[1] During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term "neo-noir" surged in popularity, fueled by movies such as Sydney Pollack's Absence of Malice, Brian De Palma's Blow Out, and Martin Scorsese's After Hours.
"[5] Neo-noir film directors refer to 'classic noir' in the use of Dutch angles, interplay of light and shadows, unbalanced framing; blurring of the lines between good and bad and right and wrong, and thematic motifs including revenge, paranoia, and alienation.
[6] Typically American crime dramas or psychological thrillers, films noir had common themes and plot devices, and many distinctive visual elements.
Characters were often conflicted antiheroes, trapped in a difficult situation and making choices out of desperation or nihilistic moral systems.
"[8] Screenwriter and director Larry Gross identifies Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, alongside John Boorman's Point Blank (1967) and Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel, as neo-noir films.
For instance, Quentin Tarantino's works have been influenced by Ringo Lam's 1987 classic City on Fire.