Book Description
The earlier Film Noir Readers, which now boast a combined sale of well over 30,000 copies, have all quite deliberately conveyed a sweeping overview of the classic period, demonstrating how broad and inclusive noir movies are. Film Noir Reader 4 moves in a different direction. Its purpose is to identify the key films and motifs of noir and to analyze in depth the prototypical pictures that, while vivid examples of certain cinematic themes, bend and break their molds to find new ways to enthrall and frighten us. Like its predecessors, Film Noir Reader 4 is generously illustrated and features essays by such respected film critics and scholars as Robin Wood, J.P. Telotte, R. Barton Palmer, and Robert Porfirio. All have as their purpose to explain why and how these classic films work; the way screenplay, direction, acting, cinematography, editing and all the other filmmaking crafts blended together to produce work that exemplifies both a particular movement in film history and the innovations that keep the noir style fresh and compelling.
Customer Reviews:
Empty Streets and Shadowy Lighting.......2006-11-06
All in all, this is a worthy collection of two dozen or so essays on empty streets, shadowy lighting, calculating women, and doomed men, otherwise known as film noir. Why these cinematic downers keep commanding the scholarly attention they get is itself a matter of curious conjecture. But they do, and there must be a readership as this fourth entry in the publishing cycle demonstrates. I was prepared to pass this one up, figuring everything that needs saying has been said. But then I'm as hooked on the Walter Neffs and Kathie Moffetts of the world as the contributors are; so here I am, 20 bucks or so poorer, but reasonably happy with the deal.
Sure, in the eyes of the beholder some essays are bound to be of lesser interest or quality than others. I myself wonder about the future of the project when it includes such diminishing returns as an essay on the trivia of title sequences, or the `noir-izing' of a technicolor western like Rancho Notorious. However, unlike reviewer Mira, I don't fault the authors for standard high-brow terminology like "capitalist patriarchy" or `misogyny"-- though I do fault the editors (not the authors) for failing to footnote such real esoterica as "diagetic" and "syntagmatic". Come on, Mira, no one picks up the fourth installment of a series like this expecting the prose level of Photoplay. Then too, Mira, just which contributors are guilty of "absurd ideological readings". You need to specify. Worse-- why are these readings "absurd'? That's a pretty strong charge, and you've got a thousand words to back it up. Otherwise, it looks like an ungrounded cheap shot, and who knows, maybe you can convince me in the process.
As two of those presumably ideological essays stand, Hodges's and Humphrey's, respectively, they make a lot of sense to me. Hodges shows how war-time noir differs from post-war noir and how these changes reflect larger national happenings, while Humphries argues that post-war noir eventually fell victim to Cold War needs and what he calls the "liberal consensus". Humphries, in particular, makes provocative and well-reasoned points for anyone with interests beyond what's there on the movie screen. And as far as that goes, I would surmise both writers, with the concerns they have, lean toward the political left ( which I suspect is what really bothers reviewer Mira). But then, the dark side of noir has long attracted those suspicious of a social order where wealth stands as the ordering principle and people lacking that are left to dangle. Anyhow, #4 stands in my book as a worthy addition to the series, and I'll likely fork over another 20 or so if there's a #5.
Some Solid History & Some Silly Dogmatizing........2005-04-05
As Alain Silver explains in the book's Introduction, "Film Noir Reader 4" is different in purpose from the previous Film Noir Readers. It focuses on key films and key themes, rather than attempting to be inclusive or comprehensive. In that spirit, Silver has included a few lists of the most important film noirs according to himself and others in the Introduction. "Film Noir Reader 4" contains 23 mostly modern essays, many apparently not previously published, presented in two parts. The paper the book is printed on is pure white, instead of the off-white of previous volumes, so the black-and-white stills look better.
Part I, "Case Studies", includes 12 essays on key films. The films discussed are: "Double Indemnity", "Detour", "The Big Sleep", "Out of the Past", "The Unsuspected", "Gun Crazy", "D.O.A", "The Big Night", "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Big Heat", "The Big Combo", and "Touch of Evil". Glenn Erickson's enthusiastic and insightful essay "Fate Seeks the Loser: Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour" is particularly interesting. The same can be said for Kevin Hagopian's study of "The Big Sleep" and Stephen B. Armstrong's history of "Touch of Evil". Both films were radically altered by recuts, with the result of making them nonsensical. These carefully researched essays explain what was changed and why.
