The Rough Guide to Film Noir 1

A couple of brave critics have tackled a risky theme with style, energy and above all, insight. Correctly placing the origin of noir in German expressionism, they also commendably cite the French influence of directors Julien Duvivier and Marcel Carne, but surprisingly tend to neglect formative Hollywood movies like William Worthington's "The Tong Man" (1919) and Tay Garnett's "The Spieler" (1928). Pleasingly, the authors devote a whole section to noir icons including directors Robert Aldrich, Sam Fuller, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Otto Preminger, Nicholas Ray, Robert Siodmak, Orson Welles and Billy Wilder. No-one would argue with this selection, even though it doesn't include Joseph H. Lewis, two of whose films figure in their fascinating canon of "50 Essential Film Noirs" (sic), or John Farrow (elsewhere described in the book as a "seasoned noir specialist"). Commendably, the authors discuss cross-genres such as noir westerns, although they underestimate noir musicals such as Joseph H. Lewis' "Minstrel Man". Their brief tip of the hat to "International Noir" considerably underestimates British contributions to the genre, but in a paperback of this size, there is not room for everything. Throughout the book, they continuously make the point that while noir is exclusively concerned with crime or espionage, not all spy, mystery and suspense movies are necessarily noir. In the latter category, you could place serials and other films (such as the "Bomba" series) made for a juvenile market, comedies like Red Skelton's "A Southern Yankee" or Bela Lugosi's "Spooks Run Wild". However, it's true to say that most crime and mystery-suspense thrillers do have noir elements, and therefore it's impossible to cover a full range of noir, even in 300 well-designed pages. Some notable omissions such as "Among the Living", "Black Angel", "Confidential Agent", "The High Wall", "Johnny Allegro", "The Man with a Cloak", "The Mark of Cain", "My Name Is Julia Ross", etc., are covered in my book on "Movie Mystery & Suspense", which also includes a short piece on Robert Siodmak and a long article on Otto Preminger. MOVIE MYSTERY & SUSPENSE

I've read a number of Rough Movie Guides over the past couple of years, including ones on horror, science fiction, comedy and gangster movies. What was common to all these books was that they were about genres. The Rough Guide to Film Noir, however, is more about a style that, while typically associated with crime movies, can cross over into other areas as well. It is therefore a good thing that this book starts by trying to define noir and describe its history. Noir was a style recognized principally after the fact: the creators of noir during its classic period of the mid-`40s to mid-`50s didn't set out to make noir films, but some shared factors linked them together. In particular, the films tended to be cynical and morally ambiguous, set in an urban contemporary environment, with antiheroes and femme fatales rather than strict good guys and bad guys. They had a look to them that worked best in black-and-white, with an emphasis on shadows. Some of this was the result of low budgets (most noirs were B pictures), the influence of German expressionism (brought over from Europe by directors like Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder), and the new attitudes that came to the U.S. after World War II. The Rough Guide traces noir to its roots in early genre pictures such as horror movies and gangster films. And though noir would be mostly associated with films in the decade or so after WWII, it would continue to influence movies up to modern times, as shown in the Guide's Canon of 50 essential films, which includes the very recent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. As is typical with these guides, the choices made for these 50 films are debatable. While certain films definitely merit inclusion - such as Out of the Past, Kiss of Death and L.A. Confidential - others are more iffy, such as the aforementioned Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (a decent enough movie, but too new to have really earned a "classic" status). The Guide also provides brief looks at some of the icons of noir (such as Lang, Wilder, Robert Mitchum or Barbara Stanwyck), a section on some common settings for these movies (such as Los Angeles or San Francisco), a look at noir in other genres beyond crime and a chapter on noir produced by other countries. Despite some minor errors (I haven't read a Guide yet that doesn't have some mistake in it when describing a movie plot line), this book is still a decent reference book, both readable and informative. There are plenty of other books on film noir out there, but the Rough Guide serves its purpose well as a compact introduction to a highly influential style of movie making.

Entertaining and well put together, the book covers about 50 films. But what really makes it shine is it's sections on noir icons and noir film shooting locations.

A handy square paperback that does a pretty good wrap-up of this interesting movie genre that is still being discovered by new fans. The three hundred pages include a ton of information in a listing format that is very accessible (though most readers wont be aware of it the type and page design helps, too). The eight chapters are: Origins, History, Fifty essential movies, Noir icons, Noir locations, Noir crossover, International noir and finally a very useful Noir information. There is also a comprehensive index. The Fifty essential movies has the most pages with several hundred words on each. Now I know what you're thinking: does it include your fave? Well, one of mine is missing, The Asphalt Jungle, it's capsule review (of 130 in the book) is included in the History chapter. Actually the Fifty is rather wide ranging as it includes Mildred Pierce, which I would list more under melodrama. Contemporary movies like Blood Simple, The Last Seduction and Se7en are also in the list but as the authors say in their intro the movies included reflect a filmmaking style as well as a bit of personal choice. To go with this book check out Eddie Muller's beautiful Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir the ultimate poster collection and The Noir Style by Silver and Ursini which explains the style with movie stills. Both books are listed in the bibliography. 'The Rough Guide Film Noir' is an excellent reference book and can't be beat for the price.