Product Description

Among the elements that define the classic film noir-chiaroscuro lighting, voice-over narration, and such archetypal characters as the world-weary private eye and the femme fatale-perhaps no element is more responsible for the genre's continued popularity among movie buffs, filmmakers, and critics than the palpable sense of anxiety that emanates from the screen. Because the genre emerged in the shadow of the Second World War, this profound psychological and philosophical unease is usually ascribed either to postwar fears about the atomic bomb or to the reactions of returning soldiers to a new social landscape. In Noir Anxiety, however, Kelly Oliver and Benigno Trigo interpret what has been called the "free-floating anxiety" of film noir as concrete apprehensions about race and sexuality.

Applying feminist and postcolonial psychoanalytic theory to traditional noir films (Murder, My Sweet; The Lady from Shanghai; Vertigo; and Touch of Evil) and the "neo-noirs" of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (Chinatown, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Bound), the authors uncover a rich array of unconscious worries and desires about ambiguous sexual, racial, and national identities, often displaced onto these films' narrative and stylistic components. In particular, Oliver and Trigo focus on the looming absence of the mother figure within the genre and fears about maternal sexuality and miscegenation. Drawing on the work of Freud and Julia Kristeva, Noir Anxiety locates film noir's studied ambivalence toward these critical themes within the genre's social, historical, and cinematic context.

Kelly Oliver is professor of philosophy and women's studies and Benigno Trigo is associate professor of Hispanic languages and literature, both at Stony Brook University. Oliver is the author of five books, including Witnessing: Beyond Recognition (Minnesota, 2001). Trigo is author of Subjects of Crisis: Race and Gender as Disease in Latin America (1999).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4193824 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Customer Reviews

Subliminoir
Using Freudian theory as a base, this scholarly treatise postulates that film noir is premised on conflicts involving gender, race, and nationality. Since much of the text necessarily examines psychoanalytical concepts, the reading requires patience and careful scrutiny. The authors' conclusions are at best edifying and at worst eye-opening--and almost certainly will cause readers to view familiar movies in a brighter light. Touch of Evil, for example, well known to most noir mavens, is thoroughly probed in its treatment of sexuality and ethnicism. The writers' judgments can thus be assessed as to their plausibility in accordance with readers' beliefs concerning Freudianism or simply in their evaluation of the motives of director Orson Welles. If the reader has not seen the film, however--as in the lesser known Secret Beyond the Door--it will be impossible to apply such a deduction. Surely, any of the authors' conclusions can be theorized to be intentional on the film creators' parts, or subliminally driven, or simply done for a technical reason. For instance, in Touch of Evil, the writers contend that Welles had Charlton Heston translate a Spanish statement into English in order to demarcate linguistic (and thus ethnic) identity. But might this not have been done merely to clue in the audience? Regardless, this text is very well researched and composed and should be of major interest to serious students of film noir.