Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction

[read 2.7.25]
for media research


Not a super artistic/stylistic approach, but pretty handy first look into film noir. didn't realize there was such a variety to the genre. 

sundry notes: 

the first real book about film noir is A Panorama of the American Film Noir: 1941-1953, originally written in French, because the French took the American noir-type films and made it an "official" genre to copy the style of 

> These authors determined five elements of noir

1. oneiric (i.e. relating to dreams or dreaming

2. strange

3. erotic

4. ambivalent 

5. cruel

- also a text mentioned: Paul Schrader wrote "Notes on Film Noir" (1972)...think it was for a magazine or something 

really interesting section of the book p.78-87 "Black & white & color" which talks about the use and development of lighting and color in the noir pictures

> chapter 5 in general has a pretty good overview of the different periods of noir, and the attitude to noir in each of these periods

NOIR MOVIES TO SEE

- The Lady in the Car with the Glasses and a Gun (2015)

- Double Indemnity (1944)

- The Third Man (1949) 

- The Killer Inside Me (2010) 

    based off the work of Jim Thompson who was "initially too disturbing for film" 

    Thompson was hired by Stanley Kubrick as a writer for a time

- Two Faces of January (2014)

    the book thinks this movie best captures the "lucid, fastidious irony" of the original Talented Mr. Ripley book 

- Inherent Vice (2014)

- The Glass Shield (1994) noir film with black lead (Ice Cube)

- Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) noir film with black lead (Denzel Washington)

- The Usual Suspects (1995) REWATCH

- Jerichow (2008) ... German noir 

- Mad Detective (2007) ...Hong Kong noir 

- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ... Swedish version (2009); US version (2011)

- Gone Girl (2014) 

- Girl on the Train (2016)

- Rope (1948) REWATCH

- Rear Window (1954)

- Vertigo (1958)

- Collateral (2004) ...one of "many good films we could call noir that didn't involve pastiche"

other notes: 

- Turner Classic Movies does "Noir Alley" showcase (changing it every year, I assume) 

- wikipedia distinguishes films into "classic noir" and "neo-noir" titles...(the neo-noir films go from 60s to modern day, interesting to look at 

★★★ 

3 stars I guess...but really just a practical book