Film Noir Sensibilities

Abstract

Certain crime films made between WWII and the present day scrutinize nationalism and national identity through their dark storylines of white-collar crime. These films are categorized as film noir because they focus on misanthropy and typically feature doomed relationships, murder plots, and political corruption. My dissertation focuses on film noir and establishes continuity between early mid-century crime films and new crime films by evaluating their shared reaction to nationalism and its repercussions, such as the solidification of patriarchal structures, and fractious interpersonal relations. I evaluate film noir in relation to transnational cinematic developments coinciding with socio-cultural shifts, and the continual growth of consumer culture. The postwar movement of film noir is just one of the many usages of noir that have likewise emerged retroactively. This dissertation asks why film noir is used in various rhetorical maneuvers with multiple and often divergent definitions. The continual proliferation of its meanings suggests that film noir may better be suited for a discussion of its impact on cinema, culture, and spectators as sensibilities. I clarify how and why noir sensibilities are used in crime films to react to the societal damage caused by the presence of hyper masculinity and nationalist rhetoric marked by racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. Any attempt to define film noir as a singular concept makes defining it even more difficult. Embracing noir’s numerous applications and definitions places greater critical significance in the tension between the uniformity of its visual manifestations and the widespread use of them to signal numerous cultural representations.