Behold: The Noir Shelf!
I love my growing mini library of noir scholarship and reference volumes. I’ve read some in their entirety, skipped around in others, and just got the Lyons and Palmer books. (I also have Muller’s Dark City but forgot to add it to the shelf before taking the pic, and I own Brook’s Driven to Darkness: Jewish Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir as an eBook.)
Rather than skimming filmographies and encyclopedias, I’m drawn to specific (scholarly) arguments that give me new angles from which to consider noir. The Silver and Ursini original Film Noir Reader contains some of the first articles on defining noir, getting into the genre vs. style debate and what is and isn’t noir. I love the Women in Film Noir volume edited by E. Ann Kaplan for its depth and breadth of coverage, particularly the pieces on the absence of (nuclear) family in noir and Richard Dyer’s awesome queer readings. Brook’s Driven to Darkness (the one I own as an eBook) begins with provocative analysis of the impact on noir of emigres fleeing Nazism, bringing German Expressionism and Jewish perspectives. Biesen’s Blackout, by contrast, grounds the origins of noir in the approach and onslaught of WWII. And Oliver and Trigo’s Noir Anxiety offers a compelling study of the real anxieties over gender, race, and nation that underpin the general mood of anxiety in film noir. A bit more psychoanalysis than I like in historical study, but it’s a compelling book.
From diverse historical and critical approaches to the style/genre to specific case studies of individual films, I am learning so much on my voyage through film noir.
B Noir Detour 
June 13, 2016 at 12:06 AM
Nice! There are so many great books out there… I really like FILM NOIR FAQ by Hogan and Eddie Muller’s ART OF NOIR. The Noir City annuals are also great, a compilation of the best articles from the Noir City eNewsletters. Do you have the John Grant COMPREHENSIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM NOIR? I’m really enjoying it. Even though it’s a reference book, I’m reading it all the way through.
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June 13, 2016 at 2:28 PM
Those are all good choices for additions to the collection! I’ll get through these first, and then we shall see what comes next.
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June 13, 2016 at 1:37 AM
Thanks for the recommendations
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June 13, 2016 at 3:12 PM
So many books, so little time.
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June 13, 2016 at 7:55 PM
So do you want to know my pen name?
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June 13, 2016 at 8:22 PM
Sure do!
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June 16, 2016 at 12:00 PM
Alec Sever… That is what I am leaning towards
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June 14, 2018 at 12:49 PM
hi! im from brazil
my bibliografy in cronological order
see below:
DECADA DE 40:
Shearer, Lloyd (1999) [1945] ‘Crime Certainly Pays on the Screen’, in Alain
Silver and James Ursini (eds) Film Noir Reader 2. New York: Limelight, 9–13.
Un nouveau « genre » policier : l’aventure criminelle / Nino Frank,
in L’Écran français, n°58, 7 août 1946.
Frank, Nino (1996) [1946] ‘The Crime Adventure Story: A New Kind of Detective Film’, translated by R. Barton Palmer, in R. Barton Palmer (ed.) Perspectives on Film Noir.New York: G. K. Hall, 21–4.
Chartier, Jean-Pierre (1996) [1946] ‘The Americans Are Making Dark Films Too’, translated by R. Barton Palmer, in R. Barton Palmer (ed.) Perspectives on Film Noir. New York: G. K. Hall, 25–7.
Henri-François (1996) [1948] ‘Hollywood Makes Myths like Ford Makes Cars (last installment): Demonstration by the Absurd: Films Noirs’, Translated by R. Barton Palmer, in R. Barton Palmer (ed) Perspectives on Film Noir. New York: G. K. Hall, 28–9
Alton, John. Painting with Light. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 [1949].
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June 15, 2018 at 12:07 AM
This is one heck of a list! Thanks for sharing it.
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June 14, 2018 at 12:52 PM
DECADA DE 50:
Duvillars, Pierre (1996) [1951] ‘She Kisses Him So He’ll Kill’, (translated by R. Barton Palmer) in R. Barton Palmer (ed.) Perspectives on Film Noir. New York: G. K. Hall, 30–2.
Panorama du film noir américain (1941-1953) / Raymond Borde et Etienne
Chaumeton. – Paris : Les Éditions de Minuit, 1955. – 283 p.
(2e édition : Paris : Flammarion, 1988 . – Coll. : Champs Contre-champs ; 508. – 283 p.).
[Borde, Raymond, and Etienne Chaumenton. A Panorama of American Film Noir,
1941–1953. San Francisco: City Light Books, 2002 [1955].]
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June 14, 2018 at 1:14 PM
DECADA DE 70:
Durgnat, Raymond. “Paint it Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir.” In Film Noir
Reader, 6th ed., edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini. New York: Limelight
Editions, 2000 [1970]
Durgnat, Raymond (1996) [1970] ‘Paint It Black: The Family Tree of the Film Noir’, in R. Barton Palmer (ed.) Perspectives on Film Noir. New York: G. K. Hall, 83–98.
