Film Noir: The Primacy of the Visual, 1940–49

Film noir first exploded across American movie screens in 1940.

Hollywood studios seized upon this exciting new direction in crime films—a dramatically startling combination of German Expressionist cinema of the '20s and French poetic realism films of the '30s, blended into a modern cocktail of chiaroscuro lighting, psychologically aberrant behavior, and the unmistakable feeling that nothing ever is exactly as it seems.

From the musty shadow factories of Poverty Row to the opulent excesses of big-budget Hollywood studios, film noir in the 1940s captured the fatalistic mood of mid-20th-century America better than anything else being produced at that time.

We will view and discuss more than 20 films from the decade, including works by Orson Welles ( The Lady from Shanghai ), Nicholas Ray ( They Live by Night ), Robert Siodmak ( Phantom Lady ), Jacques Tourneur ( Out of the Past ), and Edgar G.

Ulmer ( Detour ).

Together, these films reveal how noir became one of the most enduring and unsettling expressions of the American imagination.

This course is Part I of a two-part series.

Part II, "Film Noir: The Glamour and the Grit, 1950–65," will be offered in the fall.

Each course may be taken independently as well.

All films are available through major streaming platforms; the instructor will provide free viewing links when available.