Book description
Film noir is a classic genre characterized by visual elements such as
tilted camera angles, skewed scene compositions, and an interplay
between darkness and light. Common motifs include crime and punishment,
the upheaval of traditional moral values, and a pessimistic stance on
the meaning of life and on the place of humankind in the universe.
Spanning the 1940s and 1950s, the classic film noir era saw the release
of many of Hollywood's best-loved studies of shady characters and
shadowy underworlds, including Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Touch of
Evil, and The Maltese Falcon. Neo-noir is a somewhat loosely defined
genre of films produced after the classic noir era that display the
visual or thematic hallmarks of the noir sensibility. The essays
collected in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir explore the philosophical
implications of neo-noir touchstones such as Blade Runner, Chinatown,
Reservoir Dogs, Memento, and the films of the Coen brothers. Through the
lens of philosophy, Mark T. Conard and the contributors examine
previously obscure layers of meaning in these challenging films. The
contributors also consider these neo-noir films as a means of addressing
philosophical questions about guilt, redemption, the essence of human
nature, and problems of knowledge, memory and identity. In the neo-noir
universe, the lines between right and wrong and good and evil are
blurred, and the detective and the criminal frequently mirror each
other's most debilitating personality traits. The neo-noir
detective-more antihero than hero-is frequently a morally compromised
and spiritually shaken individual whose pursuit of a criminal masks the
search for lost or unattainable aspects of the self. Conard argues that
the films discussed in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir convey ambiguity,
disillusionment, and disorientation more effectively than even the most
iconic films of the classic noir era. Able to self-consciously draw upon
noir conventions and simultaneously subvert them, neo-noir directors
push beyond the earlier genre's limitations and open new paths of
cinematic and philosophical exploration. Mark T. Conard, assistant
professor of philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City,
is the editor or coeditor of many books, including The Philosophy of
Film Noir and The Simpsons and Philosophy.
