Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

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short, the interpretative community exercised an influence over genre, and therefore, it was more important to place an a priori meaning on a text regardless of a specific audience. This notion contributes to a more conventional approach to text in which the analysis is grounded in a comparative overview of several noir productions and noir filmmakers. In this respect, I agree with Patricia Pisters when she writes about cinema genre: In talking about cinema, I have been talking about life as well; however, I do not want to make too many claims. I am not arguing that this perspective offers in some sense a better view of the world (there is no hierarchy). I simply want to indicate that some mutations are taking place, both in the image and in the world. Developments in science, art and philosophy all indicate changes in perception and changes in our relation to the world. It may be that this involves a generational shift (…) Ultimately, we have no choice but to change. (Pisters 2003:223) Although this may sound a bit too general, I cite these remarks because the “mutations (...) both in the image and in the world” were, back then, more like metamorphoses; they helped to achieve a generic cast to the individual image for each movie. While some critics, like Thomas Sobchack, believe that “the subject matter of a genre film is a story” or that “[it] is not something that matters outside the film, even if it inadvertently tells us something about the time and place of its creation” (Sobchack 1975:196), one could argue that this does not lay sufficient emphasis on the fact that genres go through cycles of popularity even if the basic coordinates of genre have remained stable over time. This also reinforces what I explained above, that back in classic Hollywood, studios recognised that genres were part of the whole movie business’s drive for profitability, so well-established film companies sought identification with popular genres. Therefore, spectators were to a limited extent able to identify genres by the corporate names and logos of the studios. Thomas Sobchack also justifies the existence of genre as a way “to make concrete and perceivable the configuration inherent in its ideal form” (ibid.). In the case of film noir, the “ideal form” is implicit in its iconography. Furthermore, its “ideal form” is materialised through its narrative properties, or rather certain patterns of visual narration, delimited by a tangible timeframe (essentially from the forties and fifties). On the whole, therefore, I consider that many of the theoretical problems of talking about genre have been overlooked, especially in the case of film noir. Genres are protean 398
constructions that make it difficult for genre theory to determine whether or where a given film fits within a finite taxonomy of genres, on the one hand, and to state whether it is bound to a certain culture and time (or rather if it is trans-cultural), on the other. As Andrew Tudor concludes: Most uses of genre effectively invent answers to such questions by implicitly claiming to tap some archetypal characteristic of the genre, some universal human response. This depends on the particular context of the assumptions employed and on a more general notion of film language. To leap in with genre immediately is to put the cart before the horse. (Tudor 2003:10) 399
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Joaquim da Silva Universidade de Av
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To Antonio, who made this possible.
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Acknowledgements This long journey
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Finally, I owe a huge debt of grati
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keywords abstract Film Noir, genre,
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2 Social and Political Influences o
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2.4 Joseph H. Lewis................
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Figure 42. Force of Evil ..........
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I. Introduction: Paving the Way for
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term that the film industry itself
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about which films themselves consti
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also, in the films’ fundamental n
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American films after the Nazi occup
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we also find a disruption of the wo
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oth in these French productions of
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Hollywood feature films but it did
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throughout this work); and c) to di
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odies, or as killers and crooks, bu
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these films was to confer on them a
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writer, director, producer, and art
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cinema does not have the power of
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Before working on The Dark Mirror,
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y taking it “from the outside.”
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and many, if not most, films would
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1.1.1 Dashiell Hammett In 1929, Das
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tough appearance, by their occupati
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Apart from “The Continental Op”
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unsettling when for example shootin
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1.1.2 Raymond Chandler Raymond Chan
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Figure 4. The Big Sleep the chaotic
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eleased to the big screen by MGM wi
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most fastidious visions of London i
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hometowns and move into bigger citi
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Double Indemnity started the trend
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has happened, but, as if hypnotized
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destructive, or used by stronger wo
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Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) into a noir
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Home (1937) - were two living proof
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which collapses the distinction bet
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Figure 10. Deadline at Dawn Alex’
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1.1.6 William Riley Burnett Another
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Figure 11. High Sierra The Asphalt
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1.1.7 Conclusions What made the det
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fiction managed to provide for a de
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escalation in illegal drinking plac
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Ben Hecht story and despite being p
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Mercy! Is this the end of Rico?”