Durgnat, Raymond. “Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir.” Cinema (UK), n°6-7, 1970. (1970): 49- 56 [republished in A. Silver & J. Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader, 2006, 37-52]
Jensen, Paul. “The Return of Dr. Caligari: Paranoia in Hollywood.” Film Comment 7.4 (1971): 36-45.
Alloway, Lawrence. Violent America: The Movies, 1946-1964. New York, Museum of Modern Art; distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn., 1971.
Lee, Raymond, and B.C. Van Hecke. Gangsters and Hoodlums; The Underworld in the Cinema. With a foreword by Edward G. Robinson. South Brunswick: A. S. Barnes, 1971.
Tom Flinn. Three Faces of Film Noir,Velvet Light Trap 5, 1972
Maden, David. “James M. Cain and the Movies of the Thirties and Forties.” Film Heritage 2.4 (1972): 9-25.
McArthur,Colin. Underworld USA. London: Secker & Warburg, British Film Institute,
1972. [MacCARTHUR, Colin. O filme policial. Editôra Livros Horizonte, 1990. (ed em lingua portuguesa/Lisboa/Portugal)]
The Detective Film / William K. Everson. – New York : Citadel Press, 1972.
Schrader, Paul. “Notes on Film Noir.”
Filmex, 1971 (The Film Noir, at the First Los Angeles International Film Exposition)
(Reprinted in Film Comment, Spring 1972) pp.8-13
In Film Noir Reader, 6th edition, edited by
Alain Silver and James Ursini. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000 [1972]. 53-64.
http://i.mtime.com/Noir/blog/1433838/
Film Comment 10, n°6 (November-December 1974)
Special Film Noir number.
Place, J. A. and Peterson, L. “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir.” Film Comment 10/n°1 (January-february 1974), pp.30-35, in Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds) Film Noir Reader. New York: Limelight, 64–75.(1996)
Jensen, Paul. “The Writer: Raymond Chandler and the World You Live In.”
in Film Comment, Vol.10, n°6 (Nov-Dec 1974), pp.18-26.
Son of Noir / Richard T. Jameson,
in Film Comment, Vol.10, n°6 (1974), pp.30-33
Ecran n° 32
Spécial Film noir number [jan 1975].
A Pictoral History of Crime Films / Ian Cameron. – Londres ; New-York ; Sydney :
Hamlyn : 1975. – 221 p.
Baxter, John. “Something More Than Night.” Film Journal 2, n.4 (1975): 4-9
Kiss Me Deadly : Evidence of a Style / Alain Silver,
in Film Comment, Vol.11, n°2 (1975), pp.24-30.
Porfiro, Robert. “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in Film Noir.”
[1976]. Porfirio, Robert G. “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir.” Sight and Sound 45. n°4 (Autumn 1976): 212-217, In Film Noir Reader, 6th ed., edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996
Film après noir / Larry Gross,
in Film Comment, Vol. 12, n°4, (July-Aug.1976).
n Film noir, film life / P. Hankoff,
in Film Comment, Vol.12, n° 4 (July-Aug. 1976), pp.35.
Pendo, Stephen. Raymond Chandler on Screen: His Novels into Film. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976.
Karimi, A. M. Toward a Definition of the American Film Noir (1941–1949). New
York: Arno Press, 1976. [1971].
Shadoian, Jack. Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster/Crime Film. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977.
America in the Dark : Hollywood and the Gift of Unreality / David Thomson. – New
York : William Morrow, 1977.
The Light is Dark Enough : « Film Noir » Comedies of the Forties / James Damico,
in Movietone News, n°56, November 1977, pp.2-7.
Notes sur le film noir / Noël Simsolo,
in Cinéma 72, n°223 (Juillet 1977), pp.23-30.
Damico, James. “Film Noir: A Modest Proposal.” In Film Noir Reader, 6th edition,
edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000
[1978].
Damico, James (1996) [1978] ‘Film Noir: A Modest Proposal’, in R. Barton Palmer (ed.) Perspectives on Film Noir. New York: G. K. Hall, 129–40.
Kaplan, E. Ann, Women in Film Noir / E. Ann Kaplan (editor). London: British Film Institute, 1980.
[first ed em 1978, 129 pp], 2a ed 1980, 132 pp; edição revista, British Film Institute, 1998, 238 pp.
Kaplan, E. Ann (ed.) (1998a) Women in Film Noir (second edition). London: British Film Institute
(1998b)
Cry of the City : Re-viewing Film Noir / Richard Abel,
in Film Library Quaterly, n°1/2, 1978.
Kerr, Paul (1996) [1979] ‘Out of What Past? Notes on the B film noir’, original in Screen Education (Autumn / Winter 1979-1980), pp.32-33) in Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds) Film Noir Reader. New York: Limelight, 107–27 (1996).
Out of What Past : Notes on the B Film Noir / Paul Kerr,in The Hollywood Film Industry / sous la dir. de Paul Kerr. – London : Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986, pp.220-244.
PORFIRIO, Robert Gerald. The dark age of American film: a study of American film noir (1940-1960), Yale University, 2 vols. – Dissertation Yale University, 1979.
