FILM 3220 - Film Genres: Film Noir

5 credit hours
What exactly was film noir or “dark film”? Made between the forties and mid-late fifties these crime films had a distinctive visual style with stylized lighting and dramatic contrasts between light and shadow. The films often shared complex narrative structures, deeply pessimistic themes and oneiric or dreamlike sequences. This class explores Classic Noir (late thirties-1958), exploring how its visual style, themes and narrative and generic forms expressed social changes in wartime and postwar America. We’ll take a close look at the femme fatale and homme fatale, and consider how Noir depicted gender in unconventional ways. We’ll also explore the connections between Noir and other art forms, from literature to painting, and from jazz to abstract art and architecture. Titles may include screenings or selections from The Maltese Falcon, Gilda, Out of the Past, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Double Indemnity, Kiss of Death, Murder My Sweet, Rififi, Raw Deal, T Men, The Big Heat, The Killers, The Hitchhiker, Naked City, The Big Clock, Elevator to the Gallows, Mildred Pierce, Asphalt Jungle and others. This meets the Genre Requirement for Film Majors.