Book description
A drifter with no name and no past, driven purely by desire, is
convinced by a beautiful woman to murder her husband. A hard-drinking
detective down on his luck becomes involved with a gang of criminals in
pursuit of a priceless artifact. The stories are at once romantic,
pessimistic, filled with anxiety and a sense of alienation, and they
define the essence of film noir. Noir emerged as a prominent American
film genre in the early 1940s, distinguishable by its use of unusual
lighting, sinister plots, mysterious characters, and dark themes. From
The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), films from this
classic period reflect an atmosphere of corruption and social decay that
attracted such accomplished directors as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock,
Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles. The Philosophy of Film Noir is the first
volume to focus exclusively on the philosophical underpinnings of these
iconic films. Drawing on the work of diverse thinkers, from the French
existentialist Albert Camus to the Frankurt school theorists Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, the volume connects film noir to the
philosophical questions of a modern, often nihilistic, world. Opening
with an examination of what constitutes noir cinema, the book interprets
the philosophical elements consistently present in the films-themes such
as moral ambiguity, reason versus passion, and pessimism. The
contributors to the volume also argue that the essence and elements of
noir have fundamentally influenced movies outside of the traditional
noir period. Neo-noir films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Fight Club
(1999), and Memento (2000) have reintroduced the genre to a contemporary
audience. As they assess the concepts present in individual films, the
contributors also illuminate and explore the philosophical themes that
surface in popular culture. A close examination of one of the most
significant artistic movements of the twentieth century, The Philosophy
of Film Noir reinvigorates an intellectual discussion at the
intersection of popular culture and philosophy.
