Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood

Built around close readings of 11 noir films, this book seeks to refresh our understanding of “film noir” by returning to the films themselves. Pushing against totalizing or generalizing approaches, which may have the unintended effect of flattening out significant distinctions and differences between individual approaches, Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood argues for the importance of staying attuned the varied and variegated formal, aesthetic and thematic strategies at work in individual films. By focusing on these strategies, the book invites readers to consider anew the enabling possibilities of Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era.

1. Introduction: The Case of the Missing Films.- Part I: Paradigmatic and Conventional.- 2. The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street, & Out of the Past: Paradigm Cases.- 3. The Narrow Margin: Convention as Deception.- Part II: Auteurist Noir.- 4. Ministry of Fear: Fritz Lang’s De-Suturing Operations.- 5. The Big Sleep: Howard Hawks’s Hollywood Fantasy.- 6. Laura: Otto Preminger’s Statement of Purpose.- Part III: Noir and History.- 7. Act of Violence: Articulating the Spaces of Modernity.- 8. Reign of Terror & The Tall Target: Theses on the Philosophy of History.- Part IV: Conclusion.- 9. Conclusion: Reflections on Method   

Nathaniel Deyo is a lecturer in the Composition Program at the University of Miami, Florida, USA.