FS 342A - Film Noir

This course examines the film noir genre in American and International cinema in its various aesthetic, cultural, and social contexts. For the first half of the course, the focus will be on the stylistic and European foundations of film noir, as well as the changing social and political forces (such as gender relations and the role of women, social class, the Cold War, the Hollywood Blacklist and Anti-communism ideology, race and the emerging civil rights movement, etc) in American culture after World War II that are evident in key classical Hollywood film noirs. Considered in the second half will be the genre’s transnational appeal, spawning from its early German-émigré and French influences to its appropriation by select Asian, European, and contemporary Hollywood filmmakers, who in turn used the film noir style to create new “neo-noirs.” Additionally, students will also analyze the formal aspects of film noir as both a movement and a style by studying narrative, editing, cinematography/lighting, mise-en-scène and sound. [DEI] Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits