The term
film noir, French for "black film",
[1] first applied to Hollywood films by French critic
Nino Frank in 1946, was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era.
[2] Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic
films noirs[a] were referred to as
melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a distinct
genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars.