Classic French Noir by Walker-Morrison, Deborah -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Front Cover Title Page Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements PART I SETTING THE SCENE

1. Introduction

Defining film noir Corpus French and American film noir: historical links Sociological theory Constructivism and psychoanalysis Biocultural approaches Evolutionary psychology The biocultural turn in evolutionary science A biocultural approach to gender: similarity and difference The cinema of fatal desire

2. Fatal(e) Desire in French Poetic Realism

Introduction: poetic realism as proto-noir Gendered figures in poetic realism Star-crossed lovers: the tragic hero and French fatale Conclusion

PART II THE LONG SHADOW OF WAR

3. Looking for the Light

Introduction: invasion, occupation, collaboration A cinema of paradox Les Années noires Liberation crime drama and the myth of the Resistance Le réalisme noir Conclusion

4. Too Many Women? War and Fatal(e) Desire

Introduction Classic American femme fatale French fatale: ‘Cherchez la femme’ War, demographics and assertive femininity: sex ratio theory Conclusion

PART III CHERCHEZ LA FEMME

5. Fatal(e) Passions: Tragic Fatalitaires

Introduction: passionate love as universal human adaptation Love styles Star-crossed lovers Male sexual jealousy Simone Signoret as modern girl and prostitute fatalitaire Femininity as masquerade? Evil pimps Race, class and gender in J’irai cracher sur vos tombes Conclusion

6. ‘Thou Shalt Not Covet’: Adulterous Fatalitaires

Introduction: what do women want? Le dernier tournant [The Last Turn] The Postman Always Rings Twice From fatalitaire Thérè;se Raquin [The Adulteress] Ascenseur pour l’échafaud [Lift to The Scaffold] Conclusion

7. Bad Girls

Introduction: the bad-girl fatale The unruly femme What does the femme Demonic fatale The long shadow of war The unglamorous fatale Paranoia, lethal femme Woman as spectacle and exchange object The femme Conclusion: from spectacle to subjectivity

PART IV CHERCHEZ L’HOMME

8. Fatal Men

Introduction L’homme fatal Bonnes è tuer [One Step to Eternity Une Manche et la Belle La Bête è L’Affût Conclusion

9. Law Enforcers Meet the Femme

Introduction Honourable cops and shady dames Cops and robbers: blurred boundaries Investigating the femme En cas de Malheur From protection to violent surveillance: the bodyguard hypothesis Bardot as new fatalitaire Conclusion

10. Love and Money: Gender and Consumption in Gangster Noir

Introduction Urban spaces of conspicuous consumption Conspicuous consumption, honour and hyper-masculinity Reconfiguring left-handed endeavour as collaborative labour Females in (gangster) noir: insatiable consumers Domestic spaces: tradition vs modernity Iconic objects of conspicuous consumption: the ultimate consumer durable Rififi Du rififi chez les femmes Conclusion

PART V CONCLUSIONS

Gender and power in classic French noir Noir as sociohistorically inflected dramas of mate selection French fatale French noir as an evolving constant Directions for future research

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: 101 French Films Noirs

Filmography layout 1930s: poetic realism/early noir (18) 1941–4 Occupation noir (8) 1946–59 Classic French noir (75)

Appendix 2: Tables

Notes Bibliography