After giving our pitch, Tristan reminded us of film noir.
Film noir is heavily associated with a low key black and white style that evolved from German Expressionism. Film noir typically means 'black film' in French and came to replace the name of what were once called melodramas.
The Hollywood film noir period was regarded to be from the early 1940's up to the late 1950's.
The genre typically uses plenty of ciaoscuro lighting, with an example being:
