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Film Noir Film noir is said to have begun in 1919 with Robert Wiene’s film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This film is from the German Expressionistic era and is one of the first films to be overly melodramatic with heavy make-up and dark costumes that intensifies the attitudes of the actors. Throughout the story the imagery of instability can be seen with twisted streets, over hanging buildings, oddly squeezed rooms, and contorted scenery. The set designs were unique for their time because they were oddly shaped and in a deco style and every shadow is emphasized as a significant part of the shot. The ideas of dark shadows and dramatic scenery and costumes carry on throughout the topic of film noir and are what make it unique. Film noir is unique in comparison to other film genres in history. It is stated in Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style, that "Noir films have no precise antecedents either in terms of a well defined literary genre or a period in history (Ward, 1). After The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the height of films with similar characteristics continued being produced thorough the 1950s. Films such as L.A. Confidential and Femme Fatale have been made recently which still follow the original g