Part II focuses on "Noir Themes", although I don't think that most of these can reasonably be called "key" themes. Eleven essays discuss a variety of themes that can be found or projected upon classic noir films, including psychodrama, images of women, noir antecedents, horror-noir, war noirs, left-wing politics in noir and crime films, hybrid noir-westerns, and noir title sequences. In other words, Part II is a catch-all. "Cat People", "Rancho Notorious" (in comparison to "The Big Heat"), and "Double Indemnity" are discussed in the most depth.
I'm giving "Film Noir Reader 4" a lower rating than I gave the previous Film Noir Readers, because it is overwhelmed by the sort of absurd ideological readings that I haven't heard this much of since I studied film in college. The reader can't get far without running into dogmatic -and, I might add, eternally ill-defined- terminology like "patriarchal capitalism" and "misogyny". For grown persons to legitimize their socio-economic hang-ups by deliberately misrepresenting 60-year-old movies is pitiful. I am reminded of the reason director Fritz Lang left Germany: The Nazi Party liked his films so much that they offered Lang the opportunity to run the German film industry. His films were anti-fascist. Anyway, there are some good, informative, essays in "Film Noir Reader 4", and it's useful to present different interpretations. But these aren't so different, and I get the impression of scraping the bottom of the barrel.
The Persistence of Film Noir Style.......2005-02-06
This is the fourth reader in a series previously reviewed by me...I never thought the editors could find another 23 articles on "film noir," but they have successfully put together a new book organized in two parts: Case Studies and Noir Themes.
The "Case Studies" section deals with essential film noirs like DOUBLE INDEMNITY, DETOUR, THE UNSUSPECTED & TOUCH OF EVIL. The articles are written by well-respected "noir" critics; but the second section on Noir Themes is far more fascinating, especially the article by Nicolas Saada, "Noir Style in Hollywood."
There are two major errors in the text: (1) in a photo from ASPHALT JUNGLE, it is Marc Lawrence as Cobby in the background, not Anthony Caruso and in OX-BOW INCIDENT, it is Henry Morgan, not Frank who plays Art.
Otherwise, I would certainly include this book in a list of related readings in any noir course that I teach. I have taught NOIR STYLE at Columbia University and CUNY, using my own book, NOIR, NOW & THEN (Greenwood Press, 2001) as the main text and have used all the FILM NOIR READERS in my courses.
I would like to dedicated this review to Charles P. Mitchell who passed away suddenly this past January at the age of 55. He was an excellent noir scholar with a critical acumen and sense of humor that will be missed. His wife still runs their DARKER IMAGES VIDEO business in Millinocket, Maine, tracking down VHS & DVD recordings of the most elusive of noir films.
Ronald Schwartz at noir1937@aol.com
Customer Reviews:
Dense, Highly Academic Collection of Film Noir Theory with a Few Gems........2006-06-26
"Shades of Noir" is a collection of 10 highly academic essays on the nature of film noir, its origins, and its relevance to the culture at large, first published in 1993. The contributors are mostly academics from universities in the U.S. and Europe. In her introduction, editor Joan Copjec explains that the essays contribute different perspectives, not agreement, on what constitutes film noir. "What unites all the essays...is a strong sense of importance of the genre and of the necessity of retheorizing it." First, due to the "re-emergence of film noir in recent years". Secondly, on account of "the uneasy sense that we never adequately defined it in the first place".
