Alain Silver is a distinguished film historian and critic whose work delves deeply into pivotal cinematic genres and styles. His analyses are characterized by a keen eye for the visual aesthetics and narrative techniques that define iconic film forms. Silver explores the influences that shaped these genres, offering readers profound insights into their cultural and artistic significance. His extensive publications and articles establish him as an authoritative voice in film scholarship.
Exploring the femme fatale archetype, this book delves into the visual and narrative significance of women in classic film noir. With 400 illustrations, it highlights the diverse portrayals of these characters, from vulnerable torch singers to dangerous gun molls. Each representation reveals the complex dynamics of empowerment and victimization, showcasing how these women drive the doomed narratives central to the genre. The work serves as both an artistic celebration and critical analysis of the Fatal Woman's role in film noir.
Exploring the dark and complex world of film noir, this compendium brings together pivotal essays and analyses from the acclaimed Film Noir Reader series. It delves into the genre's defining characteristics, themes of moral ambiguity, and iconic characters. The collection features contributions from notable film scholars, offering insights into classic films and their cultural impact. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of film noir's evolution and its lasting influence on cinema and storytelling.
(Applause Books). After scores of books and commentaries on film noir and its classic period, experts Alain Silver and James Ursini turn their full attention to neo-noir, the self-conscious, mannered, sometimes ersatz, and often surprising genre that sprang from the original movement. This volume surveys the full breath of American neo-noir, its style and substance, its evolution over succeeding generations of filmmakers, from activist through postmodern to millennial and on, with extensive illustrations in black-and-white and full-color that capture the genre's dramatic and visual essence.
Noted film noir historians Alain Silver and James Ursini, acting as editors, concentrate in this work on the thirty key directors of the classic noir period. These include well-known luminaries, such as Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Nicholas Ray, and Joseph Losey as well as lesser-known lights of noir, such as Gerd Oswald, Felix E. Feist, Ida Lupino, and John Brahm. Each article will include a short biography of the director, a list of their major noir films, as well as a deep analysis of the films themselves. The book boasts over two dozen collaborators from the world of film history and criticism. Lavishly illustrated with high-resolution photos illustrating the points made by the authors, this book is a must for any aficionado of the American style of film noir.
In the 1930s the gangster film in the United States coincided with a very real and very sensational gangsterism at large in American society. Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932) borrowed liberally from the newspapers and books of the era. With the release of just these three motion pictures in barely more than a year's time, Hollywood quintessentially defined the genre. The characters, the situations, and the icons – from fast cars and tommy-guns to fancy fedoras and fancier molls – established the audience expectations associated with the gangster film that remain in force to this day. As with their Film Noir Reader series, using both reprints of seminal articles and new pieces, editors Silver and Ursini have assembled a group of essays that presents an exhaustive overview of this still vital genre. Reprints of work by such well-known film historians as Robin Wood, Andrew Sarris, Carlos Clarens, Paul Schrader, and Stuart Kaminsky explore the evolution of the gangster film through the 1970s and The Godfather . Parts 2 and 3 comprise two dozen newer articles, most of them written expressly for this volume by Ursini and Silver. These case studies and thematic analyses, from White Heat to the remake of Scarface to “The Sopranos ” complete the anthology.
Exploring noir cinema through a Los Angeles lens, this guide highlights how the city's diverse landscapes reflect themes of urban corruption and existential fatalism. It features a range of films, from classics like "Double Indemnity" and "Sunset Boulevard" to modern hits such as "Mulholland Drive" and "Pulp Fiction." With over 150 photographs, many unpublished, the book showcases the evolving backdrop of these iconic movies, revealing the intricate relationship between setting and storytelling in the noir genre.
These essays offer a broad overview of the horror film genre, from the silent screen to Scream 3 , demonstrating how it remains defiantly, frighteningly alive.
