In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City

by Imogen Sara Smith

Although film noir is traditionally associated with the mean streets of the Dark City, this volume explores the genre from a new angle, focusing on non-urban settings. Through detailed readings of more than 100 films set in suburbs, small towns, on the road, in the desert, borderlands and the vast, empty West, the author investigates the alienation expressed by film noir, pinpointing its motivation in the conflict between desires for escape, autonomy and freedom--and fears of loneliness, exile and dissolution.

Through such films as Out of the Past, They Live by Night and A Touch of Evil, this critical study examines how film noir reflected radical changes in the physical and social landscapes of postwar America, defining the genre's contribution to the eternal debate between the values of individualism and community.

Genres: Film, Media Tie In, Nonfiction, Noir, Pop Culture, Mystery, History

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2011

About the author

Imogen Sara Smith is the author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City (McFarland, 2011) and Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy (Gambit Publishing, 2008). She has written on topics ranging from photography and painting to cinema history. For the latter she has written articles for various publications, including Bright Lights Film, Criterion, Noir City Magazine, moving Image Source, etc.

Imogen Sara Smith is also a performing arts librarian and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Articles:

http://brightlightsfilm.com/author/im...

http://www.movingimagesource.us/artic...

http://www.examiner.com/indie-movie-i...

http://chiseler.org/tagged/imogen%20s...

https://www.criterion.com/current/aut...

http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noi...

Interview (audio):
http://www.thecinephiliacs.net/2013/1...

Interview: http://aaroncutler.tumblr.com/post/71...

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book providing original analyses of over 100 noir films but also breaks new theoretical ground by examining noir settings outside of its nearly cliche city at night reputation. Immediately re-read this book after I finished it and am impressed with the tight and inspired writing as well as the theoretical analysis. Smith’s central thesis about noir:

Below the surface, the force driving noir stories is the urge to escape: from the past, from the law, from the ordinary, from poverty, from constricting relationships, from the limitations of the self. Noir found its fullest expression in America because the American psyche harbors a passion for independence . . . With this desire for autonomy comes a corresponding fear of loneliness and exile. The more we crave success, the more we dread failure; the more we crave freedom, the more we dread confinement. This is the shadow that spawns all of noir’s shadows: the anxiety imposed by living in a country that elevates opportunity above security; one that instills the compulsion to “make it big," but offers little sympathy to those who fall short. Film noir is about people who break the rules, pursuing their own interests outside the boundaries of decent society, and about how they are destroyed by society - or by themselves. Noir springs from a fundamental conflict between the values of individual freedom and communal safety: a fundamental doubt that the two can coexist. . . . Noir stories are powered by the need to escape, but they are structured around the impossibility of escape: their fierce, thwarted energy turns inward. The ultimate noir landscape, immeasurable as the ocean and confining as a jail cell, is the mind - the darkest city of all.

Drives her analysis of noir films that are not set in the city. She takes her thesis, uses it as a marker of noir-ness and then takes us on a tour of movies set in homes, small towns, the countryside, on the highway, in Mexico, in the desert, and in the mind. One of the first things you notice is how some of the most iconic film noirs are in fact not set in the city at night: The Postman Always Rings Twice, Gun Crazy, and Detour, for example. Many film critics and noir theoreticians have tried to expand the noir category to bring in a broader range of films, but I think Smith’s is the most successful approach because of the thesis upon which it is grounded. It even allows her to write a chapter on the Noir Western, which is sure to cause some of those films to be viewed through a different lens, particularly the films of Anthony Mann.

Great book that successfully relocates noir beyond the stock definitions.

[Jay Amari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noir of the Mind

I first caught Imogen Sara Smith in her commentary on the noir film RIDE THE PINK HORSE, and immediately tracked down her book “In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City”. It is a fresh approach to viewing the canon of noir films that have populated the cineastes’ consciousness since the 1940s, the time when most agree that “film noir” began.

Her jumping off point is clear- she assumes that film noir primarily functions in an urban landscape, cities haunted by shadows and characters with shadowy intentions. Her thesis is that the canon is filled with great examples of film noir that exists outside of the gritty cityscapes.

In this regard her Chapter 5, “Blind Highways: Noir on the Road”, and chapter 9 “Private Traps: Noir in the Mind”, unearth new interpretation for the noir appreciation.

“In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City” is a rich compendium for the film aficionado as well as for the student or researcher who desires viewing rare examples of the American style that has inspired and influenced filmmakers worldwide.

BTW- her commentary on the Criterion release of NIGHTMARE ALLEY is informative and will add to your appreciation of the film. ;-)

[reveurdart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imogen Sara Smith is one of my favourite film writers because she is a very succinct and engaging writer, and that's why I have long wanted to re-read this one by her. Her observations are always spot on, as her writing for Noir City magazine also clearly shows. What makes this book so relevant is that she focuses on a topic rarely discussed when talking of Noir: Film Noirs not set in cities.

[Mark Schoen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“America is a nation of aliens, a country of strangers built on ideals of independence and freedom, faith in the ability to shape one’s character and life. Film noir turned up the underside of this philosophy: selfishness, distrust, and a lack of fixed identity..”

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a film phenomenon that is so hard to define, film noir certainly has seen its share of books. I was familiar with Imogen Sara Smith from DVD bonus features, so I figured the topic was in safe hands. I was still impressed. This is an excellent exploration of film noir's vision of suburban, small town, and rural life (answer: it's a pretty dark one). To put the noir world outside of the city in its proper context, she first offers a very good overview of how the the "Dark City" fits into noir iconography. Examining everything from classics, to B films and noir westerns, Smith does a great job positioning film noir in the middle of post-war America's hopes and anxieties, its sense of alienation, and its perennial rootlessness.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, thorough, insightful. Imogen Sara Smith is a wonderful teacher and writer!

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional book that does a fantastic job not only of looking at films outside "city limits" of film noir, but does so much more. Smith's writing is filled with depth and compels you to watch (or re-watch) these great films, thinking about them in ways you may never have considered before. A must-read/must-own book for all lovers of film, noir or otherwise.