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The third originating gangster movi
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part of the recurrent patterns of v
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protagonist of Edgar Ulmer’s Deto
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exemplify in Part III (“Space and
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1.3 The Gothic Romance 87 And trave
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titlecard when the film opens alert
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In Rebecca the beautiful, desirable
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forties. Thematically, the represen
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To complicate this matter further,
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trampled under by war and revolutio
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he says, when Expressionism ended,
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These early Expressionist films, wi
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student, Balduin (Paul Wegener hims
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(Tragedy of the Street, 1927, aka W
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plots with calculating precision. G
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perverted and neurotic sex murderer
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1.5 French Poetic Realism Poetic Re
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(Michèle Morgan), whose godfather
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strikingly atmospheric view of the
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Jean Paulhan, editor of La Nouvelle
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Julien Duvivier’s Pépé Le Moko
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the combination of lighting effects
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peculiar expressionistic lighting a
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Figure 28. Son of Frankenstein This
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Figure 29. Murders in the Rue Morgu
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alienation mixed with nuanced perfo
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2 Social and Political Influences o
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Liberal reforms soon became a spuri
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Polonsky, Jules Dassin, and Edward
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which are themselves historical eve
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Production Code Administration. Thi
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In this particular case, one can se
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Neff: Will you be here too? Phyllis
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against any possible theft of groce
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2.3 Postwar Readjustment If the moo
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In this group of films, the bleak a
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explain, these noir heroes of the f
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(Gilda, White Heat, Scarlet Street,
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seething excitations” and adds th
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Romanticism present at the very hea
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to persist and overcome difficultie
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III. Noir Thematics 1 Essential Ele
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its modernist sensibility, enabled
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Wyatt), cooks breakfast, domestic r
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structures of constituted authority
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1.2 Space and the Noir City Film no
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other people and developing a calcu
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I am the city. Hub and heart of Ame
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1.3 Trouble With Girls: The Femme F
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intelligent and powerful, if destru
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significant discussion of film noir
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Nevertheless, the message is quite
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Another example of the evolution of
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deceiving women. Like many of their
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Either as a femme fatale or an homm
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1.5 Dazed and Confused: The Voiceov
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an impersonal “you” giving the
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of war veterans who, unfolding thei
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1.6 Noir Atmospherics: Cinematograp
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John Alton’s highly stylised phot
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Figure 41. Stranger on the Third Fl
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indoctrination in the movie in the
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in the popular imagination. While t
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1.7 Sounds of the City: Jazz Soundt
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music, combines with images of patr
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Figure 45. Out of the Past Non-dieg
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ealm of near-explicit sexual metaph
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the two, affirming that “Jazz is
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City, Paramount’s Union Station a
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In my analysis of The Big Combo in
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Consequently, in the fifties, we st
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2 Noir and the Film Auteur 2.1 Aute
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noticeably the case, for example, w
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point out the fact that it is only
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elationship to the way a director t
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2.1.1 Billy Wilder Billy Wilder pla
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performance is full of understated
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Figure 54. Sunset Boulevard Wilder
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Figure 55. Ace in the Hole All of B
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2.1.2 Orson Welles He may have only
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For example, in the scene above (fi
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As Leo Braudy in The World in a Fra
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slanting compositions, and brillian
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2.1.3 Otto Preminger Austrian film
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plans, June still shows her love fo
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Figure 61. Where the Sidewalk Ends
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project my viewpoint on the audienc
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postulated as the “doctrine of si
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pouvait espérer sortir de la déno