Anyone who has taken a college film course will recognize the heavily Laconian and Marxist themes that run through this collection of essays as typical of film theory. You can either stomach it or you can't. The socio-economic and structuralist theorizing places these essays more in the realm of "cultural studies" than film history. The essays are extremely dense, as the intended audience is fellow academics, not the casual film noir fan. Nevertheless, they contain some interesting insights and new perspectives that are not entirely fantastical if the reader is willing to wade through it. I have to say, though, that this volume unconsciously elucidates the problem of defining film noir. Film noir has never been difficult to define. It has simply always been advantageous for academics not to define it -or to define it in whatever way suits their projects of the moment. So I guess they have left the job to us amateurs, who will make quick work of it. ;-)
The essays are as follows:
(1) "Film Noir on the Edge of Doom" by Marc Vernet. Vernet speculates about the motives of French theorists who "invented" film noir, as he denies that the film noir movement or style ever existed. This is the essay that Alain Silver fired a torrent of criticism at Vernet for in the introduction to his book "Film Noir Reader". Vernet displays an remarkable ignorance of cinematography, hard-boiled crime fiction, American film criticism, and cinema before 1940. (2) "The Synaptic Chandler" by Fredric Jameson. Analysis of the "peculiar nature of Chandler's plot construction", i.e. illogic, the "radio aesthetic" of film noir, and a Heideggerian perspective on the noir world.
(3) "Strange Pursuit: Cornell Woolrich and the Abandoned City of the Forties" by David Reid and Jane L. Walker. Primarily discusses how Woolrich's depression-era sensibility was particularly suitable to film noir and why it found an audience in the post-War 1940s. Very worthwhile for debunking the persistent claims that audiences were drawn to film noir due to "post-war depression" or disillusionment and that the femme fatale was the result of threats to masculine culture posed by women in the workplace. Compares hard-boiled fiction to the crime and adventure novels of the 1830s-1840s.
(4) "The Mystery of The Blue Gardenia" by Janet Bergstrom. Presents the production history of Fritz Lang's film, analysis, and comparison to Vera Caspary's story. I never thought "The Blue Gardenia" had much substance or that it was film noir. I still don't, but the particulars of its adaptation to film are interesting. (5) "Film Noir and Women" by Elizabeth Cowie. Attempt to "change the characterization of film noir as always a masculine film form". The roles of "duplicitous women", female protagonists, and victims. Analysis of several films, in particular Fritz Lang's "Secret Beyond the Door".
(6) "The Phenomenal Nonphenomenal: Private Space in Film Noir" by Joan Copjec. Starts with observation that the origin of detective fiction coincides with mid-19th century "passion for counting". The role of reason in film noir, particularly as exemplified in voice-over narration. Focus on "Double Indemnity". (7) "The Thing That Thinks: The Kantian Background of the Noir Subject" by Slavoj Zizek. Compares classic film noir to films of the 1980s that combine noir with other genres. Focus on "radical undermining of self-identity" in 1987's "Angel Heart" and 1982's "Blade Runner".
(8) "Home Fires Burning" by Fred Pfeil. The "domestication of film noir" in the neo-noir of the 1980s, focusing on the small-town domestic space of the art house "Blue Velvet" and the cyborg-as-father in the blockbuster "Terminator 2". Attributes this emphasis on nuclear family to "Reaganism". (9) "Noir by Noirs: Toward a New Realism in Black Cinema" by Manthia Diawara. Race and class in black film noir, focusing on "A Rage in Harlem". (10) "Democracy's Turn: On Homeless Noir" by Dan MacCannell. Diatribe on film noir's alleged "confrontation between capitalism and democracy". The disappearances of the "actual spaces" of film noir as seedy neighborhoods were gentrified.
Book Description
In the 1930s the gangster film in the United States coincided with a very real and very sensational gangsterism at large in American society. Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932) borrowed liberally from the newspapers and books of the era. With the release of just these three motion pictures in barely more than a year's time, Hollywood quintessentially defined the genre. The characters, the situations, and the icons-from fast cars and tommy-guns to fancy fedoras and fancier molls-established the audience expectations associated with the gangster film that remain in force to this day. As with their Film Noir Reader series, using both reprints of seminal articles and new pieces, editors Silver and Ursini have assembled a group of essays that presents an exhaustive overview of this still vital genre. Reprints of work by such well-known film historians as Robin Wood, Andrew Sarris, Carlos Clarens, Paul Schrader, and Stuart Kaminsky explore the evolution of the gangster film through the 1970s and The Godfather. Parts 2 and 3 comprise two dozen newer articles, most of them written expressly for this volume by Ursini and Silver. These case studies and thematic analyses, from White Heat to the remake of Scarface to "The Sopranos," complete the anthology.
