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Film Noir Reader series #3
Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period
(Limelight). 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 ).
- GenresFilmNonfiction
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Alain Silver
56 books29 followersAlain 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.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 24, 2012
The Film Noir Reader 3is really excellent, highly recommended. This volume comprises interviews with the film-makers who made the classic noir movies.
The editors take a swipe at the auteur theory by including interviews with writers, producers, cinematographers and actresses as well as directors, emphasising the very important point that film noir was generally not the product of lone visionaries or individual geniuses. The great noir films were all collaborative efforts. They were very much a product of the studio system, and that system’s genius for nurturing talent and bringing together the right talents. That film noir exists as a distinctive type of movie is largely due to the studio system - the fact that studios developed a house style and that house style was, in the case of Warner Brothers and RKO in particular, peculiarly conducive to the noir feel.
Interestingly most of the directors also have little use for the auteur theory and most of them are very generous in acknowledging the contributions of others, especially the contributions of great cinematographers like John Alton, Nick Musuraca and James Wong Howe (who is one of the people interviewed in the book).
And many of the directors, even in retrospect, have little use for the idea of film noir. Otto Preminger (whose interview is the most interesting of all) is very dubious about film noir and is even very dubious about the idea of directors having an individual style. He, and several of the other directors, emphasise the point that the style of a movie is dictated more by the material than by a director’s individual style.
That’s what I find most interesting about this book - the lack of interest that the film-makers of that era had in any of the theories that film academics love so much.
All in all a fascinating read.
The editors take a swipe at the auteur theory by including interviews with writers, producers, cinematographers and actresses as well as directors, emphasising the very important point that film noir was generally not the product of lone visionaries or individual geniuses. The great noir films were all collaborative efforts. They were very much a product of the studio system, and that system’s genius for nurturing talent and bringing together the right talents. That film noir exists as a distinctive type of movie is largely due to the studio system - the fact that studios developed a house style and that house style was, in the case of Warner Brothers and RKO in particular, peculiarly conducive to the noir feel.
Interestingly most of the directors also have little use for the auteur theory and most of them are very generous in acknowledging the contributions of others, especially the contributions of great cinematographers like John Alton, Nick Musuraca and James Wong Howe (who is one of the people interviewed in the book).
And many of the directors, even in retrospect, have little use for the idea of film noir. Otto Preminger (whose interview is the most interesting of all) is very dubious about film noir and is even very dubious about the idea of directors having an individual style. He, and several of the other directors, emphasise the point that the style of a movie is dictated more by the material than by a director’s individual style.
That’s what I find most interesting about this book - the lack of interest that the film-makers of that era had in any of the theories that film academics love so much.
All in all a fascinating read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review