Detours and Lost Highways

About This Book

"[The author] turns his penetrating eye on the cycle of crime movies that succeeded the classic genre [film noir]. Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil (1958), recently re-released, is generally cited as the end of that line or, in Hirsch's words, "noir's rococo tombstone." But in its themes, techniques and attitudes, the genre has not only survived but in the 90's flourishes as never before. Its retro edge has given it postmodern chic, to the point where "noir," no longer simply the name of a film genre, is also the name of a literary genre, a pop album and a perfume. So noir "lives," but like any genre that endures, it has had to continually reinvent itself. While its defining subjects - violence, sex, greed, loss of innocence - remain, as do its dominant character types - the femme fatale, her vulnerable male victim and the private eye burdened with his own code of honor - these ingredients have been blended in strikingly new ways....[Hirsch] demonstrates how neo-noir has reflected changes in contemporary life from film technology to social values. Relentlessly mobile camerawork, multilayered soundtracks and lush colors now work to create dark stories that tell of growing cynicism about government, distrust of the press, tensions in gender politics and in race relations. In his map of neo-noir, Hirsch revisits scores of films released over the last four decades: Odds Against Tomorrow, Chinatown, The Manchurian Candidate, Cape Fear, Klute, Body Heat, The Last Seduction, The Grifters, The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential and Pulp Fiction, among many others."--back cover.