Type of: film, flick [informal], motion picture, motion-picture show, movie, moving picture, moving-picture show, pic [informal], picture, picture show
Encyclopedia: Film noir