Film noir

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Genre

Film noir is the name that French critics gave to dark American crime films of the 1940s. The music in them became harsher and more restless. Miklós Rózsa, a classically trained Hungarian, used sharp dissonances and a menacing march figure in Double Indemnity (1944). For Laura (1944), David Raksin wrote a single melancholy theme that he coloured differently each time. It later became a jazz standard. In Sunset Boulevard (1950), Franz Waxman combined leitmotifs with twisted dance music from Hollywood's past. The noir score lets go of the romance of the Golden Age and seeks tension in chromaticism, low brass and unexpected harmonies.

Listening

• 
  Main Title · David Raksin, 1944
• 
  Sunset Boulevard Prelude · Franz Waxman, 1950
• 
  Double Indemnity Suite · Miklós Rózsa, 1944

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Film Music Map^NL Map
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 2^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 5^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 6^NL Reader

See also

• Golden Age: symphonic Hollywood and leitmotif
• Suspense and psychological thriller (Hitchcock)
• Modernism, atonality and avant-garde
• Jazz in film