A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir

A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir
Author: John Grant
Publisher: Limelight Editions
Total Pages: 765
Release: 2013
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781557838315

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

Film Noir
Author: Eddie Robson
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2005
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

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.

Historical Dictionary of Film Noir

Historical Dictionary of Film Noir
Author: Andrew Spicer
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2010-03-19
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0810873788

Film noir_literally 'black cinema'_is the label customarily given to a group of black and white American films, mostly crime thrillers, made between 1940 and 1959. Today there is considerable dispute about what are the shared features that classify a noir film, and therefore which films should be included in this category. These problems are partly caused because film noir is a retrospective label that was not used in the 1940s or 1950s by the film industry as a production category and therefore its existence and features cannot be established through reference to trade documents. The Historical Dictionary of Film Noir is a comprehensive guide that ranges from 1940 to present day neo-noir. It consists of a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, a filmography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on every aspect of film noir and neo-noir, including key films, personnel (actors, cinematographers, composers, directors, producers, set designers, and writers), themes, issues, influences, visual style, cycles of films (e.g. amnesiac noirs), the representation of the city and gender, other forms (comics/graphic novels, television, and videogames), and noir's presence in world cinema. It is an essential reference work for all those interested in this important cultural phenomenon.

A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir

A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir
Author: John Grant
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 830
Release: 2023-09-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1493081659

Featuring rumpled PIs, shyster lawyers, corrupt politicians, double-crossers, femmes fatales, and, of course, losers who find themselves down on their luck yet again, film noir is a perennially popular cinematic genre. This extensive encyclopedia describes movies from noir's earliest days – and even before, looking at some of noir's ancestors in US and European cinema – as well as noir's more recent offshoots, from neonoirs to erotic thrillers. Entries are arranged alphabetically, covering movies from all over the world – from every continent save Antarctica – with briefer details provided for several hundred additional movies within those entries. A copious appendix contains filmographies of prominent directors, actors, and writers. With coverage of blockbusters and program fillers from Going Straight (US 1916) to Broken City (US 2013) via Nora Inu (Japan 1949), O Anthropos tou Trainou (Greece 1958), El Less Wal Kilab (Egypt 1962), Reportaje a la Muerte (Peru 1993), Zift (Bulgaria 2008), and thousands more, A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir is an engrossing and essential reference work that should be on the shelves of every cinephile.

Film Noir

Film Noir
Author: Michael L. Stephens
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006-01-18
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780786426287

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.

British Film Noir Guide

British Film Noir Guide
Author: Michael F. Keaney
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2015-05-20
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 147660438X

This work presents 369 British films produced between 1937 and 1964 that embody many of the same filmic qualities as those "black films" made in the United States during the classic film noir era. This reference work makes a case for the inclusion of the British films in the film noir canon, which is still considered by some to be an exclusively American inventory. In the book's main section, the following information is presented for each film: a quote from the film; the title and release date; a rating based on the five-star system; the production company, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and main performers; and a plot synopsis with author commentary. Appendices categorize films by rating, release date, director and cinematographer and also provide a noir and non-noir breakdown of the 47 films presented on the Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre, a 1960s British television series that was also shown in the United States.

More Than Night

More Than Night
Author: James Naremore
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2008-01-14
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0520254023

"Supplies the first study of film noir that achieves the sort of intellectual seriousness, depth of research, degree of critical insight, and level of writing that this group of films deserves."—Tom Gunning, Modernism and Modernity

What is Film Noir?

What is Film Noir?
Author: William Park
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2011-09-16
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1611483638

What is Film Noir? surveys the various theories of film noir, defines film noir, and explains how the genre relates to the style and the period in which noir was created. It also provides a very useful theory of genre and how it relates to film study.

Film Noir

Film Noir
Author: Alain Silver
Publisher: Overlook
Total Pages: 479
Release: 2008-02
Genre: Film noir
ISBN: 9780715637302

Beginning with a general overview of film noir and covering its most important themes chapter by chapter (lovers plan murder, corrupt police, doomed love, psychological noir, etc.), this copiously illustrated handbook provides instant and in-depth access to the film noir genre for amateurs and aficionados alike. Among the films covered are these "Top Ten": "Double Indemnity", "Kiss Me Deadly", "Gun Crazy", "Criss Cross", "Detour", "In A Lonely Place", "T-Men", "Out of the Past", "The Reckless Moment", and "Touch of Evil".

Silver Screen Fiend

Silver Screen Fiend
Author: Patton Oswalt
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2015-10-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451673221

"Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol or sex: it was film. After moving to L.A., Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of L.A.'s alternative comedy scene, Oswalt's memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way"--