Film Noir Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes

Film Noir Reader series #4

by Alain Silver

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.

Genres: Film

338 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Alain Silver has co-written and co-edited a score of books including The Samurai Film, The Noir Style, The Vampire Film, Raymond Chandlers Los Angeles, director studies of David Lean and Robert Aldrich, and four Film Noir Readers. His articles have appeared in numerous film journals, newspapers, and online magazines. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and is a member of the Writers Guild of America west and the Directors Guild of America.

Reviews

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection contains some very fresh perspectives. I especially liked a few particular essays. One was 'Voices from the Deep: Film Noir as Psychodrama' by JP Telotte which focuses on a number of noir films (Nightmare, Lady in the Lake, Sunset Boulevard and Kiss Me Deadly) as narratives probing trauma. I also enjoyed 'Manufacturing Heroines: Gothic Victims and Working Women in Classic Noir Films' by Sheri Chinen Biesen, which considers alternative female characters in noir to the traditional femme fatale. She highlights the Gothic heroine (Suspicion), the respectable working girl (Stranger on the Third Floor), the dream girl fantasy (Laura), the career woman (Mildred Pierce), and the melodrama victim (Gilda).

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one touches on some of my favorites, so the topic choices are excellent (Gun Crazy, Detour, Kiss Me Deadly, etc), but papers stay on the relatively safe side, no one makes any outrageous claims or wild accusations that they then proceed to back up using only the lighting schematic as evidence..stuff like that.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few of the articles in this collection will be of interest largely to academics.