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Classic French noir : gender and the cinema of fatal desire / Deborah Walker-Morrison.

Van Pelt Library PN1995.9.F54 W35 2019
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Walker-Morrison, Deborah, author.
Series:
International library of the moving image ; 57.
International library of the moving image ; 57
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Film noir--France--History and criticism.
Film noir.
France.
Genre:
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Physical Description:
xiii, 274 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Place of Publication:
London : I.B. Tauris, 2019.
Contents:
Defining film noir p. 4
Corpus p. 5
French and American film noir: historical links p. 6
Sociological theory p. 7
Constructivism and psychoanalysis p. 8
Biocultural approaches p. 9
Evolutionary psychology p. 10
The biocultural turn in evolutionary science p. 12
A biocultural approach to gender: similarity and difference p. 14
The cinema of fatal desire p. 16
2 Fatal(e) Desire in French Poetic Realism p. 18
Introduction: poetic realism as proto-noir p. 18
Gendered figures in poetic realism p. 19
Star-crossed lovers: the tragic hero and French fatale as fatalitaire p. 20
Part II The Long Shadow of War
3 Looking for the Light p. 31
Introduction: invasion, occupation, collaboration p. 31
A cinema of paradox p. 32
Les Années noires and crime drama p. 33
Liberation crime drama and the myth of the Resistance p. 40
Le réalisme noir and flawed masculinity p. 41
4 Too Many Women? War and Fatal(e) Desire p. 50
Classic American femme fatale as spider woman p. 51
French fatale: 'Cherchez la femme' p. 53
War, demographics and assertive femininity: sex ratio theory p. 59
Part III Cherchez La Femme
5 Fatal(e) Passions: Tragic Fatalitaires and Star-Crossed Lovers p. 71
Introduction: passionate love as universal human adaptation p. 71
Love styles p. 73
Star-crossed lovers p. 74
Male sexual jealousy p. 79
Simone Signoret as modern girl and prostitute fatalitaire p. 80
Femininity as masquerade? p. 83
Evil pimps p. 85
Race, class and gender in J'irai cracker sur vos tombes [I will Spit on your Graves] (Gast, 1959) p. 86
6 'Thou Shalt Not Covet': Adulterous Fatalitaires p. 94
Introduction: what do women want? p. 94
Le dernier tournant [The Last Turn] (Chena), 1939) p. 96
The Postman Always Rings Twice (Garnett, USA, 1946) p. 97
From fatalitaire to femme fatale p. 99
Thérèse Raquin [The Adulteress] (Carné, France/Italy, 1953) p. 104
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud [Lift to The Scaffold] (Malle, 1958) p. 106
7 Bad Girls p. 113
Introduction: the bad-girl fatale as archetypal unruly woman p. 113
The unruly femme and male paranoia p. 114
What does the femme want? p. 116
Demonic fatale as amoureuse p. 117
The long shadow of war p. 119
The unglamorous fatale as camouflage p. 120
Paranoia, lethal femme power and risk p. 122
Woman as spectacle and exchange object p. 128
The femme as avenging angel p. 132
Conclusion: from spectacle to subjectivity p. 134
Part IV Cherchez L'Homme
8 Fatal Men p. 139
L'homme fatal p. 140
Bonnes à tuer [One Step to Eternity] (Decoin, 1954) p. 140
Une Manche et la Belle [A Kiss For A Killer] (Verneuil, 1957) p. 148
La Bête à L'Affût [Beast at Bay] (Chenal, 1959): after Forests of the Night (Keene, 1956) p. 155
9 Law Enforcers Meet the Femme p. 162
Honourable cops and shady dames p. 163
Cops and robbers; blurred boundaries p. 165
Investigating the femme p. 169
En cas de Malheur [Love is my Profession] (Autant-Lara, France/Italy, 1956) p. 172
From protection to violent surveillance: the bodyguard hypothesis p. 176
Bardot as new fatalitaire p. 180
10 Love and Money: Gender and Consumption in Gangster Noir p. 183
Urban spaces of conspicuous consumption p. 184
Conspicuous consumption, honour and hyper-masculinity p. 186
Reconfiguring left-handed endeavour as collaborative labour p. 187
Females in (gangster) noir: insatiable consumers p. 189
Domestic spaces: tradition vs modernity p. 192
Iconic objects of conspicuous consumption: the ultimate consumer durable p. 195
Rififi: questioning gangster culture p. 198
Du rififi chez les femmes: the first French noir action babe p. 201
Classic French Noir: The Dark Side of 'Quality' Cinema (1946-59) p. 207
Gender and power in classic French noir p. 209
Noir as sociohistorically inflected dramas of mate selection p. 210
French fatale as romantic fatalitaire p. 211
French noir as an evolving constant p. 212
Directions for future research p. 213.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-260), filmography (pages 217-222) and index.
ISBN:
1784539716
9781784539719
OCLC:
1004830569

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