The hardboiled hero and his adversary, the femme fatale, arecentral tropes in the classic Hollywood films noirs produced in the1940s. Existing studies of these iconic figures often see them asarticulations of a specifically mid-twentieth century mood ofanxiety. This book develops a more diachronic and multidisciplinaryapproach, offering a socio-historical contextualisation reachingback to the advent of modernity in the nineteenth century. Byexploring several modernist discourses, this study genealogicallyconnects noir's hero to the flâneur, a figure emerging a centuryearlier as a critical metaphor for the modern subject. Similarly,the deadly dame of noir is revealed to be the cinematic renditionpar excellence of the artificial yet highly desirable new woman ofthe fin-de-siècle. Close analysis of Billy Wilder's 1944masterpiece Double Indemnity forms the foundation of this study,with other 1940s films noirs also discussed. This book provides afresh, innovative way to approach the noir canon, and to betterunderstand the historical forces that govern it. Moreover, itproposes a template for those wishing to analyse other film stylesusing the broadermatrix of modernity.
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