Film noir in the 1950s is a very special period in the genre‘s/style’s history, since for some experts film noir ended just then, while for others it almost died then and had finally vanished completely in the early 1960s. (To resurface as neo-noir in the early 1980s). In the book at hand the author tries […]
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Tag: Film Noir
Into the Dark. The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941-1950 by Mark A. Vieira (2016)
On more than 300 pages the reader of Into the Dark most of all acquires one thing: a very strong visual impression of what film noir looked like. For the high-quality prints selected by Mark Vieira hold a powerful, dark beauty and tell of the fascination with film noir. Here is a good balance of […]
Out of the Past: Lacan and Film Noir by Ben Tyrer (2016)
There is little doubt today, that film noir research and the spread and development of psychoanalysis have boosted academic Film Studies to a large extent; for a short period in the early 1970s, the psychoanalytical approach to Film Studies even seemed to be the only method that brought results. For film and psychoanalysis had a […]
Film Noir by Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer (eds.) (2016)
Recent publications on film noir tell of the lively interest in the style/genre/cycle. And ever since film noir was subject to definition (and analysis) by French critics, the question of what exactly it is, a style, a genre, a cycle, a movement, has not been answered in total. “Film noir,” as reports Homer B. Pettey, […]
Class, Crime and International Film Noir: Globalizing … by Dennis Broe (2014)
There are many different approaches to the analysis of film noir, since film studies today deal with almost any facet, be it technical, stylistic or director specific. Dennis Broe, however, has the emphasis on the social-cultural and most of all the working-class aspects of these films. He locates the origins of film noir to a […]
Columbia Noir: A Complete Filmography, 1940-1962 by Gene Blottner (2015)
Columbia Pictures, today a part of Sony Pictures Entertainment, has released literally tons of movies. Of those, Gene Blottner lists a selection of altogether 169 pictures, and they are all associated with film noir in one way or another, while they are from the genres of Westerns, science-fiction, drama, detective story, comedy or horror movie. […]
Mitchum, Mexico and the Good Neighbours Era by Liam White (2014)
Luckily, there are a great number of famous noir films, and many good actors that left their mark on the whole genre. Nevertheless, author White approaches those films mainly as plain detective movies and drama, very much the way they were labeled when they came out. In his opinion there are certain features that can […]
The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range 1943-1962 by David Meuel (2015)
By now, there are many excellent books on film noir, even on specific themes, locations, eras and countries. However, at least one major theme (or sub genre) has escaped the authors so far. The noir experience in America’s probably oldest and unique (usually most optimistic in outlook) movie tradition, the western, has not yet been […]
RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956 by Michael R. Pitts (2015)
The American moviegoers of the 1940s and the decades afterwards never really had to worry about a shortage of new films hitting their neighborhood cinemas. There were plenty of movie companies, studios, and distribution organizations. Some movie companies are still in business, while others just disappeared or were sold and sold and sold again, while […]