The Philosophy of Film Noir
Robert (FWD) Porfirio, Mark T. Conard - "The Philosophy of Film Noir"
When Nietzsche declared "God is dead," little did he know he was helping
to launch a new cinematic genre characterized by shady characters and
seamy plotlines involving fallen women, murder and betrayal. But noir is
inevitably more than just stylish filmmaking or the marriage between
American hard-boiled fiction and German expressionism, according to the
philosophers, film historians and English professors who contributed to
this book: film noir "challenged widespread assumptions about material
and moral progress" and represents a "systematic deconstruction of the
American Dream." Examining classic noir films and books by writers such
as Albert Camus, Dashiell Hammett and James Cain, contributors discuss
essence of film noir as reflecting a sense of disenchantment, "inversion
of traditional values" and the "spiritual defeat of modernity." In her
essay on The Maltese Falcon, Deborah Knight draws the distinction between
the emotionally conflicted detective Sam Spade and his more detached
predecessor, Sherlock Holmes. Philosophy professor Steven Sanders sifts
through existentialist texts and classic noir films to find the meaning
of life, while several contributors weigh in on themes of morality and
Pulp Fiction gets a deep scholarly massage from Conard. Dense and
intriguing, the book suggests noir is best perceived as a slightly warped
mirror held up to contemporary society.
Mark T. Conard - "The Philosophy of Neo-Noir"
Film noir--a cycle of American films from the 1940s and '50s--is
characterized not only by a constant opposition of light and shadow and
a disruptive compositional balance of frames and scenes, but also by dark,
foreboding characters and plots and an overriding sense of alienation and
moral ambiguity. Noir films reflect the sense of loss, fragmentation, and
nihilism at the heart of the human condition in the twentieth century.
Although the classic film noir period ended in the late 1950s, its impact
on more films has been profound. While typically not black and white,
these new films incorporate the noir sensibility of alienation, pessimism,
moral ambivalence, and disorientation. This sensibility is obvious in
films such as Blade Runner, Reservoir Dogs, Chinatown, and Memento. Until
now, little scholarly attention has been paid to the unique philosophical
conventions of the widely popular neo-noir genre. In The Philosophy of Neo-
Noir, editor Mark T. Conard and other contributors explore the philosophical
foundations of neo-noir, using the films to discuss and explain traditional
philosophical ideas as well. The themes and topics covered include justice
and moral corruption; problems of memory and identity; human nature, space,
time, and subjectivity; crime and punishment; pain and redemption; and
spiritual transcendence. Conard argues that neo-noir films have benefited
as censorship has relaxed, giving current filmmakers a rich noir tradition
from which to draw.
Steven M. Sanders - "The Philosophy of TV Noir"
The influence of classic film noir on the style and substance of television
in the 1950s and 1960s has persisted to the present day. Its pervasiveness
suggests the vitality of the noir depiction of human experience and the
importance of TV for transmitting the legacy of film noir and producing new
forms of noir. Noir television is also noteworthy for its capacity to raise
philosophical questions about the nature of the human condition. Drawing
from the fields of philosophy, media studies, and literature,
the contributors to The Philosophy of TV Noir illuminate the best of noir
television, including such shows as Dragnet, The Fugitive, Miami Vice,
The X-Files, CSI and 24.
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