What do you think?
Rate this book
Film Noir
Whether it’s Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, or The Big Sleep, roam a screen world of dark and brooding elegance with this essential handbook to Film Noir. From private eyes and perfect crimes to corrupt cops and doomed affairs, editors Paul Duncan and Jürgen Müller examine noir’s key themes and their most representative movies from 1940 to 1960.
Copiously illustrated with film stills as well as original posters, this book offers page after page of noir’s masterful visual compositions while exploring the narrative paradigms of this cryptic, compelling, and evolving genre. If that weren’t enough to tickle your cinematic appetite, the volume concludes with TASCHEN’s top 50 pick of noir classics.
Brimming with the enigmatic dames, desperate gangsters, and psycho killers that continue to cast a long and captivating shadow over cinema, this is a must-have handbook for noir aficionados and amateurs alike.
Copiously illustrated with film stills as well as original posters, this book offers page after page of noir’s masterful visual compositions while exploring the narrative paradigms of this cryptic, compelling, and evolving genre. If that weren’t enough to tickle your cinematic appetite, the volume concludes with TASCHEN’s top 50 pick of noir classics.
Brimming with the enigmatic dames, desperate gangsters, and psycho killers that continue to cast a long and captivating shadow over cinema, this is a must-have handbook for noir aficionados and amateurs alike.
648 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 9, 2019
A tip to anyone moving to a new apartment with little furniture, most of their belongings in storage (including books), and a few hundred euros of purchase power. Go to your nearest well assorted bookstore, look for the section with Taschen books. There will likely be a display of their series of “Bibliotheca Universalis” budget publications. Each book costs roughly €15, and there are about a hundred different books in the series, hardbound, and thick as bricks. Anyway, that is what I did at the beginning of last summer to brighten up and fill some of the empty space of my new apartment. I bought about a dozen of these books, and have been adding a few since. The books are of course gorgeous, as all of Taschen’s great coffee table books, even if these cannot quite measure up to the splendor of the usual larger formats that this particular publisher is famous for.
Film Noir is more than 600 pages long, and it seems to be a combination of two different books or projects: One being a kind of introduction to this particular style of filmmaking, and taking up the first 200 pages, the second being a “Taschen’s Top 50 Film Noirs.” The book was, as so often, curated by Paul Duncan and Jürgen Müller.
As would be expected from a Taschen book, Duncan and Müller have pulled out all the stops, when it comes to the literally thousands of film stills, production stills, publicity stills and reproductions of posters. The first rule of a book about films, in my humble opinion, is that it should be generously illustrated, and in this respect Film Noir is the poster child of all film books. I own a lot of books on film, and I love to slowly leave through them and study the stills, even if they are films I know well. And in this case, the editors have taken the high road of finding and securing a multitude of stills not normally seen. Even if the scenes depicted are familiar and often reproduced in stills, the captures here will be slightly different. And, of course, there are the many, many photographs of the directors at work on the set, and actors and actresses at ease between shots, and on and on.
As mentioned, the first third of the book is quite a thorough introduction to “film noir,” and I believe a lot of it was culled from various writings by Alain Silver and James Ursini, although it is never clearly stated who authored the various parts of the book. Silver and Ursini have made careers out of researching, discussing, commenting and popularizing “film noir” over at least the last twenty years. They can be found contributing to scores of DVD and Blu-ray releases of these films over the years, often as running commentary on the films. They are highly knowledgeable and passionate about their topic, and a lot of ground is covered in this section of the book; a lot of titles are name dropped, while the main discussions zero in on some of the films that have become more familiar to general viewers in the last decades thanks to the wonders of home video – “Double Indemnity,” “Touch of Evil,” “Kiss Me Deadly,” “Criss Cross,” “Detour,” and “Out of the Past.” This section works well, even if too much space is expended on lengthy plot synopses (be aware that plots are given away wholesale here) that could have been put to better use in expanding the brief discussions of key directors.
When all that is said, the book also has its shortcomings. The latter two thirds of the book is made up of a top 50. It is again richly illustrated with the original poster art fronting each entry in the list. However, it is a rather poor top 50 as far as “film noir” goes. No matter how good Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” and “Psycho” are, I have never seen them referred to as films noir before. The list also includes a number of non-American releases like Clouzot’s “Diabolique,” Ladislao Vajda’s “Es geschah am hellichten Tag” and Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom,” which I also object to including in a film noir list. A case could be made for Visconti’s “Ossessione” (unofficially based on Cain’s “Postman Always Rings Twice”), but all of these films, aside from their obvious merits as films just do not qualify as film noir in any strict definition of the term. “Film Noir” was a term coined by French critics back in the late forties referring to a change in style, mood and thematic content of specifically American films at the time. The term was later appropriated by young American critics of the film school generation in the late sixties and early seventies. The first part of the book does a fine job at pinning down the hallmarks of this style (not genre!) A real top 50 of Film Noir would have been a great asset and supplement to the initial discussion, what Taschen provides is just another few hundred pages of great stills and artwork (as well as extended synopses).
Film Noir is more than 600 pages long, and it seems to be a combination of two different books or projects: One being a kind of introduction to this particular style of filmmaking, and taking up the first 200 pages, the second being a “Taschen’s Top 50 Film Noirs.” The book was, as so often, curated by Paul Duncan and Jürgen Müller.
As would be expected from a Taschen book, Duncan and Müller have pulled out all the stops, when it comes to the literally thousands of film stills, production stills, publicity stills and reproductions of posters. The first rule of a book about films, in my humble opinion, is that it should be generously illustrated, and in this respect Film Noir is the poster child of all film books. I own a lot of books on film, and I love to slowly leave through them and study the stills, even if they are films I know well. And in this case, the editors have taken the high road of finding and securing a multitude of stills not normally seen. Even if the scenes depicted are familiar and often reproduced in stills, the captures here will be slightly different. And, of course, there are the many, many photographs of the directors at work on the set, and actors and actresses at ease between shots, and on and on.
As mentioned, the first third of the book is quite a thorough introduction to “film noir,” and I believe a lot of it was culled from various writings by Alain Silver and James Ursini, although it is never clearly stated who authored the various parts of the book. Silver and Ursini have made careers out of researching, discussing, commenting and popularizing “film noir” over at least the last twenty years. They can be found contributing to scores of DVD and Blu-ray releases of these films over the years, often as running commentary on the films. They are highly knowledgeable and passionate about their topic, and a lot of ground is covered in this section of the book; a lot of titles are name dropped, while the main discussions zero in on some of the films that have become more familiar to general viewers in the last decades thanks to the wonders of home video – “Double Indemnity,” “Touch of Evil,” “Kiss Me Deadly,” “Criss Cross,” “Detour,” and “Out of the Past.” This section works well, even if too much space is expended on lengthy plot synopses (be aware that plots are given away wholesale here) that could have been put to better use in expanding the brief discussions of key directors.
When all that is said, the book also has its shortcomings. The latter two thirds of the book is made up of a top 50. It is again richly illustrated with the original poster art fronting each entry in the list. However, it is a rather poor top 50 as far as “film noir” goes. No matter how good Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” and “Psycho” are, I have never seen them referred to as films noir before. The list also includes a number of non-American releases like Clouzot’s “Diabolique,” Ladislao Vajda’s “Es geschah am hellichten Tag” and Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom,” which I also object to including in a film noir list. A case could be made for Visconti’s “Ossessione” (unofficially based on Cain’s “Postman Always Rings Twice”), but all of these films, aside from their obvious merits as films just do not qualify as film noir in any strict definition of the term. “Film Noir” was a term coined by French critics back in the late forties referring to a change in style, mood and thematic content of specifically American films at the time. The term was later appropriated by young American critics of the film school generation in the late sixties and early seventies. The first part of the book does a fine job at pinning down the hallmarks of this style (not genre!) A real top 50 of Film Noir would have been a great asset and supplement to the initial discussion, what Taschen provides is just another few hundred pages of great stills and artwork (as well as extended synopses).
June 24, 2020
Razvukao se ovaj poduhvat jer sam nailazila na reditelje i glumce koji su mi se dopadali pa sam gledala neke njihove druge filmove i onda odstupala od liste.
Uglavnom evo top 5 i još nekih filmova vrednih pomena (nisam ih rangirala po tome koji su mi se najviše svideli jer su bukvalno nijanse u pitanju)
1.Sunset Boulevard
2. In a lonely place
3. Diabolique
4. The Night of the hunter
5. Rear window
- Hangover Square
- Psycho
- Vertigo
- Gaslight
- Rebecca
- Nightmare alley
- Double indemnity
- Gilda
- Leave her to heaven
Jedno dvadesetak filmova koje su oni predložili bih 'ladno izbacila i ubacila 100x bolje, al' ajde.. ukusi se razlikuju.
Uglavnom evo top 5 i još nekih filmova vrednih pomena (nisam ih rangirala po tome koji su mi se najviše svideli jer su bukvalno nijanse u pitanju)
1.Sunset Boulevard
2. In a lonely place
3. Diabolique
4. The Night of the hunter
5. Rear window
- Hangover Square
- Psycho
- Vertigo
- Gaslight
- Rebecca
- Nightmare alley
- Double indemnity
- Gilda
- Leave her to heaven
Jedno dvadesetak filmova koje su oni predložili bih 'ladno izbacila i ubacila 100x bolje, al' ajde.. ukusi se razlikuju.
September 12, 2018
This is much more a coffee table book than most books I read; the photographs are just gorgeous (movie posters, publicity stills, and scenes taken from some of the best noir). The essays were interesting, although the book's size and binding made it somewhat awkward to read in depth. When I did start reading, I had a hard time not getting distracted just flipping from photograph to photograph.
