esrosedotblog

NOIR

So, I wondered where the term 'film noir' came from but was always afraid to ask.

As it turns out, few people know the answer as the term is retrospective.

It was invented to categorize a whole class of films made in France and then here; the dark, the pulpy, the downer.

According to the Book Section of the LATimes, the term derives from from the paperback editions of hard boiled crime fiction that Gallimard published in postwar Paris under the title Série Noire

Many films were made or influenced by these books. The 'film noir' category was formalized with Paul Schrader's 1972 article "Notes on Film Noir".

I have cribbed this from a review of another book on the subject.

Go here if you want to know more:

John T. Irwin's 'Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them'

Labels: best films, noir