Customer Reviews:
Film libraries will consider it a 'must'.......2007-06-17
The rise of the popular gangster film genre began in the early 1930s to reflect the real history and rise of gangsterism in American society, producing early classics which would be released back to back, were modeled on newspaper and real-life situations, and which would bring gangsterism to the public eye by defining and surveying notorious personalities and groups. GANGSTER FILM READER reviews the genre through reprints of key articles, new essays and critical analysis produced for this collection, and over 200 original photos. Film libraries will consider it a 'must', while many a college-level library on social issues will also find the topic relevant to 20th century American history discussions.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
wonderful.......2007-03-09
This book was so informative and very easy to read! As a movie lover, this book was absolutely amazing in the stories that it told! It's a must read for any gangster movie fan!
Book Description
Departing from the approach of its Film Noir Reader predecessors, this third volume in the series assembles a collection of interviews with film noir directors and a cinematographer, few of whom are alive today. Interviewees include Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard), Otto Preminger (Laura), Joseph Lewis (Gun Crazy and The Big Combo), Curtis Bernhardt (Possessed and A Stolen Life), Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet and Crossfire), and Fritz Lang (Scarlet Street and The Woman in the Window)
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable, Informative Interviews w/ Classic Noir Filmmakers.......2005-03-31
This third book in the "Film Noir Reader" series contains 18 interviews with filmmakers of the classic film noir period. Most of the interviews were conducted 1975-1977 by Robert Porfirio for his doctoral dissertation while he was an assistant professor at California State University at Fullerton. Alain Silver and James Ursini also contribute interviews, conducted at various dates. In his Introduction, Mr. Porfirio explains his view of classic film noir as a movement in 4 phases, created primarily out of German Expressionism and the American hard-boiled literary tradition. There is a biographical description and a list of "films in the noir style" at the conclusion of each interview.
Part I contains 8 interviews with directors, who talk about their films' intent, themes, style and how they came to be made. The Hollywood Blacklist is another common topic of conversation. Some directors (as well as some other contributors) doubt the existence of a "film noir style", while others are amenable to the concept. The directors interviewed are: Andre de Toth, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Fuller, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, and Robert Wise.
Part II, "Interviews with Other Filmmakers", contains 7 interviews with cinematographers James Wong Howe and John F. Seitz, actresses Lizabeth Scott and Claire Trevor, screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring, composer Miklos Rozsa, and producer Dore Schary. This must have been before Ms. Scott became reclusive. It's nice to read her perceptive comments. Part III includes short "Commentaries" by 3 directors, which were taken from written and spoken interviews but are not in interview format. The directors are: Curtis Bernhardt, Budd Boetticher, and Daniel Fuchs.
It's interesting to compare the perceptions of the people who made classic film noir to those of critics and theorists decades after the fact. I think the interviews tend to support my view that film noir came about due to a confluence of various technological, economic, and legal factors. But the fun is in judging for yourself. "Film Noir Reader 3" is an enjoyable and informative reference for film noir fans and scholars.
Notes.......2003-05-03
Just a couple of points to add to Dr. Schwartz's excellent review of all three Film Noir entries. The price of this reader is hefty. Considering what you get in return, only confirmed enthusiasts should pony up that amount. A big point in the book's favor: an interview with screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring, aka Geoffrey Homes, (Out of the Past, Invasion of Body Snatchers,et.al.), a major influence on the genre, and the only interview with this neglected figure that I know of. Lastly, it's remarkable how many of these artists were unaware of contributing to a distinct body of work we now call film noir. Perhaps the zeitgeist of the time wore a trenchcoat; certainly something generic was afoot.
Spiraling Down the Noir Trail.......2002-04-15
If you are a "noir addict," as I am, you are indeed fortunate to have read the original FILM NOIR READER, its sequel, FILM NOIR READER 2 and the last one in the series...FILM NOIR READER 3.
The first one was the most interesting of the group, containing the most seminal essays on the noir style by Durgnat, Higham, Porfirio and Schrader and even a translation from Borde & Chaumenton's French framing of the "noir mystique." Also, several noir films were considered in a "case study" section, among them KISS ME DEADLY, NIGHT & THE CITY, ANGEL FACE and the post-noir LONG GOODBYE. The last section of Volume One dealt with "Noir, Then and Now" with several interesting articles on noir's legacy and the new noir. It was a sensational critical work after Silver & Ward's trend-setting volume FILM NOIR, now in its third edition from Overlook Press.
