Film noir and the cinema of paranoia

Noir . A shadow looms. The blow, a sharp surprise. Waking and sleeping, the fear is with us and cannot be contained. Paranoia. Wheeler Winston Dixon's comprehensive work engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s that contradicted an American split-level dream of safety and security. The dark cinema of the 1960s hosted films that reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression. From smaller studio work to the vibrating pulse of today's "click and kill" video games, Dixon boldly addresses the noir artistry that keeps audiences in an ever-consumptive stupor. Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is an overview of 20th- and 21st-century noir and fatalist film practice from 1945 onwards. The book demonstrates the ways in which American cinema has inculcated a climate of fear in our daily lives, as reinforced, starting in the 1950s, by television, and later videocassettes, the web, and the Internet, to create, by the early 21st century a hypersurveillant atmosphere in which no one can avoid the barrage of images that continually assault our senses. The book begins with the return of American soldiers from World War II, 'liberated' from war in the Pacific by the newly created atomic bomb, which will come to rule American consciousness through much of the 1950s and 1960s and then, in a newer, more small-scale way, become a fixture of terrorist hardware in the post-paranoid ear of the 21st century. Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia is constructed in six chapters, each highlighting a particular 'raising of the cinematic stakes' in the creation of a completely immersible universe of images. Selling points: Expands the definition of noir to include numerous lesser known works. Deals with Red Scare films of the 1950s in the US. Examines the 'dark side' of the 1960s, or films that questioned the emerging counterculture. Explores such neo-noir films as The Last Seduction (1993), Angel Heart (1987), The Grifters (1990), Red Rock West (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995), Mulholland Drive (2001), L.A. Confidential (1997), and Memento (2000). Details the 'noir' aspects of the cybernetic age, both in online and videogame uses Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page vi) Introduction (page 1) 1. The Dream of Return (page 9) 2. The Postwar Bubble (page 37) 3. 1950s Death Trip (page 56) 4. The Flip Side of the 1960s (page 91) 5. The Failure of Culture (page 129) 6. Living in Fear (page 153) Appendix: A Gallery of Classic Noir 'Heavies' (page 170) Works Cited and Consulted (page 175) Index (page 186) The dream of return The postwar bubble Fifties death trip The flip side of the sixties The failure of culture Living in fear.