Classic French noir : gender and the cinema of fatal desire /
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| Author / Creator: | Walker-Morrison, Deborah, author. |
|---|---|
| Imprint: | London : I.B. Tauris, 2019. |
| Description: | xiii, 274 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | International library of the moving image ; 57 International library of the moving image ; 57. |
| Subject: | Film noir -- France -- History and criticism. Film noir. France. Criticism, interpretation, etc. |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11750731 |
Table of Contents:
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I. Setting the Scene
- 1. Introduction
- Defining film noir
- Corpus
- French and American film noir: historical links
- Sociological theory
- Constructivism and psychoanalysis
- Biocultural approaches
- Evolutionary psychology
- The biocultural turn in evolutionary science
- A biocultural approach to gender: similarity and difference
- The cinema of fatal desire
- 2. Fatal(e) Desire in French Poetic Realism
- Introduction: poetic realism as proto-noir
- Gendered figures in poetic realism
- Star-crossed lovers: the tragic hero and French fatale as fatalitaire
- Conclusion
- Part II. The Long Shadow of War
- 3. Looking for the Light
- Introduction: invasion, occupation, collaboration
- A cinema of paradox
- Les Années noires and crime drama
- Liberation crime drama and the myth of the Resistance
- Le réalisme noir and flawed masculinity
- Conclusion
- 4. Too Many Women? War and Fatal(e) Desire
- Introduction
- Classic American femme fatale as spider woman
- French fatale: 'Cherchez la femme'
- War, demographics and assertive femininity: sex ratio theory
- Conclusion
- Part III. Cherchez La Femme
- 5. Fatal(e) Passions: Tragic Fatalitaires and Star-Crossed Lovers
- Introduction: passionate love as universal human adaptation
- Love styles
- Star-crossed lovers
- Male sexual jealousy
- Simone Signoret as modern girl and prostitute fatalitaire
- Femininity as masquerade?
- Evil pimps
- Race, class and gender in J'irai cracker sur vos tombes [I will Spit on your Graves] (Gast, 1959)
- Conclusion
- 6. 'Thou Shalt Not Covet': Adulterous Fatalitaires
- Introduction: what do women want?
- Le dernier tournant [The Last Turn] (Chena), 1939)
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (Garnett, USA, 1946)
- From fatalitaire to femme fatale
- Thérèse Raquin [The Adulteress] (Carné, France/Italy, 1953)
- Ascenseur pour l'échafaud [Lift to The Scaffold] (Malle, 1958)
- Conclusion
- 7. Bad Girls
- Introduction: the bad-girl fatale as archetypal unruly woman
- The unruly femme and male paranoia
- What does the femme want?
- Demonic fatale as amoureuse
- The long shadow of war
- The unglamorous fatale as camouflage
- Paranoia, lethal femme power and risk
- Woman as spectacle and exchange object
- The femme as avenging angel
- Conclusion: from spectacle to subjectivity
- Part IV. Cherchez L'Homme
- 8. Fatal Men
- Introduction
- L'homme fatal
- Bonnes à tuer [One Step to Eternity] (Decoin, 1954)
- Une Manche et la Belle [A Kiss For A Killer] (Verneuil, 1957)
- La Bête à L'Affût [Beast at Bay] (Chenal, 1959): after Forests of the Night (Keene, 1956)
- Conclusion
- 9. Law Enforcers Meet the Femme
- Introduction
- Honourable cops and shady dames
- Cops and robbers; blurred boundaries
- Investigating the femme
- En cas de Malheur [Love is my Profession] (Autant-Lara, France/Italy, 1956)
- From protection to violent surveillance: the bodyguard hypothesis
- Bardot as new fatalitaire
- Conclusion
- 10. Love and Money: Gender and Consumption in Gangster Noir
- Introduction
- Urban spaces of conspicuous consumption
- Conspicuous consumption, honour and hyper-masculinity
- Reconfiguring left-handed endeavour as collaborative labour
- Females in (gangster) noir: insatiable consumers
- Domestic spaces: tradition vs modernity
- Iconic objects of conspicuous consumption: the ultimate consumer durable
- Rififi: questioning gangster culture
- Du rififi chez les femmes: the first French noir action babe
- Conclusion
- Part V. Conclusions
- Classic French Noir: The Dark Side of 'Quality' Cinema (1946-59)
- Gender and power in classic French noir
- Noir as sociohistorically inflected dramas of mate selection
- French fatale as romantic fatalitaire
- French noir as an evolving constant
- Directions for future research
- Appendices
- Appendix 1. 101 French Films Noirs
- Filmography layout
- 1930s: poetic realism/early noir (18)
- 1941-4 Occupation noir (8)
- 1946-59 Classic French noir (75)
- Appendix 2. Tables
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
