Recommended reading - Film Noir Compendium (2016)

Film Noir Compendium

Key Selections from the Film Noir Reader Series

By Alain Silver and James Ursini.

Published 2016.

Published by Limelight.

Illustrated edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1495058980

ISBN-13: 978-1495058981

Description:

In this essential study of film noir, editors Alain Silver and James Ursini select the most significant and influential articles on the movement from their highly respected Film Noir Reader series and assemble them into a single, convenient, heavily illustrated volume. Still included, of course, are many rare early articles and such seminal essays as Borde and Chaumeton's “Towards a Definition of Film Noir” from Panorama du Film Noir Americain, Paul Schrader's “Notes on Film Noir ” and “Paint It Black: the Family Tree of the Film Noir” by Raymond Durgnat. With newer studies such as “Lounge Time” by Vivian Sobchack, “Manufacturing Heroines in Classic Noir Films” by Sheri Chinen Biesen, and “Voices from the Deep: Film Noir as Psychodrama” J. P. Telotte, this collection of over 30 articles probes this most influential American film movement from varying angles: formalist, feminist, structuralist, sociological, and stylistic; narrative-thematic historical, and even from the point of view of a pure aficionado. There is something in this volume for every student or devotee of film noir. Plus like the readers that have proven an invaluable tool for academics planning a syllabus, it can serve as the most complete core text for any of the myriad of film noir courses taught throughout the world.

Recommended reading - Film Noir Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes (2004):

Film Noir Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes

by Alain Silver and James Ursini.

Published by Limelight.
Published 2004.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0879103051
ISBN-13: 978-0879103057

Description:

The earlier Film Noir Readers, which now boast a combined sale of well over 30 000 copies, have all quite deliberately conveyed a sweeping overview of the classic period, demonstrating how broad and inclusive noir movies are. Film Noir Reader 4 moves in a different direction. Its purpose is to identify the key films and motifs of noir and to analyze in depth the prototypical pictures that, while vivid examples of certain cinematic themes, bend and break their molds to find new ways to enthrall and frighten us. Like its predecessors, Film Noir Reader 4 is generously illustrated and features essays by such respected film critics and scholars as Robin Wood, J.P. Telotte, R. Barton Palmer, and Robert Porfirio. All have as their purpose to explain why and how these classic films work; the way screenplay, direction, acting, cinematography, editing and all the other filmmaking crafts blended together to produce work that exemplifies both a particular movement in film history and the innovations that keep the noir style fresh and compelling.

Recommended reading - Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period (2004):

Film Noir Reader 3:

Interviews with Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period

Edited by Alain Silver, Robert Porfirio and James Ursini.

Published by Limelight.

Published 2004.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0879109610

ISBN-13: 978-0879109615

Description:

Departing from the approach of its Film Noir Reader predecessors, this third volume in the series assembles a collection of interviews with film noir directors and a cinematographer, few of whom are alive today. Interviewees include Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard), Otto Preminger (Laura), Joseph Lewis (Gun Crazy and The Big Combo), Curtis Bernhardt (Possessed and A Stolen Life), Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet and Crossfire), and Fritz Lang (Scarlet Street and The Woman in the Window).

Recommended reading - Film Noir Reader 2 (2004):

Film Noir Reader 2

Edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini

Published by Limelight

Published 2004.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0879102802

ISBN-13: 978-0879102807

Description:

Generously includes film stills and essays on crime films, The Postman Always Rings Twice, “Hitchcock's Noir Landscape” “Samuel Fuller's Tabloid Cinema” “Son of Noir” “Noir Science” “Girl Power: Female Centered Neo-Noir” and “Abstract Expressionism and Film Noir.”

Recommended reading - Film Noir Reader (1996):

Film Noir Reader

Edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini.

Published 1996.

Published by Limelight.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0879101970

ISBN-13: 978-0879101978

Description:

This bountiful anthology combines all the key early writings on film noir with many newer essays, including some published here for the first time. The collection is assembled by the editors of the Third Edition of Film Noir: An Enclyclopedic Reference to the American Style, now regarded as the standard work on the subject.

Recommended reading - The Film Noir Encyclopedia (2010):

The Film Noir Encyclopedia

Edited by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward, James Ursini, Robert Porfirio.

Published by Harry N. Abrams.

Published 2010.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1590201442

ISBN-13: 978-1590201442

Description:

Meet the cynical and obsessive heroes of film noir portrayed by actors like Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis. You may encounter a gun-toting gangster, a femme fatale wrapped in fur, a detective with the brim of his hat turned down, or a desperate murderer lurking in the shadows of a doorway. It's a world we all know – the seedy underbelly of the American Dream, and every bit as much a part of our culture. This wonderfully exhaustive text – tallying more than three hundred thousand words with hundreds of film stills and photos new to the work – distills everything about the movement into one volume from movies to stars to themes and motifs and brings us up to date with contemporary contributions to the movement. Now completely revised, expanded, and redesigned, this classic pioneering work is the final word on a dark subject.

On this day in movie history - Los Angeles: City of Film Noir (2015):

Los Angeles: City of Film Noir

aka Los Angeles: Cité du Film Noir,

documentary directed and written by Clara Kuperberg and Julia Kuperberg,

was released in France on February 28, 2015.

Cast:
James Ellroy, Eddie Muller, Alain Silver.