Q 01/05

Which French critic first applied the term 'film noir' to Hollywood films in 1946?

A) André Bazin

B) Nino Frank

C) Raymond Borde

D) François Truffaut

Answer · why

B) Nino Frank

Nino Frank, an Italian-born critic writing in Paris, coined the usage in a 1946 essay on Hollywood crime films; the Série noire paperback imprint, lau...

Q 02/05

Which decades are generally regarded as the classic period of American film noir?

A) The 1940s and 1950s

B) The 1930s and 1940s

C) The 1950s and 1960s

D) The 1920s and 1930s

Answer · why

A) The 1940s and 1950s

The 1940s and 1950s form the classic period: the cycle began with low-budget crime thrillers in 1940 and is usually said to end in 1958, when the stud...

Q 03/05

What did most Americans call films now labelled noir before the term caught on in the 1970s?

A) Thrillers

B) Gangster pictures

C) Melodramas

D) Whodunits

Answer · why

C) Melodramas

Melodramas, or crime melodramas, was the usual label at the time; the French term only caught on among American critics in the 1970s, who defined the ...

Q 04/05

Which two French critics wrote the 1955 Panorama, the first extended study of the subject?

A) Bazin and Truffaut

B) Godard and Rivette

C) Sadoul and Sartre

D) Borde and Chaumeton

Answer · why

D) Borde and Chaumeton

Borde and Chaumeton called noir 'oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel'.

Q 05/05

Noir's shadowy visual style has its roots in which artistic movement?

A) Italian Futurism

B) French Impressionism

C) German Expressionism

D) Soviet Constructivism

Answer · why

C) German Expressionism

German Expressionism, the 1920s cinema of stark shadows and distorted sets seen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, reached Hollywood with émigré director...