Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir

by Andrew Dickos

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Flourishing in the United States during the 1940s and 50s, the bleak, violent genre of filmmaking known as film noir reflected the attitudes of writers and auteur directors influenced by the events of the turbulent mid-twentieth century. Films such as Force of Evil , Night and the City , Double Indemnity , Laura , The Big Heat , The Killers , Kiss Me Deadly and, more recently, Chinatown and The Grifters are indelibly American. Yet the sources of this genre were found in Germany and France and imported to Hollywood by emigré filmmakers, who developed them and allowed a vibrant genre to flourish.

Andrew Dickos's Street with No Name traces the film noir genre back to its roots in German Expressionist cinema and the French cinema of the interwar years. Dickos describes the development of the film noir in America from 1941 through the 1970s and examines how this development expresses a modern cinema. Dickos examines notable directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, John Huston, Nicholas Ray, Robert Aldrich, Samuel Fuller, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak, Abraham Polonsky, Jules Dassin, Anthony Mann and others. He also charts the genre's influence on such celebrated postwar French filmmakers as Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard. Addressing the aesthetic, cultural, political, and social concerns depicted in the genre, Street with No Name demonstrates how the film noir generates a highly expressive, raw, and violent mood as it exposes the ambiguities of modern postwar society.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, History

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Brian Holmsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book, but don’t go into it thinking it will be light, breezy reading. It’s a critical look a film noir, and the author is both knowledgeable and obviously a loving fan of the genre. Great in-depth looks at filmmakers, stylistic cues, and the ingredients that truly make a film a “film noir.” As a lover of this genre I learned a lot, and will be able to view these films with better intent and understanding going forward.

[Deb Montague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of the film noir genre with a detailed history of its inception and a brief discussion of the current state of noir. The bibliography is extensive and I will slowly add many of the books listed to my noir library.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough and well worth the time to read.