Re: RARA-AVIS: A Mathematical Answer to What Films are Noir

From: Jeff Vorzimmer ( jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com)
Date: 05 Aug 2007


> So do most film noir fans believe that there is a
> cut-off date?

Actually a lot of books and essays on film noir seem to agree on a first and last. The first being Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and the last as being Touch of Evil (1958). Of course, there are still films being made today that fit the noir mold, but the period 1940-58 was seen as the first and "classic" period of film noir.

Of course there's the argument that since film noir is a style rather than a genre and part of that style includes filming in black and white (long after the advent of color), a film noir has to be black and white, which would preclude most films after 1958, but would still include Cape Fear (1962) and even more recent examples, The Woman Chaser (1999) and Sin City (2005).

Are there any films from in the classic period that were shot in color? I can't think of any.

Jeff



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