Genre or Style?
Genre defined by conventions: narrative / plot structures / character archetypes / iconography /conservative and cynical mood.
Style defined by cinematic techniques: lighting [high contrast and sharp] / mise en scene / sound / background very important / camera put in unusual places / imbalances - these last came from Weimar cinema and out of the era of Expressionism.
Expressionism originated in Germany, linked death and sex.
Women as Femmes Fatales or as redeemers; promise of sex or security; take advantage of male weakness caused by war. Feminism was a by-product of defeat in war; men not happy. Women sexualised on screen and made sexual criminal. Binary oppositions - attraction and repulsion.
Male Gaze - audience put in position of male viewer, sexualising women on screen.
Historical Context: patriarchy upset post-war; popularity of pulp fiction; gender tensions; the monstrous outsider - immigration post-war into America.
The Hays Code - 1930s. No detail on the crime being committed [see Double Indemnity]; time limit on kissing; sex and violence alluded to but shown as wrong.
Blinds - visually like a trap.
Narrative Structure - flashbacks and / or voice-overs; non-linear ie not ABCDE but more often EABCD.
Voice-over creates a 'doppleganger' as if the character has been split in two - we see them making mistakes and hear them commenting on them..
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