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I am at the barber's, and a copy of
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certain community, our subjective r
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interpretant” (Stam 1992:6). Here
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The notion of “text” as a disco
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only agree that these disciplines s
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2 The Universe of Motifs and Symbol
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Andrew Sarris once wrote that “If
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exception to this rule, his movies
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independent production companies in
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Figure 66. Double Indemnity In the
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Figure 67. Scarlet Street The symbo
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contorted Expressionistic grimace,
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Figure 70. Metropolis The clock mot
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Figure 71. Strangers on a Train The
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“When I was young I wanted to be
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themselves in the projection of inn
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woman in the portrait throughout I
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scenes as the attachment is purely
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(namely The Spiral Staircase and Ou
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Chris meets by accident, is a hellc
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2.1.1.4 Conclusion All in all, ther
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Question: Scarlet Street had the sa
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an accepted and well-known screenwr
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Siodmak’s next two films for Univ
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money from Dundee. A more harrowing
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2.2.1 The Spiral Staircase (1946) a
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here increased by the unsteady blac
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Figure 83. The Spiral Staircase Thi
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Warren, making either of them the p
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2.2.1.2 The “Optical Unconscious
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camera is expressive, as it informs
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ordering” - appears to match this
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eyewitness, but at the same time, a
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Figure 87. The Spiral Staircase Bas
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While Cross implicitly acknowledges
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Figure 89. Affair in Trinidad Other
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However, much of this iconography t
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long, wooden staircase while trying
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Figure 93. The Spiral Staircase Fig
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of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The B
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almost part of a game, emphasising
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2.3 Jacques Tourneur Born in Paris
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a laughing audience), and broken la
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violent mishaps could have led to h
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writers like Dashiell Hammett (who,
Page 363 and 364: Chuck Tatum, a cynical, frustrated
Page 365 and 366: on, Ann, who represents his hope fo
Page 367 and 368: This kind of temporal manipulation
Page 369 and 370: ought forward by the characters of
Page 371 and 372: found Kathie: “I was glad it was
Page 373 and 374: Figure 102. Out of the Past In this
Page 375 and 376: Figure 104. The Lady from Shanghai
Page 377 and 378: Jeff: Give him time. Kathie: You ar
Page 379 and 380: Figure 106. Out of the Past The sce
Page 381 and 382: Gun Crazy, a barrage of police gunf
Page 383 and 384: 2.4 Joseph H. Lewis Considered as a
Page 385 and 386: untold storied of ordinary men and
Page 387 and 388: through windows, to provide the ind
Page 389 and 390: 2.4.1 The Big Combo (1955) and the
Page 391 and 392: of most noir films including The Bi
Page 393 and 394: 2.4.1.1 “First is First and Secon
Page 395 and 396: In The Big Combo the unconscious tr
Page 397 and 398: It is not only in terms of narrativ
Page 399 and 400: Although the idea is not to go into
Page 401 and 402: Figure 113. Scarlet Street Neff’s
Page 403 and 404: 2.4.1.2 The Big Combo and Generic T
Page 405 and 406: and knowing they are both surrounde
Page 407 and 408: As the noir movement entered the la
Page 409 and 410: V. Conclusions: 1 Genre Revisited T
Page 411 and 412: on social aspects through a dramati
Page 413: Buscombe is right: if we take a gen
Page 417 and 418: Such factors have been scrutinised
Page 419 and 420: Thematically, noir films as a group
Page 421 and 422: While enforcement of the Production
Page 423 and 424: are “as often nihilistic, cynical
Page 425 and 426: which is normally not associated wi
Page 427 and 428: morality brought about by these noi
Page 429 and 430: It is within this cinematic and cri
Page 431 and 432: ____________ (1994). The Semiotic C
Page 433 and 434: ____________ (1992b). Farewell, My
Page 435 and 436: E Easthope, Antony (1993). Contempo
Page 437 and 438: Greenberg, Joel & Higham, Charles (
Page 439 and 440: James, David E. (2005). The Most Ty
Page 441 and 442: Malkiewicz, Kris (1986). Film Light
Page 443 and 444: N Naremore, James (1978). The Magic
Page 445 and 446: Polan, Dana (1986). Power and Paran
Page 447 and 448: ____________ (2006). Ava Gardner:
Page 449 and 450: Sullivan, Ellie (1986). Jacques Lac
Page 451 and 452: Wilson, Edmund (1962). Classics and
Page 453 and 454: Appendix I: Annotated Filmography T
Page 455 and 456: Beware, My Lovely RKO 1952. Prod: C
Page 457 and 458: Christmas Holiday Univ 1944. Prod:
Page 459 and 460: Dark Corner, The Fox 1946. Prod: Fr
Page 461 and 462: Framed Col 1947. Prod: Jules Schern
Page 463 and 464: House on 92 nd Street, The Fox 1945
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Killing, The UA 1956. Prod: James B
Page 467 and 468:
Mildred Pierce WB 1945. Prod: Jerry
Page 469 and 470:
One Way Street Univ 1950. Prod: Leo
Page 471 and 472:
Repeat Performance EL 1947. Prod: A
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Stranger, The RKO 1946. Prod: S.P.
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Unsuspected, The WB 1947. Prod: Cha
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B) Other Relevant Filmography The f
Page 479 and 480:
Last Laugh, The ScreenSound 1924. P
Page 481 and 482:
Appendix II The Motion Picture P
Page 483 and 484:
VIII. Religion 1. No film or episod
Page 485 and 486:
B. By reason of the mobility of fil
Page 487 and 488:
Reasons Underlying the Particular A
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VIII. Religion The reason why minis
Page 491 and 492:
146, 152, 186, 192, 229, 250, 298,
Page 493 and 494:
high-contrast, 11, 46, 172 Highway
Page 495 and 496:
350, 352, 353, 354, 356, 357, 359,
Page 497:
Walsh, Raoul, 56, 57, 66, 73, 223,
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