FILM NOIR 2, in the Limelight series carries on the tradition of including seminal essays on noir by Nino Frank, the film critic who actually named the style, Jean-Pierre Chartier and Claude Chabrol, among other worthy and perceptive American
critics such as Tom Flinn and Stephen Farber. Reverting to the case history approach, Robert Porfirio, Robin Wood, Silver and Ward, among others scrutinize critically the films of Hitchcock,
the femme fatales of PUSHOVER (Kim Novak) & THELMA JORDON (Barbara Stanwyck)among other themes as "jazz & noir," "tabloid cinema" and "neo-noir fugitives," all wonderful essays written with style and critical acumen. Part 3 of this volume seems to suggest this would be the last in the series, discussing the "evolution" of noir, especially essays on the "new noir," and especially Kent Minturn's excellent article on "abstract expressionism and film noir, demonstrating the effects of Jackson Pollack's paintings on the noir style.
FILM NOIR READER 3 must be the absolute last in the series because it focus is on mainly interviews with filmmakers of the classic noir period. Divided into 3 sections, it deals with 8 directors such as Andre de Toth, Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Wise among others, filmmakers such as photographers James Wong Howe and John F. Seitz, actors such as Claire Trevor and Lizabeth Scott, composers such as Miklos Rozsa and finally a series of commentaries about noir by Curtis Bernhardt, Budd Boetticher and Daniel Fuchs.
Of the director section, all were fairly interesting interviews by Alain Silver or Robert Porfirio with the exception of Otto Preminger who seemed to defy the questions put to him and did not care to be labelled a "noir" director. Of the actors, I enjoyed Claire Trevor's appraisal of her roles and Lizabeth Scott's method of transforming herself psychologically into a "femme fatale." But the commentaries section of this interview book really runs out of steam with Daniel Fuchs' perception of Jews, Gentiles and Communists in Hollywood as well as the take of his own words on THE GANGSTER with Barry Sullivan.
He even complains as he writes answers to Porfirio's questions, while admiring the critic, he feels "it pains him his own prose is so lousy."
While this third volume is chock full of wonderful stills
from classic films of the period, sometimes the stills have absolutely nothing to do with the text...worse, there are serious flaws in editing that mar the book...on p. 60 Anne Bancroft is referred to in THE BLUE GARDENIA while on the next page it is Anne BAXTER, the real star of the film is seen in a still with Ann Sothern; the still facing p. 135 identifies Ray Teal as the actor in the foreground with Orson Welles on the stairs in CITIZEN KANE while it is actually RUSSELL COLLINS and more blatantly, in the still on p.141 from BODY AND SOUL, how can any one mistake B-actress HAZEL BROOKS seen here with John Garfield for the beautiful and classy Lili Palmer identified in the caption.
Finally, I believe FILM NOIR READER 3 is a worthy entry in the series for its preservation of information and stills about noir although the interviewers seemed to have scraped rock bottom to put this volume together. Perhaps they should turn their attentions to the new noir. However, I must commend the publisher, Limelight, for continuing the series and bringing about an affordable paperback with such gorgeous stills that are alone worth the ... price. And some of the interviews are really excellent--the ones with Billy Wilder, Miklos Rozsa and James Wong Howe among others. But it is difficult to take such diverse views on noir and give them a unique, systematic frame of reference because of the very complexity in the material and the divergent views among the authors. I simply cannot imagine how far down "the noir trail" we can go without stumbling in the future. Volumes 1 and 2 are certainly superior to this last one, but Vol. 3 gives me a sense of closure regarding the material, but not the "noir style." For as long as there are men deceived by women for cash or sex, noir will go on forever.
