num_pages: 359
description: "Film noir" evokes memories of stylish, cynical, black-&amp;-white movies from the 40s &amp; 50s--melodramas about private eyes, femmes fatales, criminal gangs &amp; lovers on the run. More Than Night discusses such pictures. It also shows that the central term is more complex &amp; paradoxical than realized. Film noir refers both to an important cinematic legacy &amp; to an idea projected onto the past. This wide-ranging cultural history offers an original approach to the subject, as well as new production information &amp; commentary on scores of films, including Double Indemnity, The Third Man, &amp; Out of the Past, &amp; such neo-noirs as Chinatown, Pulp Fiction &amp; Devil in a Blue Dress. Naremore discusses film noir as a term in criticism; as an expression of artistic modernism; as a symptom of Hollywood censorship &amp; politics in the 40s; as a market strategy; as an evolving style; as a cinema about race &amp; nationality &amp; as an idea that circulates across all information technologies. This interdisciplinary book has valuable things to say not only about film &amp; tv, but also about modern literature, the fine arts &amp; popular culture in general. In a field where much of what's published is superficial &amp; derivative, this work is certain to be received as a definitive treatment.
language: English
title: More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts
titlecomplete: More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts
genres: Noir, Textbooks, Media Tie In, Film, Pop Culture, School, History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 255
publisher: University of California Press (Berkeley/LA/London)