- 280 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Invoking key concepts from the philosophical writings of Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben, The Dark Interval examines a subtle but distinct iconography of passivity, stillness and profound self-affection that recurs across noir films of every era. In doing so, it identifies the emergence of a specific cinematic figure – the 'intervallic' noir protagonist exposed to the redemptive force of his or her own passion. Significantly, the book contextualises the iconography of film noir in relation to prior art-historical visual traditions, in particular earlier representations of melancholia and the saturnine, locating noir against a much broader canvas than has been the norm. Examining central noir films of the classic and modern era ( The Killers, The Man Who Wasn't There ) as well as films at the peripheries of noir (from Jacques Tourneur's Cat People to Wong Kar Wai's 2046 ), the book locates a series of iconographic gestures, performance traditions and affective tonalities at once specific to noir and yet resonant with a deeper cultural and philosophical heritage. It is a meditation that uniquely grapples with the look and the feel of noir, and which dares to detect a unique quality of 'beatitude' that runs through a certain strain of noir films. In doing so, it illuminates why film noir remains one of the most provocative and affecting visual milieus of our time.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Prelude: The Interval as a Philosophical Concept
- 1 The ‘Dark Interval’ in Noir: From Iconography to Affect
- 2 The Passion of Ed Crane: Narrative Dissolution, Zero Affect and Beatitude in The Man Who Wasn’t There
- 3 Vesperal Noir: Intervallic Suspension in Cat People
- 4 Saving Those Who Weep: The Interval of Affective Rupture in Alphaville
- 5 2046: Orphic Lingering in the Dark Interval (or, What ‘Becomes’ of Lemmy’s Cigarettes)
- 6 Outside the Law: The Long Goodbye, Temporal Lapse and Force-of-Law
- 7 Missing Persons and Deadbeats: ‘Abiding’ in the Dark Interval
- 8 Coda: Passion at the Impasse – Noir in Transit
- Bibliography
- Index
- Copyright Page