Book Description
This bountiful anthology combines all the key early writings on film noir with many newer essays, including some published here for the first time. The collection is assembled by the editors of the Third Edition of Film Noir: An Enclyclopedic Reference to the American Style, now regarded as the standard work on the subject.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for film students, but less so for general viewers.......2006-05-14
Silver and Ursini's 1996 anthology has quickly become an essential tome for students of film noir everywhere, and with very good reason. Divided into three parts - "Seminal Essays", "Case Studies" and "Noir Then and Now" - it offers a comprehensive selection of essays defining the genre in general and exploring specific instances and variations over the last 70-odd years. Even without the other volumes, this is pretty much all a college-level film student could need or desire for building a solid understanding of the genre and appreciating the central debates it's aroused. General viewers/readers, however, can probably do without the specialist jargon, arcane hair-splitting, and density of argumentation that ultimately consume any academic discipline, and the personal attacks: a large part of Silver's introduction is, astonishingly, dedicated to poleaxing other writers - quite pointedly, Marc Vernet, in whose misspelling of Silver's name Silver reads a dark tendency towards pre-judgment and other fatal flaws in Vernet's critical apparatus, such as a solipsistic arrogance that can presume to correct anomalies it does not understand. Whatever, Alan. Sorry - Alain. If you're writing your own academic essays, or enjoy probing the neuroses of disgruntled academics, then that kind of thing might be useful to you. But general readers will be much better served by one of the dozens of non-academic survey volumes, such as those by Barry Gifford (God forgive me, Alain, I know you hate him so), or, if they're feeling more adventurous, Nicholas Christopher's "Somewhere in the Night" which gives a fluent and accessible exploration of film noir by using the American city as a way into it.
Dull as gravel book........2006-03-21
How to take a facinating subject and make it seem deadly dull. I suggest that you movies online, get 'em and watch 'em. If you like faux academia, then this is the text book you will want.
Film Noir Reader.......2005-09-21
I give this book two stars instead of one because it fills a gap in my film noir book collection, but I have to say it has dated badly. I bought because I loved Alain Silver's book Noir Style, which is a collection of black-and-white stills from film noir classics, with marvelous commentary. But the Film Noir Reader opens with a collection of essays from the 1970s that display everything bad about the 70s, academic, pretentious, pompous, over-anxious to establish a high-brow status for a low-brow art form (at least it was then). In the 2nd and 3rd sections, the "up-to-date" essays, we get, for instance, an analysis of the TV show Miami Vice in terms of its film noir elements... Miami Vice???
Collection of Film Noir Essays, Including Some Essentials.......2005-03-23
I'm including reviews of both "Film Noir Reader" and "Film Noir Reader 2" in the same review until Amazon gets the two books unlinked.
FILM NOIR READER (1)
"Film Noir Reader" is a collection of 22 essays about film noir, written between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s by a diverse group of film theorists, including a few essays by the editors themselves, Alain Silver and James Ursini. Some of the essays are illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Mr. Silver takes the opportunity of the book's Introduction to deliver a scathing rebuttal of French critic Marc Vernet's views before commenting on the book's content.
"Film Noir Reader" has three parts: Part I is "Seminal Essays", which include 8 essays written 1955-1979. An excerpt from Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton's seminal 1955 book "A Panorama of American Film Noir" is included, as well as Paul Schrader's essential 1972 essay "Notes on Film Noir". Other essays discuss film noir's visual style, existential motifs, and there is a very interesting essay by Paul Kerr on the circumstances that caused B movies, including B-noirs, to flourish in the 1940s. Part II, "Case Studies", includes 8 essays about specific films and directors, all but one addressing films of the classic noir period. Essays are dedicated to directors John Farrow and Anthony Mann, while others discuss the films "Phantom Lady", "Angel Face", "The Killers", "Night and the City", "Kiss Me Deadly", "Hickey and Boggs", and "The Long Goodbye". Part III, "Noir Then and Now", includes 6 articles that seemed not to fit into Part I or Part II, including a few about neo-noir films. Karen Hollinger discusses the effects of first-person male voiceovers on the images of female characters in classic film noir. Others essays explore films that feature fugitive couples, noir television series, neo-B noirs, and Jeremy G. Butler writes about "Miami Vice".
The date of first publication is clearly stated for all essays in Part I, but I found myself wondering when some of the other essays had been written. Publication information, including dates, are provided for each essay at the end of the book's Acknowledgments. There are some interesting and essential essays in "Film Noir Reader", and some less so, but the book provides a nice collection of opinions and observations on the style that are great food for thought for noir fans and scholars.
