The Philosophy of Film Noir (The Philosophy of Popular Culture)

266 Pages·2005·2.29 MB·English

by  Mark T. Conard

Foreword i
The Philosophy of Film Noir
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Foreword iii
The
Philosophy
of
Film Noir
edited by
Mark T. Conard
Foreword by Robert Porfirio
The University Press of Kentucky
iv Robert Porfirio
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright © 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The philosophy of film noir / edited by Mark T. Conard with a foreword
by Robert Porfirio.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2377-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8131-2377-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Film noir—History and criticism. I. Conard, Mark T., 1965-
PN1995.9.F54P55 2005
791.43’6552—dc22
2005030639
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
Foreword v
To Bill Irwin, Pepper Landis, John and Linda Pappas,
Read Schuchardt, and Aeon Skoble—movie lovers all,
and the best friends a guy could have
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Foreword vii
Contents
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
Part 1: The Essence and Elements of Noir
Nietzsche and the Meaning and Definition of Noir 7
Mark T. Conard
A Darker Shade: Realism in Neo-Noir 23
Jason Holt
Moral Clarity and Practical Reason in Film Noir 41
Aeon J. Skoble
Cherchez la Femme Fatale: The Mother of Film Noir 49
Read Mercer Schuchardt
From Sherlock Holmes to the Hard-Boiled Detective
in Film Noir 69
Jerold J. Abrams
Part 2: Existentialism and Nihilism in Film Noir
Film Noir and the Meaning of Life 91
Steven M. Sanders
The Horizon of Disenchantment: Film Noir, Camus,
and the Vicissitudes of Descent 107
Alan Woolfolk
Symbolism, Meaning, and Nihilism in Quentin Tarantino’s
Pulp Fiction 125
Mark T. Conard
vviiiiii RCoobnetertn Ptsorfirio
Part 3: Six Classic Films Noirs
Film Noir and the Frankfurt School: America as Wasteland
in Edgar Ulmer’s Detour 139
Paul A. Cantor
Knowledge, Morality, and Tragedy in The Killers
and Out of the Past 163
Ian Jarvie
Moral Man in the Dark City: Film Noir, the Postwar
Religious Revival, and The Accused 187
R. Barton Palmer
On Reason and Passion in The Maltese Falcon 207
Deborah Knight
Ride the Pink Horse: Money, Mischance, Murder, and
the Monads of Film Noir 223
Alain Silver
Contributors 239
Index 243
Foreword ix
Foreword
In the fall of 1976, when I wrote the article “No Way Out: Existential Mo-
tifs in the Film Noir” for Sight and Sound (vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 212–17), little
would I have expected that some twenty-five years later a collection of es-
says under the title The Philosophy of Film Noir would be published. Yet
here it is, a welcome indication of how far we have traveled in terms of
public awareness and scholarly respectability. Indeed, in 1976, the term film
noir was little known beyond a coterie of French and American cineasts
and derided by some as a specious classification created in a post hoc man-
ner and not worthy of serious critical attention. By now, the ontology of
film noir seems to be settled in its favor, although epistemological argu-
mentation rages on. Anyone interested in tracing the course of this argu-
mentation over the past quarter century would be well advised to consult
the appendices in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style
(ed. Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, with Carl Macek and Robert Porfirio,
3rd ed., rev. and expanded [Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook, 1992]) as well as
the Film Noir Readers (Alain Silver and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader
[1996; New York: Limelight, 2001], Film Noir Reader 2 [New York: Lime-
light, 1999], and Film Noir Reader 4 [New York: Limelight, 2004]; and Rob-
ert Porfirio, Alain Silver, and James Ursini, eds., Film Noir Reader 3 [New
York: Limelight, 2001]), which, taken together, cover virtually all the con-
troversies surrounding the field of film noir scholarship and evidence the
debt that such scholarship owes to Alain Silver.
That the essence of film noir is yet to be distilled is implicit in the
excellent essays contained in this volume, each of which sees film noir
through a slightly different lens. The essays here go well beyond my earlier,
somewhat simplistic effort to extract a “philosophy” of film noir in terms
of an outlook on life that these diverse films seemed to share—an attitude
toward existence that was akin to modern existentialism, particularly as it
evolved in postwar France. Perhaps that is why it was the French cineasts
who were the first to identify the cycle. But, if I may be allowed to indulge
myself a bit here, I would like to take issue with their assertion (and that of
other critics following in their wake, myself included) that what was sur-
ix