Download or read book Noir Now and Then written by Ronald Schwartz and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-06-30 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This examniation of the cinematic style of film noir originals and their neo-noir remakes compares thirty-five films, beginning with Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity and concluding with Jim McBride's Breathless. In-depth analysis of the films explain the qualities and characteristics of film noir, while providing critical readings of both the originals and the remakes. The most significant films since 1944 are reviewed and reveal the ever-changing values in American society. As this study reveals, the noir style significantly impacted American film and neo-noir remakes attest to its continued popularity in cinematic art. This work will appeal to film scholars and to fans of film noir. Filmogrpahies and video information follow each chapter. Appendices briefly explain the roots of many noir films discussed in the text along with their subsequent remakes.

Download or read book More Than Night written by James Naremore and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-01-14 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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

Download or read book A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir written by John Grant and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Femme Noir written by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-10-26 with total page 1298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though often thought of as primarily a male vehicle, the film noir offered some of the most complex female roles of any movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Stars such as Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Tierney and Joan Crawford produced some of their finest performances in noir movies, while such lesser known actresses as Peggie Castle, Hope Emerson and Helen Walker made a lasting impression with their roles in the genre. These six women and 43 others who were most frequently featured in films noirs are profiled here, focusing primarily on their work in the genre and its impact on their careers. A filmography of all noir appearances is provided for each actress.

Download or read book Film Noir Guide written by Michael F. Keaney and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 700 films from the classic period of film noir (1940 to 1959) are presented in this exhaustive reference book--such films as The Accused, Among the Living, The Asphalt Jungle, Baby Face Nelson, Bait, The Beat Generation, Crossfire, Dark Passage, I Walk Alone, The Las Vegas Story, The Naked City, Strangers on a Train, White Heat, and The Window. For each film, the following information is provided: the title, release date, main performers, screenwriter(s), director(s), type of noir, thematic content, a rating based on the five-star system, and a plot synopsis that does not reveal the ending.

Download or read book The Big Goodbye written by Sam Wasson and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes the revelatory account of the making of a modern American masterpiece Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written. Praise for Sam Wasson: "Wasson is a canny chronicler of old Hollywood and its outsize personalities...More than that, he understands that style matters, and, like his subjects, he has a flair for it." - The New Yorker "Sam Wasson is a fabulous social historian because he finds meaning in situations and stories that would otherwise be forgotten if he didn't sleuth them out, lovingly." - Hilton Als

Download or read book Boston Noir 2 written by Dennis Lehane and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In keeping with the tradition of the Noir series, Boston Noir 2 is made up of the works of several celebrated authors whose work is tied together by a common setting. After the massive success of the first Boston Noir, bestselling author Dennis Lehane is back as curator for another anthology of crime stories set in Boston. The Boston Noir 2 collection features reprints of the classic chilling short stories and novel excerpts that brought the world of noir to its knees. Contributors include Pulitzer winners Joyce Carol Oates and John Updike.

Download or read book Dark City written by Eddie Muller and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised and expanded edition of Eddie Muller's Dark City is a film noir lover's bible, taking readers on a tour of the urban landscape of the grim and gritty genre in a definitive, highly illustrated volume. Dark Cityexpands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life. Eddie Muller, host of Turner Classic Movies' Noir Alley, takes readers on a spellbinding trip through treacherous terrain: Hollywood in the post-World War II years, where art, politics, scandal, style -- and brilliant craftsmanship -- produced a new approach to moviemaking, and a new type of cultural mythology.

Download or read book The Cold Kiss written by John Rector and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giving a ride to a snowbound stranger who offers them a lucrative sum in exchange, a recently engaged couple is thrown into a nightmarish situation when the stranger dies in their back seat with more than two million dollars in his possession.

Download or read book Bad Boys written by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The film noir male is an infinitely watchable being, exhibiting a wide range of emotions, behaviors, and motivations. Some of the characters from the film noir era are extremely violent, such as Neville Brand’s Chester in D.O.A. (1950), whose sole pleasure in life seems to come from inflicting pain on others. Other noirs feature flawed authority figures, such as Kirk Douglas’s Jim McLeod in Detective Story (1951), controlled by a rigid moral code that costs him his marriage and ultimately his life. Others present ruthless crime bosses, hapless males whose lives are turned upside down because of their ceaseless longing for a woman, and even courageous men on the right side of the law. The private and public lives of more than ninety actors who starred in the films noirs of the 1940s and 1950s are presented here. Some of the actors, such as Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Edward G. Robinson, Robert Mitchum, Raymond Burr, Fred MacMurray, Jack Palance and Mickey Rooney, enjoyed great renown, while others, like Gene Lockhart, Moroni Olsen and Harold Vermilyea, were less familiar, particularly to modern audiences. An appendix focuses on the actors who were least known but frequently seen in minor roles.

Download or read book Last Looks written by Howard Michael Gould and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE! A razor-sharp, exquisitely paced, madly fun debut thriller that gleefully lampoons Hollywood culture and introduces the highly eccentric yet brilliant ex-detective gone rogue: Charlie Waldo There are run-of-the-mill eccentric Californians, and then there's former detective Charlie Waldo. Waldo, a onetime LAPD superstar, now lives in solitude deep in the woods, pathologically committed to owning no more than one hundred possessions. He has left behind his career and his girlfriend, Lorena, to pay self-imposed penance for an awful misstep on a pivotal murder case. But the old ghosts are about to come roaring back. There are plenty of difficult actors in Hollywood, and then there's Alastair Pinch. Alastair is a onetime Royal Shakespeare Company thespian who now slums it as the "wise" Southern judge on a tacky network show. He's absurdly rich, often belligerent, and typically drunk—a damning combination when Alastair's wife is found dead on their living room floor and he can't remember what happened. Waldo's old flame Lorena, hiding peril of her own, draws him toward the case, and Alastair's greedy network convinces Waldo to take it on. But after such a long time away from both civilization and sleuthing—and plagued by a confounding array of assailants who want him gone—Waldo must navigate complicated webs of ego and deceit to clear Alastair's name...or confirm his guilt.

Download or read book Somewhere in the Night written by Nicholas Christopher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Film noir is more than a cinematic genre. It is an essential aspect of American culture. Along with the cowboy of the Wild West, the denizen of the film noir city is at the very center of our mythological iconography. Described as the style of an anxious victor, film noir began during the post-war period, a strange time of hope and optimism mixed with fear and even paranoia. The shadow of this rich and powerful cinematic style can now be seen in virtually every artistic medium. The spectacular success of recent neo-film noirs is only the tip of an iceberg. In the dead-on, nocturnal jazz of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, the chilled urban landscapes of Edward Hopper, and postwar literary fiction from Nelson Algren and William S. Burroughs to pulp masters like Horace McCoy, we find an unsettling recognition of the dark hollowness beneath the surface of the American Dream. Acclaimed novelist and poet Nicholas Christopher explores the cultural identity of film noir in a seamless, elegant, and enchanting work of literary prose. Examining virtually the entire catalogue of film noir, Christopher identifies the central motif as the urban labyrinth, a place infested with psychosis, anxiety, and existential dread in which the noir hero embarks on a dangerously illuminating quest. With acute sensitivity, he shows how technical devices such as lighting, voice over, and editing tempo are deployed to create the film noir world. Somewhere in the Night guides us through the architecture of this imaginary world, be it shot in New York or Los Angeles, relating its elements to the ancient cultural archetypes that prefigure it. Finally, Christopher builds an explanation of why film noir not only lives on but is currently enjoying a renaissance. Somewhere in the Night can be appreciated as a lucid introduction to a fundamental style of American culture, and also as a guide to film noir's heyday. Ultimately, though, as the work of a bold talent adeptly manipulating poetic cadence and metaphor, it is itself a superb aesthetic artifact.

Download or read book TV Noir written by Ray Starman and published by The Troy Book Makers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter written by Ronda Racha Penrice and published by Fayetteville Mafia Press. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Wendell Pierce, Michael K. Williams -- first known as Stringer Bell, Wallace, Bunk, and Omar -- are just a few of the fruits of The Wire we enjoy today. Since its June 2, 2002, premiere, The Wire has been a slow burn, picking up steam each and every year since. As critics continue to grapple with the show and its enduring impact, some voices and perspectives have still yet to be heard. Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter remedies this oversight. This provocative exploration of HBO's iconic show touches on issues of not just race, but also class, power, gender dynamics, police brutality, addiction, sexuality, and even representations of Baltimore itself through a Black Lives Matter lens for some, but Black reality for so many others. Regardless of perspective, Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter is an engaging and compelling conversation about one of the most important shows in television history. Cracking the Wire features a cover by esteemed artist Art Sims, who designed the posters for numerous Spike Lee films, including Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, Clockers, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, as well as The Color Purple, Dreamgirls, and Black Panther.

Download or read book Below the Line written by Howard Michael Gould and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eccentric private eye Charlie Waldo is back in another wildly fun and fast-paced thriller lampooning Southern California. Former LAPD detective Charlie Waldo was living in solitude deep in the woods, pathologically committed to owning no more than one hundred possessions, until his PI ex-girlfriend Lorena dragged him back to civilization to solve a high-profile Hollywood murder. Now Waldo and Lorena have their hands full with a new client, a wild and privileged L.A. teenager named Stevie Rose who tells lies as easily as she breathes. When the teacher Stevie claims seduced her turns up dead, the LAPD pegs her as the prime suspect. Then Stevie disappears, and her self-involved Hollywood parents turn to Waldo to find her—a task that draws him down into Orange County’s dangerous and complex worlds, both opulent and seedy, where nothing is as it seems. With treachery and deception at every turn, and with Waldo’s eco-obsessed rules for living complicating his already complicated relationship with Lorena, Waldo fends off enemies old and new as he races to find Stevie and solve the murder.

Download or read book A Panorama of American Film Noir 1941 1953 written by Raymond Borde and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book published on film noir established the genre--a classic, at last in translation.

Download or read book Blackout written by Sheri Chinen Biesen and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-11-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sheri Chinen Biesen challenges conventional thinking on the origins of film noir and finds the genre's roots in the political, social and historical conditions of Hollywood during the Second World War.