Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall

by Chris Fujiwara

"Tourneur was a great director, fully deserving of the thoroughly researched and perceptive treatment he receives from Chris Fujiwara."―Martin Scorsese As the director of Cat People , I Walked with a Zombie , and Night of the Demon , Jacques Tourneur crafted three horror classics which, decades later, have lost none of their power to frighten audiences. And his 1947 film Out of the Past is still acknowledged as the quintessential film noir . Yet Tourneur himself remains underappreciated and his contribution to cinema history neglected. Many of his films, however, reveal a fluid artistry absent from the routine studio fare of the era. Working in a variety of genres, from Westerns ( Canyon Passage ) and spy films ( Berlin Express ) to swashbucklers ( The Flame and the Arrow ) and melodramas ( Experiment Perilous ), Tourneur imposed a personal cinematic vision that emphasized uncertainty and ambiguity. In Jacques The Cinema of Nightfall , the first in-depth exploration of Tourneur's career, Chris Fujiwara offers a detailed film-by-film analysis of the director's four French films, his 20 MGM shorts, and his 29 studio productions, as well as his work in television. As Fujiwara shows, mystery, sensuality, and a deliberately restrained expressionism were the hallmarks of Tourneur's style, which frequently overcame the difficult circumstances in which he worked. Informative and immensely readable, this book provides an insightful and comprehensive study of an important and unjustly forgotten director.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Horror, Psychology, History

344 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

Reviews

[Empyrean · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite works of film scholarship. An invaluable text for studying Tourneur and auteurism in general.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this insightful work on the famous director. After a short foreword by Martin Scorsese we start with a portrait on Jacques, his French films, MGM short, The Nick Carter films, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man, Night of the Demon, The Fearmakers, TV films and a filmography. What a wild ride with many movie stills and photos. Really recommended!

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with this book is that it is written almost as an academic thesis.I only read to the end because Tourneur made a number of my favourite films.So sadly much of this book was to me a bore,so it is probably of use to students on film courses.

[Marc Bohm-Klotzek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book ( I just recently discovered Jaques Tourneur ) . The only thing that marred the book ( in my very humble opinion ) is the fact that much of it focuses on the technical aspects of Tourneur's movies. Nonetheless : highly recommended.