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June 14, 2018 at 1:35 PM
DECADA DE 80:
The Tainted Adam : The American Hero in Film Noir / Paul Bernard Plouffe. – Ph.D.,
University of California, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1980.
Crime, detective, espionage, mystery, and thriller fiction and film : a comprehensive
bibliography of critical writing through 1979 / David and Ann Skene Melvin. – Westport
[Conn.] ; London : Greenwood Press, 1980
Hirsch, Foster. The Dark Side of the Screen. 3rd ed., Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008 [1981]. 2a edição revisada, Da Capo Press, 2008, 264 pp.
Robert Ottoson A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir: 1940–1958 Metuchen, N.J.:
Scarecrow Press, 1981.
The Pursuit of Crime : Art and Ideology in Detective Fiction / Dennis Porter. – New
Haven : Yale University Press, 1981.
Vernet, Marc. “The Filmic Transaction: On the Openings of Film Noirs.”
The Velvet Light Trap 20 (Summer 1983): 2-9
Schiff, Stephen. “Film noir.” American Film 8 (May 1983): 21-23
Taylor, John Russell (1983) Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Émigrés, 1933–1950. London: Faber and Faber.
Telotte, J.P. “Film Noir and the Dangers of Discourse.”
Quarterly Review of Film Studies Vol.20, n°2 (Spring 1984), pp.101-112.
SELBY, Spencer. Dark city: the film noir. St James Press,1984. 255 p.
[with analysis of 25 Film Noirs, then comprehenisive appendices. Selby, Spencer. Dark City: The Film Noir. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1984; reprinted 1997. Selby writes in great detail about twenty-five films noirs and lists 465 others, providing one- or two-sentence descriptions for each. He includes five helpful appendices—“Off-Genre” and Other Films Noirs, Chronology of the Film Noir, Totals by Studio or Releasing Company, Directors’ Filmographies, and Bibliography of Works Cited. Of value to the film noir student and the fan but Selby discloses the endings of the twenty-five films he analyzes].
TUSKA, John. Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984
Shadows on the Mirror : Film Noir and Cold War America (1945-1957) / Paul Steven
Arthur. – Ph.D diss., New-York University, 1985.
Polan, Dana. “Film Noir.” Journal of Film and Video (Spring 1985): 75-83.
Root. Jane. “Film Noir.” In The Cinema Book, edited by Pam Cook. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1985
Classics of the gangster film / Robert Bookbinder. – Secaucus [N.J.] : Citadel Press,
1985. – 255 p.
The Case of Film Noir / David Bordwell, in The Classical Hollywood Cinema : Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 / David Bordwell, Janet Staiger, Kristin Thompson. – London : Routledge, 1985.
Polan, Dana. Power and Paranoia: History, Narrative, and the American Cinema,
1940–1950. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. 331 p.
Film Noir and the Genre Continuum. Process, Product, and the Big Clock / Barton R. Palmer,
in Persistence of Vision, n°3/4 (1986), pp.51-60.
Telotte, J.P “Tangled Networks and Wrong Numbers.”
Film Criticism 10.3 (Spring 1986): 36-48.
Lent, Tina Olsin. “The Dark Side Of The Dream: The Image Of Los Angeles In Film Noir.”
Southern California Quarterly 69.4 (1987): 329-348.
Siodmak’s Phantom Women and Noir Narrative / J.P Telotte,
in Film Criticism, Vol.11, n°3 (Spring 1987), pp.1-10.
State of Film Noir / Tom Conley,
in Theatre Journal (1987), pp.347-363
Telotte, J.P. “Outside the System: The Documentary Voice of ‘Film Noir’.”
New Orleans Review 14.2 (Summer 1987): 55
Dark Mirror : Reflections of Hollywood’s Film Noir / Bruce Crowther,
in Films & Filming, n°405 (June 1988), p.24-27.
Film noir. Style and Content / E. Ewing Dale, Jr,
in Journal of Popular Film and Television, Vol.16, n°2 (Summer 1988), pp.60-69.
Thomas, Deborah (1992) [1988] ‘How Hollywood Deals with the Deviant Male’, in Ian Cameron (ed.) The Movie Book of Film Noir. London: Studio Vista, 59–70.
Gifford, Barry. Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. Formerly The Devil Thumbs a Ride & Other Unforgettable Films (New York: Grove Press, 1988).
[Gifford takes a humorous, personal approach in his analyses of more than 100 films, most of them noirs, some neo-noirs, and others from various genres. It’s entertaining and informally written, but Gifford disclosing the films’ endings]
The Big Clock of Film Noir / J.P. Telotte,
in Film Criticism, Vol.14, n°2 (Winter 1989-1990), pp.1-11.
Telotte, J.P “Self-Portrait: Painting and the Film Noir.” Smithsonian Studies in American Art, 3.1 (Winter 1989): 2-17
Flashbacks and the Psyche in Melodrama and Film Noir / Maureen Turim,
in Flashbacks in Film Memory and History / Maureen Turim. – New York : Routledge, 1989.
Telotte, J. P. (1989) Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir. Urbana and Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Crowther, Bruce. Film noir: reflections in a dark mirror. Continuum, 1989, 192 pp.
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