In this shot, taken from the intro to 'The Third Man', for example, the bold, opaque darkness of the buildings contrast imensely with the light of the sky, hinting at a battle of morality, good and evil. This conflict reflects the moral struggles within the film, as protagonist Holly Martins struggles to find his friend Harry Lime despite Lime's immorality of selling faking penicillin.
This can also be seen in this shot of 'Double Indemnity' protagonist Walter Neff. The contrast of shadow and light on his face emphasising deception and moral ambiguity, reflecting the plot of Neff dispatching of Phyllis's husband for the insurance money.
Another classic binary opposite used in film noir is that of male and female. In another shot of 'Double Idemnity', despite the male not even looking at the female, reinforcing male dominance, the female is behind him, emphasising the femme fatale qualities of deception and taking the male and also the audience by suprise.
In these pictures of the opening of neo-noir film 'The Black Dahlia' many binary opposites are used. There is imense contrast of light and dark, white buildings against the night sky, connotating images of a battle between good and evil, this battle is turned on its head with the white costumes of the criminals and the black costumes of the police. The mention of the main characters boxing nicknames 'Mr Fire v Mr Ice' is also a binary opposite.
An enigma is a mystery that is shown commonly at the beginning of the film, usually setting the plot and mood for the rest of the film. Enigmas are used to draw in the viewer and keep their attention, they're questions waiting to be answered. The intro of Neo-Noir film 'Sin City' uses many enigmas to hold the audiences attention, the characters are nameless and have no introduction, the female character's death a complete mystery. Many questions are asked when viewing the scene that the audience must watch the film to answer.
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