Film Noir Resources

 

Gaslight (1944)

This module is presented as a developing reference to further materials that will help expand your understanding and study of Film Noir.

BOOKS

Books available to access online via the CCSF Library with your RAMID

In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity by Frank Krutnick (Links to an external site.)

Create a FREE Archive.org (Links to an external site.) account to "borrow" these and other books!

A Panorama of American Film Noir by Raymond Bourde & Etienne Chaumeton (Links to an external site.)

Free access via the Internet Archive, A Panorama is an early key work originally produced in French that lays out early thoughts on the development, context and production of American Film Noir.

Encyclopedia of Film Noir by Geoff Mayer & Brian McDonnell (Links to an external site.)

The authors first examine the debate surrounding the parameters of the genre and the many different ways it is defined. They discuss the Noir City, its setting and backdrop, and also the cultural (WWII) and institutional (the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and the Production Code Administration) influences on the sub-genres. An analysis of the low budget and series film noirs provides information on those cult classics.

Film Noir Reader Ed. Alain Silver and James Ursini (Links to an external site.)

This bountiful anthology combines all the key early writings on film noir with many newer essays, including some published here for the first time. The collection is assembled by the editors of the Third Edition of Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, now regarded as the standard work on the subject.

WEBSITES AND LINKS

Film Noir Foundation (Links to an external site.)

The Film Noir Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an international cinematic movement. (Film Noir Foundation Resources)

Open Culture - 60 Free Film Noirs (Links to an external site.) 

Roget Ebert's "Guide to Film Noir Genre" (Links to an external site.)

Dark Corners (Links to an external site.) (a project by Sandy Hobbs and David Cornwell)

VIDEOS

A Video defining Film Noir


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