Styles, Codes and Conventions

Typical noirs are often crime based in their narratives and usually include some sort of law enforcement character investigating a mystery and pursuing a villainous character. Some examples include The Maltese Falcon, The Killers and The Stranger. An atypical moral message is that crime doesn’t pay.
Typical characters that crop up in noir films are a hardboiled detective and a glamorous woman in need of assistance. Prime examples of film noirs with these characters are Out of the Past and Kiss Me Deadly.
Characters are often ‘alienated’ from the wider public and tend to be loners such as Robert Montgomery in The Chase. The actors usually portray these sorts of characters in a calm subtle manner. Locations are often in the middle of large cities such as White Heat. As far as lighting goes most noirs are filmed in a black and white style or close to it but there are exceptions such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo which is shot in colour.
A lot of film noirs contain voiceovers by the main protagonist such as more recent noirs like Chinatown and Bladerunner.
Most noirs are filmed in low key style like Out of the Past and Kiss Me Deadly, but others are shot in a more complex way such as Lady in the Lake where the protagonist is shown only in mirrors.
In classic noir some flashbacks were used but special effects have become more common with more recent noirs like Twelve Monkeys and Minority Report. Whilst special effects are used extensively for comedic purposes in the parody Who Framed Roger Rabbit.