In studying film noir, one engages in a conversation that is now, and has always been, international. Paradoxically, film noir was first nominated and defined not by Americans, but by a group of French critics just after World War II, when a huge number of wartime American films suddenly flooded French cinemas. Indeed, as James Naremore argues in his introduction to Borde and Chaumeton's seminal 1955 study Panorama du film noir américain, America's most distinct cinematic style—the film noir—was actually "invented" by the French (ix), since they were the first to articulate its characteristics. This paradox is further complicated by the fact that many of the directors who produced films noirs in America—Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, William Dieterle, Robert Siodmak, Max Ophüls, Otto Preminger—were in fact German and Austrian Jews who fled Nazi persecution and found employment in Hollywood.

In his book Genre and Hollywood, theorist Steve Neale lists some of the hallmarks of film noir: "[T]he use of voice-over and flashback, the use of high contrast lighting and other 'expressionist' devices, the focus on mentally, emotionally and physically vulnerable characters, the interest in psychology, the culture of distrust marking relations between male and female characters, and the downbeat emphasis on violence, anxiety, death, crime and compromised morality […]" (174). Whether or not we agree with Neale's definition, it should be clear that film noir has managed to persist, in various forms, and in various national cinemas, far beyond its classic American period (usually identified as 1941-55). As we will see, there exist Japanese noirs, Chinese noirs, Norwegian noirs, Danish noirs and Indian noirs. To be sure, however, these nations have not simply learned to imitate this quintessential American form, but have continually reinvented noir in exciting ways, effectively making the genre their own.

Our project in this course is twofold: 1) to examine a set of international films that have either influenced or interpreted American film noir, revealing the ways in which noir has been constructed and deconstructed over time; and 2) to understand each of the films noirs we examine in its own national and historical context—exploring such influential periods as Weimar cinema, Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave. By seeing noir through the eyes of other national cinemas, we will hopefully gain a clearer and more incisive view of American culture and ideology, especially America's ages old fascination with crime and conspiracy. More importantly, however, by limiting our scope to film noir—artificially maintaining a sort of scientific "control"—we will be able to say a great deal about the production and aesthetics of other nations' film industries, cinemas that lie far beyond the well-explored American paradigm.

week one  1/13  DIABOLIQUE (1955)

week two  1/20  DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

week three  1/27  RAW DEAL (1948) and ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)

week four   2/3  OSSESSIONE (1943)

week five  2/10  M (1931)

week six  2/17  THE THIRD MAN (1949)

week seven  2/24  HIGH AND LOW (1963)

week eight  3/2  SUZHOU RIVER (2000)

week nine  3/9  INSOMNIA (1997)

week ten  3/23  THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984)

week eleven  3/30  ALPHAVILLE (1965)

week twelve  4/6  BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964)

week thirteen  4/13  GODS OF THE PLAGUE (1970)  

week fourteen  4/20  THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977) 


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Last update: 10/10/2004