The script has to be about people in trouble, usually the kind of trouble that leads to long periods of incarceration. Or the script may call for the private eye or the heroic cop to impose the death sentence. In film noir, crime exists in a world where light and darkness continually struggle against each other, which makes crime the perfect subject for this genre. When a crime takes place, the director doesn't ask for a spotlight.
In film noir, light usually wins the struggle with darkness. Criminals can die in a dark alley, just as their victims have died. In the movies made at present, the camera angles move around the set so often and so quickly that we don't have time to even consider the lighting, except for the explosions. When a car explodes after hitting a light pole, we see the flames far too long and with too many repetitions of the explosion. In real life, cars don't blow up after hitting light poles. But in today's movies, they blow up after hitting anything.
Please bring back the great scripts, great lighting, and great camera work. When you've seen one explosion, you've seen one too many.
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