Can someone help me decipher what my film teacher is trying to say in this writing prompt?

Using any two films we have screened, and any two articles that we have read (to october 6) examine the following preposition: film noir is concerned with the gap between the actor and the roles it is called to play on.
(for me this is the main sentence that doesnt have meaning and unfortunately its the most important bit. The gap between "THE personality" suggests she means well known person or actor, and then "parts" mean the role or charcter, but even then it doesnt make a lot of aensew in context)

Some suggestions:
In what ways are film noir characters obliged to assume roles that may or may not be natural, genuine or sincere,and what does that tell us about the society which they are apart of?
How genuine or natural are these apparently important social roles such as gender within film noir?
In terms of the roles the protagonist plays, what is the relationship between artifice (or creativity) and crime?
Does exploring performance (within film noir) create trouble for what would otherwise be a simplistic genre? If so how?

/r/TrueFilm Thread