100 Film Noirs (Bfi Screen Guides)

Description:
Film noir's popularity with cinema audiences, enthusiasts and scholars has remained unabated since post-war French critics began discerning a new trend in American film with the release of such stylish and atmospheric crime features as Double Indemnity and Murder, My Sweet. Many of Hollywood's greatest directors such as Fritz Lang and Robert Siodmak are now closely associated with film noir's psychologically acute observations of the darker contours of the American urban landscape. Thanks to evocative cinematography, sharp writing and powerful performances, these films have had an enduring influence on international visual culture. 100 Film Noirs provides an authoritative overview of film noir past and present by examining its core films and themes and providing an accessible introduction to critical debates. The book goes beyond the classical canon to examine the ways in which noir continues to have a diverse influence on American cinema. It demonstrates the way that noir has intervened in other more established Hollywood genres and also considers numerous lesser-known examples of the field. Importantly, 100 Film Noirs has a strong international dimension and provides new and revealing insights into film noirs from France, Germany, Japan, India, Mexico and beyond.

Review:
'100 Film Noirs offers many insights into the history and visual grammar of the genre and provides the perfect excuse to revisit some classics and discover some forgotten masterpieces.' - PD Smith, The Guardian '100 Film Noirs has a strong international dimension and provides new and revealing insights into film noirs from France, Germany, Japan, India, Mexico and beyond' - Sight and Sound Both a treasure trove of facts and a taster for those keen to find out more about the seamier side of life...' PinkPaper.com

Table of Contents:
BFI SCREEN GUIDES 100 FILM NOIRS FINAL Acknowledgements Introduction 100 Films: 36, Quai des orfevres (Olivier Marchal, 2004) The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977) Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950) La Bete humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938) The Big Combo (Joseph H Lewis, 1955) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946) Blast of Silence (Alan Baron, 1961) The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall, 1946) Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947) Born to Kill (Robert Wise, 1947) Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1947) Call Northside 777 (Henry Hathaway, 1947) Castle of Sand (Nomura Yoshitaro, 1974) The Chase (Arthur Ripley, 1946) Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) C.I.D. (Raj Khosla, India, 1954) Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004) Cornered (Edward Dmytryk, 1945) Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1948) The Crooked Way (Robert Florey, 1949) Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk, 1947) Cry of the City (Robert Siodmak, 1948) The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947) Dead Reckoning (John Cromwell, 1947) Death of a Cyclist (Javier Bardem, 1955) Death is a Caress (Edith Carlmar, 1949) Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, 1995) D.O.A. (Rudolph Mate, 1949) Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978) Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger, 1945) Fear in the Night (Maxwell Shane, 1947) Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948) A Foreign Land (Walter Salles, Brazil) Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971) Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946) The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942) Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis, 1949) He Ran All the Way (John Berry, 1951) He Walked By Night (Alfred Werker, 1949) High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963) A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005) The Hitch-hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953) I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (Mike Hodges, 2003) In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) I Married a Communist (Robert Stevenson, 1949) I Wake Up Screaming (H Bruce Humberstone, 1942) I Walk Alone (Byron Haskin, 1948) Journey into Fear (Norman Foster/Orson Welles, 1942) Le Jour se leve (Marcel Carne, 1939) Lift to the Scaffold (Louis Malle, 1957) The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick 1956) Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955) Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway, 1947) LA Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997) The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) The Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 1946) Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944) The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) The Lost One (Peter Lorre, 1951) M (Fritz Lang, 1931) Memories of Murder (Joon-ho Bong, 2003) The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001) Murder My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944) The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer, 1952) Night and the City (Jules Dassin, 1950) Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947) Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975) Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947) Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959) On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1951) Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947) Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953) Pitfall (Andre de Toth, 1948) Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946) Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947) Quai des orfevres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1947) The Reckless Moment (Max Ophuls, 1949) Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955) Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945) Shoot the Pianist (Francois Truffaut, 1960) Side Street (Anthony Mann, 1950) Sin City (Frank Miller and Roberto Rodriguez, 2005) Story of a Love Affair (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1950) Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948) T Men (Anthony Mann, 1947) Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1953) Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger, 1950) Notes Index

Author Biography:
JIM HILLIER is Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Reading. His publications include American Independent Cinema (2001), The Film Studies Dictionary (2000) and Howard Hawks: American Artist (1996). ALASTAIR PHILLIPS is Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Rififi (2008) and the co-editor of Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts (2007) and of Journeys of Desire: European Actors in Hollywood (2006).