February 24, 2006

'Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir'

By NINA C. AYOUB

French critics coined the term "film noir" in 1946 after a series of brooding dramas from wartime Hollywood finally made their French debut. Yet, says Sheri Chinen Biesen, noir is often seen as a predominantly postwar phenomenon. She argues that many critics and film historians have ignored the genre's links to World War II. Some have even echoed the screenwriter, director, and critic Paul Schrader, who wrote that the war temporarily pre-empted a flowering noir trend.

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