Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City

by Nicholas Christopher

The acclaimed novelist and poet explores the cultural identity of film noir and examines the entire movement of film to which it belongs

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Noir, Media Tie In, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

Nicholas Christopher was born and raised in New York City. He was educated at Harvard College, where he studied with Robert Lowell and Anthony Hecht. Afterward, he traveled and lived in Europe. He became a regular contributor to the New Yorker in his early twenties, and began publishing his work in other leading magazines, both in the United States and abroad, including Esquire, the New Republic, the New York Review of Books, the Nation, and the Paris Review. He has appeared in numerous anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of Poetry, the Paris Review 50th Anniversary Anthology, the Best American Poetry, Poet's Choice, the Everyman's Library Poems of New York and Conversation Pieces, the Norton Anthology of Love, the Faber Book of Movie Verse, and the Grand Street Reader. He has edited two major anthologies himself, Under 35: The New Generation of American Poets (Anchor, 1989) and Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry Since 1975 (Scribner, 1994) and has translated Martial and Catullus and several modern Greek poets, including George Seferis and Yannis Ritsos. His books have been translated and published many other countries, and he is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from various institutions, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught at Yale, Barnard College, and New York University, and is now a Professor on the permanent faculty of the Writing Division of the School of the Arts at Columbia University. He lives in New York City with his wife, Constance Christopher, and continues to travel widely, most frequently to Venice, the Hawaiian island of Kauai, and the Grenadines.

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Power of Film.
Paul Schrader, quoted in book, says style is the cornerstone of film noir : "A nightmarish world of American mannerism which was by far more a creation than a reflection." It therefore "worked out its conflicts visually rather than thematically." For these reasons films like 'Kiss Me Deadly,' and 'Gun Crazy' are works of art.

Author tends to wander around, but when he's on focus examining pix like 'The Lady fr Shanghai,' 'The Big Clock,' 'Dead Reckoning,' 'Out of the Past,' you exhale w admiration. Casinos, night clubs, soulless corporations, scarred and unscarred streets within the city at night (for noir is urban) punctuate the genre. The urban dwellers, he notes, living within a haze of moral ambiguities, betrayals and shifting allegiances, stumble upon booby traps that set off boomerang effects.

McLuhan has pointed out that the Power of Film - and it has staggering power to shape, influence us - lies in its ability to present a scene that would takes pages of prose to describe. Film can exercise a point-of-view within seconds. Noir? Violence, sex, dreams. "If there is a trinity of forces behind noir," adds author, "that may be it."

The pic "Pulp Fiction" is not noir. It's gangland camp like all of Tarantino. "Its obsessions remain inturned," writes author, "and self-indulgent. It is not a quest into the heart of darkness." Author - Nicholas Christopher, poet-novelist - sure as hell knows how to light up a noir cigarette, and keep it smoking. A fine book on noir. Ah, inhalation !

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An examination of the film noir genre of films, starting in the 1940's, and going on to today. 300 films are examined. I think the author has perhaps labored in the faculty lounge a bit too long.

[Muzzlehatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this one. Some of the in-depth analysis of particular films is good -- "Dead Reckoning" stands out -- but this comes off much more as personal essay than a really valuable analysis for a wide audience. Perhaps that's what Mr Christopher was intending -- or perhaps he let his novelistic/poetic tendencies (most of his published work is in those media) get in the way of a thoroughgoing analysis of the subject. He's sloppy in his research at times -- Frank Capra was NOT native-born; Fritz Lang didn't direct "Beware My Lovely" -- and he seems at times to come to the genre with preconceived notions that get in the way of a more measured and nuanced approach, e.g. claiming that "Rififi" is not noir (because it's French, though its director is American) in one sentence and being similarly dismissive of all other non-American attempts, but going on at very great length about "The Usual Suspects", surely not as self-evidently noir as the author supposes. He overuses the 'labyrinth' motif and makes some fairly ridiculous claims -- Shakespeare, the proto-noir writer? -- and his slighting of the creative elements besides the directors and cinematographers sometimes detracts from his otherwise solid descriptions of the action. No mention of such luminaries as Ida Lupino or Dan Duryea?