FILM NOIR READER 2
"Film Noir Reader 2" is a collection of 24 essays, written 1945-1999, that attempt to define the film noir sensibility and explore particular films and facets of the style in depth. This book shares the same format with the first "Film Noir Reader": Essays are arranged in 3 parts. Part I contains "More Seminal Essays" that augment the defining material in "Film Noir Reader". There are 8 essays, written 1945-1988, including a surprising article written by Lloyd Shearer for "The New York Times" in 1945. A year before French film critics identified and began to discuss the film noir style, Shearer plainly recognized a distinct trend in Hollywood toward "lusty, hard-boiled, gut-and-gore crime stories, all fashioned on a theme with a combination of plausibly motivated murder and studded with high-powered Freudian implication." Pretty neat definition only 4 years into the noir movement. And Shearer goes on to ask "why at this time are so many pictures of the same type being made?" Funny that his article should be reproduced in a book that is still trying to answer that question 60 years later. Shearer's article is followed by French critic Nino Frank's 1946 essay in which the term "noir" was first applied to film. For all the talk of film noir having been created in the minds of critics after the fact, it's apparent that these writers comprehended the existence of film noir style as it was being created.
Part II is dedicated to "Case Studies". It includes 8 essays that discuss "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946 & 1981 versions), "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Big Heat", "The File on Thelma Jordan", "Pushover", the neo-noirs "Mississippi Mermaid" and "Badlands", as well as the films of directors Alfred Hitchcock and Samuel Fuller. There is also an essay by Francis M. Nevins on films adapted from the works of Cornell Woolrich and an essay by Robert G. Porfino on jazz music in film noir. Part III, "The Evolution of Noir", is an eclectic assortment of 8 essays. Topics include: noir science fiction, British film noir, abstract expressionism in film noir, female protagonists in neo-noir, and tabloid/crime photographer WeeGee's (Arthur Fellig) relationship to film noir, including discussion of the 1992 film "Public Eye" that was inspired by his career. Film professor Philip Gaines provides an outline of his film noir course, with recommended films and suggested reading. I'd like to mention, in response to Linda Brookover's essay on WeeGee, that although WeeGee's talent for self-promotion was equal to his gift for photojournalism, his photographs were not unique. The work of many excellent and tireless crime photographers adorned the pages of daily newspapers in the 1920s-1950s. Some of them can be seen in the "New York Noir" gallery of the "New York Daily News" archive at www.dailynewspix.com . Tabloid photography is usually overlooked as an influence on film noir, so I'm glad that Ms. Brookover has addressed that oversight, even if I don't entirely agree with her assessment.
Lightning Strikes Twice.......2002-12-08
Film Noir Reader 2 is as interesting as its forerunner. Not every article is great, but there is a lot of interest here.
The book opens with film writings from the Forties that show that while Americans did not coin the term film noir, some writers did notice a trend developing.
There are interesting articles on Cornell Woolrich, Sam Fuller and noir and painting. The article on British Film Noir is quite fascinating.
At the end of the book is a piece by a professor who discusses how he teaches a course on film noir. So this book traces film noir from a barely discerned trend to an academic course of study. Neat.
Books:
- Finding Love After 50: How to Begin. Where to Go. What to Do
- Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual
- For Women Only: What You Need to Know about the Inner Lives of Men
- Four Plays by Aristophanes: The Birds; The Clouds; The Frogs; Lysistrata (Meridian Classics)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Strategy Guide for PC
- Halliwell's Film Video and DVD Guide 2006 (Halliwell's Film & Video Guide)
- Handbook of Home Health Care Administration
- Handwriting Analysis
- Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible", Expanded edition
- Heartfelt Thank Yous: Perfect Ways for Brides to Say Thank You (Clark, Beverly)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Great Soccer Drills : The Baffled Parent's Guide
- CCSP SNPA Official Exam Certification Guide
- Tourmaline: A Novel
- We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance
- Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision of a Native Filmmaker
- Bayesian Artificial Intelligence
- Brown Dog of the Yaak : Essays on Art and Activism
- Directory of U.S. Labor Organizations, 2004
- Twenty Ways to Be More Creative in Your Job
- Living Within Your Means
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period (Film Noir Reader)
Film Noir Reader
More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts
Film Noir
Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir
