After and during World War II, German directors such as Fritz Lang jumped ship and came to America with their vision. Their stylistic use of light and darkness was combined with the American gangster films of the 1930s to produce a characteristically American genre, which became known as film noir ("black film"). This genre was christened by the French--credited to authors Borde and Chaumeton in 1955. If you told director Billy Wilder that you enjoyed his latest film noir, he would have no idea what you were talking about. Nonetheless, film noir describes a genre of films that often share many common characteristics, i.e.: the femme fatale, the fall guy, flashback narration, lack of a hero, a blurred sense of right and wrong, and a fatalistic worldview. Many of these characteristics are explored in this site, specifically as they deal with societal fears.