Film noir is marked by expressionistic lighting, jarring editing, and skewed camera angles. Interiors are dark and claustrophobic, while exteriors are often shadowy urban night scenes of wet asphalt and dark alleyways. There is an oppressive atmosphere of menace, anxiety, and suspicion that pervades the dingy realism and shows the dark, cynical side of human nature. Plots are frequently convoluted and told with flashbacks, acerbic dialog, and reflective or confessional first-person voiceovers.

After Dark, My Sweet
James Foley, 1990
Cast: Jason Patric, Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern
From the novel by Jim Thompson (M / Thompson)
DVD / AFT

 

Angel Heart
Alan Parker, 1987
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet
DVD / ANG

 

Big Sleep
Howard Hawks, 1946
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone
From a Philip Marlowe novel by Raymond Chandler (M / Thompson)
DVD / BIG

 

Blade Runner
Ridley Scott, 1982
Cast:Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah
From Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (SF / Dick)
DVD / BLA

 

Blood Simple
Joel Coen, 1984
Cast: John Getz, Frances McDormand, M. Emmet Walsh, Dan Hedaya
DVD / BLO

 

Blue Velvet
David Lynch, 1986
Cast: Isabella Rosselini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Dean Stockwell
DVD / BLU

 

Body Double
Brian De Palma, 1984
Cast: Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, Melanie Griffith
DVD / BOD

 

Border Incident
Anthony Mann, 1949
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva
DVD / BOR

 

Cape Fear
J. Lee Thompson, 1962
Cast: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchem, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam
Based on John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners (F /MacDonald)
DVD / CAP

 

Le Cercle Rouge = The Red Circle
Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970
Cast: Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte
DVD / CER

 

Chinatown
Roman Polanski, 1974
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Bert Young
From the novel by Jim Thompson
DVD / CHI

 

Il Conformista = The Conformist
Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970
Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin
Based on the novel by Alberto Moravia
DVD / CON

 

Dance With a Stranger
Mike Newell, 1984
Cast: Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm
DVD / DAN

 

Dark City
Alex Proyas, 1998
Cast: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Ian Richardson
DVD / DAR

 

 

Deep Cover
Bill Duke, 1992
Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage
DVD / DET

 

Les Diaboliques = The Devils
Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955
Cast: Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meurisse
DVD / DIA

 

D.O.A.
Rudolph Maté, 1950
Cast: Edmond O’Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler
DVD / DOA

 

Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder, 1944
Cast:Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Based on the novel by James M. Cain (M / Cain)
DVD / DOU

 

Gun Crazy
Joseph H. Lewis, 1950
Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger
Based on a short story by MacKinlay Kantor in Author’s Choice (F / Kantor)
DVD / GUN

 

Heat
Michael Mann, 1995
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer
DVD / HEA

 

In a Lonely Place
Nicholas Ray, 1950
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy
Based on the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes (M / Hughes)
DVD / IN

 

Killer Bait
Byron Haskin, 1949
Cast: Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea
Based on Roy Huggins’ Saturday Evening Post serial
DVD / KIL

 

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Shane Black, 2005
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
Based on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday)
DVD / KIS

 

Kiss Me Deadly
Robert Aldrich, 1955
Cast: Ralph Meeker, Paul Stewart, Albert Dekker
Based on the novel by Mickey Spillane in The Mike Hammer Collection 
DVD / KIS

 

L.A. Confidential
Curtis Hanson, 1997
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito
Based on the novel by James Ellroy (M / Ellroy)
DVD / LA

 

Lady in the Lake
Robert Montgomery, 1946
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Audrey Trotter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames
Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler (M / Chandler)
DVD / LAD

 

Last Seduction
John Dahl, 1993
Cast: Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman
DVD / LAS

 

The Maltese Falcon
John Huston, 1941
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet
Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett (M / Hammett)
DVD / MAL

 

The Man Who Wasn’t There
Joel Coen, 2001
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Adam Alexi-Malle, Richard Jenkins, Scarlett Johansson
DVD / MAN

 

Memento
Christopher Nolan, 2000
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano
DVD / MEM

 

Mulholland Drive
David Lynch, 2001
Cast: Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Dan Hedaya
From the novel by Jim Thompson (M / Thompson)
DVD / MUL

 

Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton, 1955
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves
Based on the novel by Davis Grubb (F / Grubb)
DVD / NIG

 

Nora Inu = Stray Dog
Akira Kurosawa, 1949
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Eiko Miyoshi
DVD / NOR

 

Notorious!
Alfred Hitchcock, 1946
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern
DVD / NOT

 

Scarlet Street
Fritz Lang, 1945
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
Based on the novel and play La Chienne by Georges de la Fouchardiere
DVD / SCA

 

Se7en
David Fincher, 1995
Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Roundtree
DVD / SEV

 

Strangers on a Train
Alfred Hitchcock, 1951
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith (M / Highsmith)
DVD / STR

 

Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder, 1950
Cast: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
DVD / SUN

 

Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese, 1976
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel
DVD / TAX

 

The Third Man
Carol Reed, 1949
Cast: Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard
Based on the novel by Graham Greene (F /Greene)
DVD / THI

 

Touch of Evil
Orson Welles, 1958
Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Calleia, Ray Collins, Akim Tamiroff, Zsa Zsa Gabor
DVD / TOU

 

The Usual Suspects
Bryan Singer, 1995
Cast: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, Kevin Spacey
DVD / USU

 

The Wrong Man
Alfred Hitchcock, 1956
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
Based on a true story
DVD / WRO