Roots Of Film Noir

Individual reviews of 90+ films created and released before 1941 are included here in the first title-by-title reference guide to the forerunners of film noir. Silent Hitchcock thrillers and German expressionist masterpieces, French poetic realist dramas and forgotten Hollywood B-movies, pseudo-Freudian gangster films and costume melodramas are among the works covered. The collection spans subgenres and cultures of filmmaking, aiming to demonstrate that the roots of noir were sown far and wide, long before the lasting and mysterious genre flowered in America during the war years.

Individual reviews of 90+ films created and released before 1941 are included here in the first title-by-title reference guide to the forerunners of film noir. Silent Hitchcock thrillers and German expressionist masterpieces, French poetic realist dramas and forgotten Hollywood B-movies, pseudo-Freudian gangster films and costume melodramas are among the works covered. The collection spans subgenres and cultures of filmmaking, aiming to demonstrate that the roots of noir were sown far and wide, long before the lasting and mysterious genre flowered in America during the war years.

From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), the classic film noir is easily recognizable for its unusual lighting, sinister plots, and feeling of paranoia. For critics and fans alike, these films defined an era. The Philosophy of Film Noir explores philosophical themes and ideas inherent in classic noir and neo-noir films, establishing connections to diverse thinkers ranging from Camus to the Frankfurt School. The authors, each focusing on a different aspect of the genre, explore the philosophical underpinnings of classic films such as The Big Sleep (1946), Out of the Past (1947), and Pulp Fiction (1994). They show how existentialism and nihilism dominate the genre as they explore profound themes in a vital area of popular culture.

Sheri Chinen Biesen challenges conventional thinking on the origins of film noir and finds the genre's roots in the political, social and historical conditions of Hollywood during the Second World War.

In keeping with the tradition of the Noir series, Boston Noir 2 is made up of the works of several celebrated authors whose work is tied together by a common setting. After the massive success of the first Boston Noir, bestselling author Dennis Lehane is back as curator for another anthology of crime stories set in Boston. The Boston Noir 2 collection features reprints of the classic chilling short stories and novel excerpts that brought the world of noir to its knees. Contributors include Pulitzer winners Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike.

Film Noir is an overview of an often celebrated, but also contested, body of films. It discusses film noir as a cultural phenomenon whose history is more extensive and diverse than American black and white crime thrillers of the forties. An extended Background Chapter situates film noir within its cultural context, describing its origin in German Expressionism, French Poetic Realism and in developments within American genres, the gangster/crime thriller, horror and the Gothic romance and its possible relationship to changes in American society. Five chapters are devoted to ‘classic’ film noir (1940-59): chapters explore its contexts of production and reception, its visual style, and its narrative patterns and themes chapters on character types and star performances elucidate noir’s complex construction of gender with its weak, ambivalent males and predatory femmes fatales and also provide a detailed analysis of three noir auteurs, - Anthony Mann, Robert Siodmak and Fritz Lang Three chapters investigate ‘neo-noir’ and British film noir: chapters trace the complex evolution of ‘neo-noir’ in American cinema, from the modernist critiques of Night Moves and Taxi Driver, to the postmodern hybridity of contemporary noir including Seven, Pulp Fiction and Memento the final chapter surveys the development of British film noir, a significant and virtually unknown cinema, stretching from the thirties to Mike Hodges’ Croupier Films discussed include both little known examples and seminal works such as Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street, Kiss Me Deadly and Touch of Evil. A final section provides a guide to further reading, an extensive bibliography and a list of over 500 films referred to in the text. Lucidly written, Film Noir is an accessible, informative and stimulating introduction that will have a broad appeal to undergraduates, cinéastes, film teachers and researchers.

American classic films noir, beginning with 1941's The Maltese Falcon and ending with 1950's Sunset Boulevard, and the neo-noir films made from the 1970s onward, share certain thematic aspects, stylistic qualities, and cultural contexts. Their concern with politics, their depiction of con artists, and the way their characters are shaped by America's puritanical religious roots show that these films are examples of a unique American genre, even when the films' directors are German emigres with artistic roots in European Expressionism. The films' psychological depth is revealed stylistically through complex narratives, with select directors generating visual poetry as they deal with sex, violence and betrayal. Some films are based on popular novels inspired by true crime cases. A unique approach to film noir scholarship, this book discusses the genre's thematic aspects, cultural contexts and stylistic qualities. For those films based upon novels, in-depth analysis of the fiction is provided alongside the film version, resulting in a fuller, more thorough understanding of the genre.

American classic films noir, beginning with 1941's The Maltese Falcon and ending with 1950's Sunset Boulevard, and the neo-noir films made from the 1970s onward, share certain thematic aspects, stylistic qualities, and cultural contexts. Their concern with politics, their depiction of con artists, and the way their characters are shaped by America's puritanical religious roots show that these films are examples of a unique American genre, even when the films' directors are German emigres with artistic roots in European Expressionism. The films' psychological depth is revealed stylistically through complex narratives, with select directors generating visual poetry as they deal with sex, violence and betrayal. Some films are based on popular novels inspired by true crime cases. A unique approach to film noir scholarship, this book discusses the genre's thematic aspects, cultural contexts and stylistic qualities. For those films based upon novels, in-depth analysis of the fiction is provided alongside the film version, resulting in a fuller, more thorough understanding of the genre.