The Film Noir Reader

Anonymous

at 5:09 am

Barring an English translation of Borde and Chaumeton’s seminal Panorama du Film Noir Américain, this collection may well be the most valuable Film Noir reference available. It gathers nearly all the most important essays and articles of the last 40 years, including the introduction to the above-mentioned work by Borde and Chaumeton, Paul Schrader’s “Notes on Film Noir”, Raymond Durgnat’s “Family Tree of Film Noir” and Higham and Greenberg’s “Black Cinema” chapter from Hollywood in The Forties. The collection is exceptionally valuable, if rather poorly edited; I wouldn’t suggest throwing out one’s original, dog-eared copies of the items mentioned above. The book also suffers from a difficult-to-read sans serif typeface. Still, you’re unlikely to find all these valuable articles together in any other book. That alone makes it a valuable buy.
Rating: 5 / 5