Film Noir A Critical Introduction

by Brookes, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781780933139
• ISBN10: 1780933134
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781780933177
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-03-09
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Ian Brookes asks: 'What is film noir?' With this sharply focused question active throughout the book, students will benefit from an introductory text designed to provide a sophisticated treatment of the problems inherent in the category. This is the first critical introduction to film noir which takes into account the complexity of the term and the difficulties of straightforward definition and classification.

Film noir may seem a familiar genre to many, with its use of a complex narrative structure, flashbacks and voiceover narration, and with such archetypal characterisations as the femme fatale and private eye. But this introduction is not just an account of what film noir is, but also an interrogation of the ways in which the term came to be applied to a particular group of American films of the 1940s and 1950s.

Author Biography

Ian Brookes is a lecturer in film & television studies in the department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham, UK. He regularly teaches modules on film noir. His research interests include Hollywood in the studio era, America in World War II, music and race on screen, and adaptation studies. His work has appeared in The Journal of Popular Film & Television and Adaptation. He is currently working on a study of the returning American veteran in World War II and an edited collection on Howard Hawks.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part 1: What is Film Noir?
1. Genre and the Problem of Film Noir
2. Visual Style and Narrative Themes
3. Genre and Gender

Part 2: The History of Film Noir
4. Emergence: pre-history and the wartime period, 1939-1945
5. The postwar period, 1945-1950
6. The late period, 1950-1958

Part 3: Case Study: The Veteran Problem and Postwar Film Noir
7. The Discourse of Veteran Readjustment
8. Film Noir, the Veteran and the Readjustment Narrative
9. Conformity, Community and Citizenship

Notes
Bibliography
Index