From Book News, Inc.
An anthology of 22 seminal and contemporary essays on the art of noir in film, drawing together definitive studies and ruminations on the philosophy and techniques that made movies like The Maltese Falcon classics. The essays include the first English translation of "Towards a Definition of Film Noir," by Borde and Chaumeton, and Paul Shrader's "Notes on Film Noir." Other critical discussions examine narrative structure, lighting, the evolution of the femme fatale, and the neo-noir rebirth of the genre in films like <R;eservoir Dogs and Gun Crazy. Lots and lots of black and white (of course) photographs make this a film buff's dream collection. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


Book Description
This bountiful anthology combines all the key early writings on film noir with many newer essays, including some published here for the first time. The collection is assembled by the editors of the Third Edition of Film Noir: An Enclyclopedic Reference to the American Style, now regarded as the standard work on the subject.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Many of the same compliments can be paid to this collection of pieces on the film noir approach to hard-boiled fiction. Writer-director Paul Scharader writes a dazzling -- if somewhat debatable -- piece on the themes of noir cinema over the years, and the estimable Raymond Durgnat contributes an overview of noir that is stunning in its scope and lucidity. There are also fine essays on such noir icons as Anthony Mann, Cornell Woolrich, and Raymond Chandler, and what is now being called "neo noir," notably Quentin Tarantino. Alain Silver is a formidable scholar and vital writer. Even by his high standards, this is an excellent and engaging book.

—Ed Gorman

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Heavily illustrated with close to 150 stills, this second collection in the series is organized much like the earlier volume. It begins with "More Seminal Essays," including a New York Times attack on crime pictures, written more than half a century ago, before the French had even given the genre its name. Part Two puts the noir phenomenon in closer focus through "Case Studies" of specific films. Robert G. Porfirio here compares the 1946 and 1981 versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice, editor Alain Silver explores "Hitchcock's Noir Landscape," and Francis M. Nevins traces the transformations of Cornell Woolrich's fiction into such movie classics as Rear Window and Phantom Lady. The book's final section, "The Evolution of Noir," reviews the development of the genre within and after the classic period and explores contemporary Neo-Noir.

FROM THE CRITICS

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