(Neve 1992) Whereas Jon Tuska saw film noir as the form as a combination of sensibility, narrative structure and style. (Tuska 1984) However nobody offered a clear precise definition that could be used to sum up all these films of this nature. The existence over the last few years of a "serie noir- in Hollywood is obvious. Defining its essential traits is another matter' (Borde and Chaumeton 1955) .
Many theorists have termed film noir a genre in itself, the same as say horror films or a westerns, however this isn't completely true of film noir as with a traditional genre you are guaranteed a particular concept for example, the western will always be set in the wild west and certain paradigmatic elements will be included cowboys, horses, good guys and bad guys, whether its John Ford's Stagecoach' or the Clint Eastwood film Unforgiven. There is no overriding concept or setting that is truly film noir. Film noir can be about a woman's rise to commercial success and her struggle to care for her family for example Mildred Pierce' or a detective story such as The Lady In The Lake' With film noir there is no one set location or paradigms. Film noir has no paraphernalia that it can truly call its own'. (Hagopian 2001) Film noir borrows its paraphernalia from other forms, usually from the crime and detective genres, but often overlapping into thrillers, horror and even science fiction' .
Genres also generally cross many different periods. Film noir is almost exclusively located in the forties and fifties (although there are slight exceptions to this rule, The Usual Suspects' was made in the nineties and contains elements of film noir.) Film noir also tends to cross many different genre boundaries gangster film, woman film, detective story etc for example The Big Sleep' which borrows generic elements form both the detective and gangster genre's. Kerr reflects in Out of What Past Notes On The B Film Noir' on The curios cross generic quality of film noir.
