The Rough Guide to Film Noir

Paul A. Lewis

at 11:21 am

I’ve bought a few of the Rough Guides film-oriented series of books, and for the most part I’ve enjoyed them. However, speaking generally about the series I’ve noticed that within the books there’s frustratingly little direct reference to sources, and the comments on individual films or on groups of films seem to rely more on generally-held and widely-repeated claims than on innovative research, and hence I would say that these books should really be seen as an introduction to the genres they cover, as opposed to a detailed analysis of these genres.

On the subject of this specific entry into the series, film fans who are already familiar with the literature produced about films noirs will find this particular book frustrating, as for the most part it simply repeats generally-held comments about the movies that have been explored in greater depth elsewhere: there’s little originality in terms of research or critical insight into the movies. More pernickity noir-addicts, like myself, will find the book’s use of the incorrect (but now moderately widely-used) plural ‘film noirs’ to be mildly frustrating. (For the uninitiated, ‘films noirs’ is considered more ‘correct’, as it obeys the rules of French grammar and ‘film noir’ is, after all, a French term.)

Likewise, despite its attempts at serious criticism this book is not a good source for students of film who are studying at anything above ‘A’ Level: the entries on individual films are very short and don’t go into enough detail, and furthermore there’s a lack of referencing of sources, so the book doesn’t leave a strong enough ‘paper trail’ for an undergraduate student who may be preparing an essay on the film noir genre (or ‘style’, if you prefer).

However, casual fans of these movies may find the book helps them to identify other movies that they may like to watch. For casual fans of films noirs, I would recommend this book, and I would also recommend Silver and Ursini’s FILM NOIR: AN ENCYCLOPEDIC REFERENCE TO THE AMERICAN STYLE.
Rating: 3 / 5