Film Noir, Vincent Vincendeau
The theme of this French article is the French antecedents of film noir. Film noir is a term used to describe the large body of films in America in the period of 1941-58, generally they focus on urban crime and corruption, on sudden episodes of violence in a culture who's fabric seems to be unravelling. They crumble the American dreams most basic promices, of hope prosperity and safety from persecution. Film noir is a term given to films of the 40's and 50's in America by some French film critics translated as black film they were often based on crime fiction.The articles sarcastic title gives an impression of Ginette Vincendeau's appreciation of early French cinema and its links with film noir. In the article he discusses a study conducted by French critics of the mid 50's, Raymond Boyde and Etienne Chaumeton. In their book they dismiss the European influence on American film noir as 'feeble' and the French as especially insignificant. Vincendeau suggests that their analysis is in some respects unarguable because French cinema on the whole
The emigres from Berlin sent to France to escape persecuction during the war; Lang, Siodmark, Sirk, Bernhardt and Tourner choose themes and locations that were very closed to or were based on the poetic realist tradition. Poetic realism films was set in urban france, amongst the Paris prolatariate or lower middle classes, with romantic criminal narratives emphasising doom and despair in everyday objects. It becomes obvious that what Versailles is proposing is true, those involved in the making of French films in the 1930's were adopting styles at this point that were to influence the shape of the film noir genre.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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