Film noir has always been associated with urban landscapes, and no
two cities have been represented more prominently in these films
than New York and Los Angeles. In noir and neo-noir films since the
1940s, both cities are ominous locales where ruthless ambition,
destructive impulses, and dashed hopes are played out against
backdrops indifferent to human dramas. In Urban Noir: New York and
Los Angeles in Shadow and Light, James J. Ward and Cynthia J.
Miller have brought together essays by an international group of
scholars that examine the dark appeal of these two cities. The
essays in this volume explore aspects of the noir and neo-noir
cityscape that have been relatively unexamined, including the role
of sound and movement through space, the distinctive character of
certain neighborhoods and locales, and the importance of individual
moments in time. Among the films discussed in this book are classic
noirs Double Indemnity (1944), He Walked by Night (1948), and Criss
Cross (1949), as well as neo-noirs such as Cotton Comes to Harlem
(1970), Klute (1971), Taxi Driver (1976), Eyes of Laura Mars
(1978), Cruising (1980), Alphabet City (1984), Devil in a Blue
Dress (1995), Drive (2011), Rampart (2011), and Nightcrawler
(2014). Uniting these essays is a thematic orientation toward
darkness, whether interpreted in atmospheric and architectural
terms, in social and psychological terms, or in terms of disruptive
change, economic dislocation, and real or perceived existential
threats. Offering multiple new perspectives on a wide range of
films, Urban Noir will be of interest to scholars of film, media,
politics, sociology, history, and popular culture.
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