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Title: Film Noir Reader by Alain Silver, Alain Silver, James Ursini ISBN: 0-87910-197-0 Publisher: Limelight Editions Pub. Date: July, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Lightning Strikes Twice
Comment: Film Noir Reader 2 is as interesting as its forerunner. Not every article is great, but there is a lot of interest here.
The book opens with film writings from the Forties that show that while Americans did not coin the term film noir, some writers did notice a trend developing.
There are interesting articles on Cornell Woolrich, Sam Fuller and noir and painting. The article on British Film Noir is quite fascinating.
At the end of the book is a piece by a professor who discusses how he teaches a course on film noir. So this book traces film noir from a barely discerned trend to an academic course of study. Neat.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Good Anthology
Comment: This is a very good anthology of noir criticism. It contains three of the first assessments of noir in English, by Higham, Durgnat and Schrader right next to each other - boom, boom, boom - so one can see the criticism of noir developing before one's eyes.
The rest of the essays/arcticles are mostly very interesting. There is one on John Farrow, who is usually overlooked, so it is good to see his films grouped together and examined. The essay on Anthony Mann's noirs is quite strong, and Ursini's article on noir TV, shows such as "Peter Gunn" and "The Fugitive" is very interesting and makes one wish that there were more written on this part of TV history.
I think this would be an essential part of any noir fan's library.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not as great as I had hoped
Comment: Perhaps I expected something more. The essays in this book are often repetitive and non-progressional in subject matter. The softcover version of the book has stills that are more brown and white than black and white... For my money, I am a bigger fan of Hirsch's "The dark side of the screen". It is a well thought, well researched look at noir with a cohesive structure. This all is not to say that a majority of the essays in the Reader are not helpful. Of course it is great to read Schrader's piece and some others which deal with nice specifics (how economics affected growth of B genre, lighting, etc.) but at the end of the day I feel too many of the essays are only about defining the genre (or not genre) rather than delving into other things. Also, I probably will buy more books by these authors simply because their care for noir is so true and strong...
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Title: The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch ISBN: 0306810395 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Film Noir Reader 3: Interviews With Filmmakers of the Classic Noir Period by Alain Silver, James Ursini, Robert Porfirio ISBN: 0879109610 Publisher: Limelight Editions Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward ISBN: 0879514795 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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Title: A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941-1953 by Raymond Borde, Etienne Chaumeton, Paul Hammond, James Naremore ISBN: 087286412X Publisher: City Lights Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Women in Film Noir by E. Ann Kaplan, Ann E. Kaplan ISBN: 0851706665 Publisher: British Film Inst Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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