1940 to 1950 was the heyday of Film Noir, that elusive mixture of stark film lighting and even starker emotions. Many films of that period explored the dark side of society - gangsters, hoodlums, prostitutes and killers - and showed how it corrupted the good and the beautiful. Even worse, sometimes the so called good and the beautiful revealed themselves to be even sicker than the dregs of society.
As someone who likes to dabble in film studies and is looking for some guidance into watching films with a more critical eye, this is an excellent, little introduction into Film Noir. The author gives a brief history (we are talking about only a handful of pages) of film noir and follows up by summarizing and analizing seven films that help define the genre. None of this is meant to be comprehensive, but it does serve to give the reader a good feel for the entire film genre. Perhaps the best feature of the book is a 40+ page, annotated listing of Film Noir films--a great feature for any one wanting to watch more Film Noir but not knowing which titles to start with.My only complaint is that the writing is often fragmented and not always thoroughly worked through. It seems to me that there could have been some more editorial guidance in creating the final product.
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