Class, crime and international film noir : globalizing America's dark art

Class, Crime and International Film Noir argues that, in its postwar, classical phase, this dark variant of the crime film was not just an American phenomenon. Rather, these seedy tales with their doomed heroes and heroines were popular all over the world including France, Britain, Italy and Japan. Class, Crime And International Film Noir Argues That This Dark, Seedy Variant Of The Crime Film Was A Global Phenomenon From Its Inception. Broe Locates Noir's Beginnings Not In The Hollywood Post-war B Film, But Rather In The Late Poetic Realist Works In France While The Foreword By Kees Van Der Pijl, Author Of The Making Of An Atlantic Ruling Class, Supplies A Context For The Wider Political Economic Background Of The Films Studied. With Judicious Comparisons To The Rise Of Noir In Hollywood, Broe Details The Development Of Parallel Noir Strands In France, Britain, Italy, And Japan: He Describes How A Global Political And Social Situation, Similarities In Studio Mode Of Production, And Genre Commonalties Gave Rise To A Form Artists Employed To Express Discontent At The Failure Of A New World To Materialize In The Wake Of The Second World War. Besides Being A Detailed Analysis Of Global Noir, The Book Is Also An Auteur Study Of More Neglected Works By Directors Such As Renoir, Antonioni, Rosi, Kurosawa, And Mizoguchi. Preface: On Symbolic Misery And Its Attenuation (and The Crime Film) -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Global Fugitives: Outside The Law And The Cold War 'consensus' -- 1. Un Greve, Sanglant Et Poetic (a Strike, Bloody And Poetic): French Film Noir And The Defeat Of The Popular Front -- 2. The Revolution That Wasn't: Black Markets, Ressentiment, And Survival In Postwar British Film Noir -- 3. The Wintering Of The Italian Spring: From Neorealism To Film Noir Via Verdi -- 4. Occupy The Zaibatsu: Postwar Japanese Film Noir: From Democracy To The (re)appearance Of The (old) New Order -- Conclusion: Mediterranean Noir: Sunlight Gleaming Off A Battered .45. Dennis Broe. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Global Fugitives — Outside the Law and the Cold War ‘Consensus’....Pages 1-30 Une grève, sanglante et poétique (A Strike, Bloody and Poetic): French Film Noir and the Defeat of the Popular Front....Pages 31-82 The Revolution that Wasn’t: Black Markets, Ressentiment, and Survival in Post-War British Film Noir....Pages 83-114 The Wintering of the Italian Spring: From Neorealism to Film Noir via Verdi....Pages 115-145 Occupy the Zaibatsu: Post-War Japanese Film Noir From Democracy to the (Re)Appearance of the (Old) New Order....Pages 146-175 Conclusion: Mediterranean Noir — Sunlight Gleaming Off a Battered .45....Pages 176-189 Back Matter....Pages 190-233