That said, the novelistic approach does keep things interesting, and he does spend a fair amount of time on some of the lesser-known examples in the style. So overall, worth a read, but certainly not the first book you should look for if you're interested in noir.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frustrating book. Liked the way it began, but mostly downhill from there. The stars began falling and now two seems about right. Overall, relects on the author as pompous and pretentious.

The first couple chapters at least try to deal with the ". . . American City" in the book's subtitle. By the end, it had become a totally different beast -- seems cobbled together from articles, conference presentations, maybe even class lectures. The author, a poet, is now a full-time professor at Columbia U., and if one were able to see his official CV, those conference presentations probably would be cited.

From a semi-scholarly tone, minus the footnotes, with hardly any single first-person references, the final few chapters are more personal and informal and, dare we say, sloppy, too. But that's not to say the whole book isn't sloppy, because it certainly is: the author badly needed both an editor and a proofreader, e.g., Georgia O'Keeffe's name is spelled wrong in the index; the director of one movie is identified as one person in the text and another in the list of noir films in the back of the book (I didn't make a note at the time and don't care enough now to comb through to find out which film); there are a variety of detail errors in film descriptions; and, perhaps most egregious, the author says Bedford Falls in "It's A Wonderful Life" "would have devolved into Pottersville" after "the hero's suicide." Has the guy seen the film? It's what would have happened if George Bailey HADN"T BEEN BORN.

But, slop aside, and wandering tone aside, there's still lots NOT to like. I found the author's use of the term "films noirs" irritating. if you want to be French, why not "films noir"? Or if you want to be American, how about "noir films"? But the double plural is stupid!

Many digressions into leftish philosophy and psychology. In fact, I've decided I'm tired of writing about it. Let's just say that if you've seen lots of noir films (so the guy's descriptions won't spoil them for you) and you're more interested in the Cahiers du Cinema treatment than in reading about the films and actors and directors, than you might try this book. Oh, the two lists of films at the end are worth noting.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like watching the film noirs, this might be a good read for you. The lively, interesting discussion of the film noirs at times veers off into the intellectual (i.e., Freud), but I liked the book for the most part. Author's fave noirs are also mine: OUT OF THE PAST and GUN CRAZY. The movies' plot summaries often contain spoilers, so reader beware. The nice checklists of film noirs are both the classic and the so-called neo-noir movies.

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a photographer fascinated by darkness and light both literally and as expressed in human behavior I love film noir.The author explores a number of themes and symbols that reoccur in the genre: labyrinths, trains, darkness, smoking as a stand in for sex during strict code times, the archetypal characters. He also writes about various directors and actors who were significant influences. Picked up in a reminder bin, it sat on my bookshelf for some time but when I finally got to it the read was enjoyable. I have since referred to the excellent lists of film noirs and neo noirs many times.

[Steven Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read (#2)

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a lyric discussion than serious analysis, with personal opinion freely mixed -- discussion of all sorts of elements of film noir from the lighting to the use of money, to the labyrinthine cities. Femmes fatale, millionaires, boxers, vets, and other characters. Crime, generally organized. The use of color when it came in.

[Nancy Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book for focusing on the environment and urban landscape of noir which is so haunting. The rain, the sidewalk, the alley create mood and intention and further the plot. Some of the details need proofing. I am excited by most Film Noir books.

[Jrobertus]

he relates film noir to its social context and film origins. some interesting ideas about labyrinths, femmes fatale and their interpretations. not really a great book though.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for analysis of the femme fatale, which it gave me, though I wouldn't say this is the most organized or necessarily scholarly book out there.

[Lisa Hechesky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice overview of the film noir genre.