Driven to Darkness

Author: Vincent Brook
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813548330
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
From its earliest days, the American film industry has attracted European artists. With the rise of Hitler, filmmakers of conscience in Germany and other countries, particularly those of Jewish origin, found it difficult to survive and fledùfor their work and their livesùto the United States. Some had trouble adapting to Hollywood, but many were celebrated for their cinematic contributions, especially to the dark shadows of film noir. Driven to Darkness explores the influence of Jewish TmigrT directors and the development of this genre. While filmmakers such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger, and Edward G. Ulmer have been acknowledged as crucial to the noir canon, the impact of their Jewishness on their work has remained largely unexamined until now. Through lively and original analyses of key films, Vincent Brook penetrates the darkness, shedding new light on this popular film form and the artists who helped create it.

A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir

Author: John Grant
Publisher: Limelight Editions
ISBN: 9781557838315
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 765

Book Description
Offers a reference guide to film noir, extending from relevant films from before the genre was established to contemporary neonoirs and other types of film derived from the genre.

Film Noir Guide

Author: Michael F. Keaney
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786491558
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 552

Book Description
More than 700 films from the classic period of film noir (1940 to 1959) are presented in this exhaustive reference book--such films as The Accused, Among the Living, The Asphalt Jungle, Baby Face Nelson, Bait, The Beat Generation, Crossfire, Dark Passage, I Walk Alone, The Las Vegas Story, The Naked City, Strangers on a Train, White Heat, and The Window. For each film, the following information is provided: the title, release date, main performers, screenwriter(s), director(s), type of noir, thematic content, a rating based on the five-star system, and a plot synopsis that does not reveal the ending.

Dark City

Author: Eddie Muller
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 076249896X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
This revised and expanded edition of Eddie Muller's Dark City is a film noir lover's bible, taking readers on a tour of the urban landscape of the grim and gritty genre in a definitive, highly illustrated volume. Dark Cityexpands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life. Eddie Muller, host of Turner Classic Movies' Noir Alley, takes readers on a spellbinding trip through treacherous terrain: Hollywood in the post-World War II years, where art, politics, scandal, style -- and brilliant craftsmanship -- produced a new approach to moviemaking, and a new type of cultural mythology.

Hollywood's Dark Cinema

Author: R. Barton Palmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
These morbid tales of criminality, fatal attraction, and social failure are now the subject of scholarly writing, international film festivals, and high-ticket Hollywood remakes.

The Philosophy of Film Noir

Author: Mark T. Conard
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813171709
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
A drifter with no name and no past, driven purely by desire, is convinced by a beautiful woman to murder her husband. A hard-drinking detective down on his luck becomes involved with a gang of criminals in pursuit of a priceless artifact. The stories are at once romantic, pessimistic, filled with anxiety and a sense of alienation, and they define the essence of film noir. Noir emerged as a prominent American film genre in the early 1940s, distinguishable by its use of unusual lighting, sinister plots, mysterious characters, and dark themes. From The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), films from this classic period reflect an atmosphere of corruption and social decay that attracted such accomplished directors as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles. The Philosophy of Film Noir is the first volume to focus exclusively on the philosophical underpinnings of these iconic films. Drawing on the work of diverse thinkers, from the French existentialist Albert Camus to the Frankurt school theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, the volume connects film noir to the philosophical questions of a modern, often nihilistic, world. Opening with an examination of what constitutes noir cinema, the book interprets the philosophical elements consistently present in the films—themes such as moral ambiguity, reason versus passion, and pessimism. The contributors to the volume also argue that the essence and elements of noir have fundamentally influenced movies outside of the traditional noir period. Neo-noir films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Fight Club (1999), and Memento (2000) have reintroduced the genre to a contemporary audience. As they assess the concepts present in individual films, the contributors also illuminate and explore the philosophical themes that surface in popular culture. A close examination of one of the most significant artistic movements of the twentieth century, The Philosophy of Film Noir reinvigorates an intellectual discussion at the intersection of popular culture and philosophy.

Film Noir

Author: Paul Duncan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783836543569
Category : Film noir
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
TASCHEN's 100 all-time favorite film noirs and neo-noirs: from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to Drive. With an introduction by film director and Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader, this encyclopedia of private eyes, gangsters, psychopaths and femmes fatales includes original poster reproductions, film analyses, and rare stills galore.

A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953)

Author: Raymond Borde
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN: 9780872864122
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
This first book published on film noir established the genre--a classic, at last in translation.

Film Noir

Author: Michael L. Stephens
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786426287
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Film noir is a uniquely American genre that has stylistic links to the German expressionist cinema of the 1920s and thematic links to the hard-boiled crime fiction that emerged in the 1930s. Generally the milieu is urban and middle class, and the overall feel is one of repression and fatalism. Whether shot in black and white or color, the style reinforces the overall feel. Films, directors, actors, producers, screenwriters, art directors, themes, plot devices and many other elements are contained in this encyclopedic reference work. Each movie entry includes full filmographic data (studio, running time, production and cast credits, and plot synopsis) along with an analysis of its place in the genre. Biographical entries focus on the person's role in noir and provide a complete filmography of their film noir work. Terms are placed in the context of the genre and relevant examples from films are given.

Film Noir

Author: Eddie Robson
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Hollywood showed its dark side in the 1940s and 50s with a wave of highly stylized movies featuring sinister plots, shady characters, sexual tension, chaos and confusion. These films have fascinated critics, students, moviegoers, and moviemakers ever since. Classics including THE MALTESE FALCON, THE BIG SLEEP, and THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE are analysed, with iconic actors, such as Robert Mitchum and legendary directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles profiled.