When it appeared in France in 1955,
A Panorama of American Film Noir
was the first book ever on the genre: this clairvoyant study of Hollywood film noir is at last available in English translation.
addresses the essential amorality of its subject from a decidedly Surrealist angle, focusing on noir's dreamlike, unwonted, erotic, ambivalent and cruel atmosphere, and setting it in the social context of mid-century America.
Beginning with the first film noir,
The Maltese Falcon
, and continuing through the post war "glory days," which included such films as
Gilda
,
The Big Sheep
Dark Passage
and
The Lady from Shanghai
, Borde and Chaumeton examine the dark sides of American society, film and literature that made film noir possible, even necessary.
includes a film noir chronology, a voluminous filmography, a comprehensive index and a selection of black-and-white production stills.
"Incredibly, this is the first English translation of the very influential 1955 French book that initially identified, described and assessed the Hollywood movies that we now term film noir . . . a seminal work of cinema description and analysis and therefore an essential purchase for most libraries."—From the Starred Review in
Library Journal
Raymond Borde (1920 - 2004), founder of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, wrote extensively on film history; among his short films is a study of the artist Pierre Molinier.
Etienne Chaumeton was the film critic of the Toulouse newspaper
La Dépêche
until his death.