Re "Crimeflix's" comment below:
"In France it was used, of course, but in the U.S. noir was
used almost exclusively for film noir (which, incidentally, I
think has a much broader definition than noir fiction. For
example The Big Sleep is undoubtedly a film noir, but the
novel doesn't fit my definition of noir at all."
I keep on wanting to avoid these discussions, and then
somebody says something that compels me to respond.
Noir is just crime fiction that's dark and sinister. That's
it. Now, I don't disagree with the general notion that it's
applied way too widely nowadays, but that doesn't mean that
the "true" definition is a particularly narrow one.
And the idea that noir means something different in film than
it does in prose fiction is absurd. The only reason film noir
is called film noir is because it's a film that tells the
same kind of story as a noir novel or short story.
If "noir" means something different in film than it does in
prose fiction, it's the only term in the entire mystery genre
that means something different depending on the medium it's
applied to. A police procedural novel and a police procedural
film both depict the profession of law enforcement with
authenticity and accuracy (or at least the pretense and
appearance of authenticity and accuracy). A hard-boiled
private eye novel and a hard-boiled private eye film both
tell stories of tough, colloquial professional detectives who
work for private clients. A tradtional "cozy" whodunit novel
and an traditional "cozy whodunit movie both feature fairly
presented clues, minimal violence, a comofortable, usually
upper-class setting, and a villain whose identity is
concealed until the final revelation at the end.
But, in the face of all that, we're somehow supposed to
conclude that "noir" means something different in prose than
it does in film?
THE BIG SLEEP was one of the first entries in Gallimard's
Serie Noire line. Serie Noire, as has been pointed out
several times before, was where the term "noir," as used to
describe a particular type of crime fiction, was coined.
"Film noir" was coined to describe a film that told the same
kind of story that the novels published under the Serie Noire
line told. Indeed, to describe movies that were often direct
adaptations of books published under the Serie Noire line. If
the film version of THE BIG SLEEP is noir, it's precisely
BECAUSE it's a fairly faithful adaptation of a book that's
noir.
JIM DOHERTY
____________________________________________________________________________________Got
a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for
kids.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 May 2007 EDT