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Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

Online ISBN:
9781474498166
Print ISBN:
9781474498142
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press
Book

Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

Elyce Helford (ed.),
Elyce Helford
(ed.)
Middle Tennessee State University
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Christopher Weedman (ed.)
Christopher Weedman
(ed.)
Middle Tennessee State University
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Published online:
23 May 2024
Published in print:
17 October 2023
Online ISBN:
9781474498166
Print ISBN:
9781474498142
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press

Abstract

While few can deny its incalculable influence on popular filmmaking during and after World War II, film noir has been and remains one of the most contentious categories of cinema, involving more debates than consensus about what constitutes a noir. This collection explores the amorphous parameters of this dark cinematic phenomenon by utilising an expanded, nuanced definition of film noir, which reaches beyond traditional conceptions of genre, style, and cycle to examine its complex international origins and emphasis on issues of liminality. Through illuminating case studies of single films from nations including Argentina, the former Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Japan, Poland, Spain, and the US, the authors consider elements of genre hybridity, border crossing, boundary breaching, and other signifiers of liminality to reassess classical-era films that defy conventional generic and stylistic categorisation.

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