The Noir Style
by Alain Silver, James Ursini
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alain Silver, James UrsiniEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-12-06
ISBN: 0879517220
Number of pages: 248
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover
Book Reviews of The Noir Style
Book Review: Noir gold!
Summary: 5 Stars
Alain Silver has already written the definitive book on the subject with his (and Elizabeth Ward) 'Film Noir: An encyclopaedic reference to the American style' and now with `The Noir Style' he has written the definitive book about the look of these movies.
Most critics agree that style was one of the main elements of this genre and Paul Schrader went further to suggest that noir style was working out the conflict visually. Where would this kind of movie be without its deep shadows and expressive lighting? With over two hundred production stills the authors explore the various characteristics and meanings of this essentially American art form. What makes the book so wonderful for me, apart from the excellent design by Bernard Schleifer, are the stills, mostly large one to a page and beautifully printed as 175 screen duotones, they leap off the page. Each photo has a very comprehensive caption.
As well as the seven chapters there are several spreads called 'Motif' where certain visual treatments are examined in more detail, prison bars, dream and flashback, face and gesture, sexual debasement, night and the wheel and one I thought particularly interesting about photographer Weegee (his real name was Arthur Fellig and he got his obscure nickname from his job, in the twenties, at The New York Times, where he worked in the photo darkrooms removing excess water from prints before they were dried, he did this with a squeegee) he covered New York city for various tabloid papers and his style was a photographic version of the noir movies. Page forty-seven shows one of his photos of a dead man on a city pavement, wearing a blood soaked shirt, over the page is a still of Kirk Douglas playing dead from the movie `Out of the Past', they actually have very little in common, one is sanitised reel life the other is real life.
'The Noir Style' could not be any better and with Silver's 'Film Noir' encyclopaedia you will have a very full account of this fascinating movie genre. One other noir film book I have enjoyed is 'Dark City' by Eddie Muller, a detailed text and picture study. A neat touch is that Muller's written the book in the language style of the hardboiled private eye books of the forties...all three books hit the bull's eye!
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