I think this is a volume I will want to peruse at liesure, perhaps after picking up a few more films for my library.
I think this is a volume I will want to peruse at liesure, perhaps after picking up a few more films for my library.
March 24, 2018
Very in-depth and informative, and not to mention presented in both an easy to understand and highly aesthetic manner. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to gain an understanding of film noir and the classic noir movies of the 40s-60s.
February 24, 2023
An absolutely gorgeous photography book full of amazing black and whites and a few full color posters. Lots of dense reading if you want to know about all kinds of film noir films from the 40s and 50s. Most folks will like this for the photos and maybe an occasional film or actor reference. It’s a very very long book with very small font, it was actually annoying to read the print was so small, definitely smaller than a paperback.
March 2, 2019
This book is encyclopedic. You're not going to read it cover-to-cover. It's for reading here-and-there as it sits on your coffee table. It's not so easy to find a particular movie in this tome, but it has nice pictures, and if you have a magnifying glass, you can even read a bit.
August 2, 2020
A great introduction to film noir, looking into it’s various themes and tropes. And has reviews on 50 noir classics (according to the editors) from 1940-1960. A book to wet your appetite to watch more noir and seek out other books on this most fascinating of movie genres.
January 15, 2020
Another excellent volume from Taschen, Full of stills and plot synopsis, bios of some stars and crew, and background into the writing and filming. A worthy add to any film lover's library.
January 24, 2022
I found this to be a great introduction to the film noir genre. It starts with a general discussion of what film noir(and isn't), and then examines common themes like "The Perfect Crime", "The Burden of the Past", "Love on the Run", etc. There are lots and lots of photos.
The the latter 2/3 of the book is an examination of the publisher's top 50 noir films from 1940 to 1960. Each film lists the year, country(most are USA), studio, director, screenplay writer, stars, as well as any Academy Awards Won. The each film gets an examination and summary, lots of still from the movie as well as its production, and a spotlight on the director, or one of the actors/actresses in the film. There is also a poster from each film.
I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Here are my 2 main criticisms:
1. As others have noted, the print is really, really small.
2. The section on the 50 greatest films is great....but lacks any sort of index to find the writeup for a given film. Not an issue as you read through the book, but a bummer if you want to go back and reread something, perhaps after having watched the film. I made an index, which I will share below, in hope that it helps some one else as well. Sorry for the loss of columns.
Call Northside 777 408
Detour 326
Double Indemnity 270
Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (Refifi) 528
Es Geschah Am Hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight) 588
Force of Evil 426
Gaslight 278
Gilda 344
Gun Crazy 452
Hangover Square 310
High Sierra 226
In a Lonely Place 468
Kiss Me Deadly 536
Laura 286
Leave Her To Heaven 334
Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) 512
Mildred Pierce 318
Murder by Contract 594
Murder, My Sweet 302
Night and the City 458
Nightmare Alley 374
Obsession 250
Odds Against Tomorrow 602
Out of the Past 382
Peeping Tom 608
Phantom Lady 258
Pickup on South Street 496
Psycho 614
Rear Window 504
Rebecca 217
Shadow of a Doubt 242
Sunset Boulevard 486
Sweet Smell of Success 560
The Asphalt Jungle 476
The Big Combo 520
The Big Sleep 358
The Killers 366
The Killing 550
The Lady from Shanghai 400
The Maltese Falcon 234
The Night of the Hunter 542
The Postman Always Rings Twice 350
The Third Man 436
The Woman in the Window 294
They Live by Night 416
Tirex Sur Le Pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) 622
T-Men 392
Touch of Evil 568
Vertigo 576
White Heat 444
The the latter 2/3 of the book is an examination of the publisher's top 50 noir films from 1940 to 1960. Each film lists the year, country(most are USA), studio, director, screenplay writer, stars, as well as any Academy Awards Won. The each film gets an examination and summary, lots of still from the movie as well as its production, and a spotlight on the director, or one of the actors/actresses in the film. There is also a poster from each film.
I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. Here are my 2 main criticisms:
1. As others have noted, the print is really, really small.
2. The section on the 50 greatest films is great....but lacks any sort of index to find the writeup for a given film. Not an issue as you read through the book, but a bummer if you want to go back and reread something, perhaps after having watched the film. I made an index, which I will share below, in hope that it helps some one else as well. Sorry for the loss of columns.
Call Northside 777 408
Detour 326
Double Indemnity 270
Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (Refifi) 528
Es Geschah Am Hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight) 588
Force of Evil 426
Gaslight 278
Gilda 344
Gun Crazy 452
Hangover Square 310
High Sierra 226
In a Lonely Place 468
Kiss Me Deadly 536
Laura 286
Leave Her To Heaven 334
Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) 512
Mildred Pierce 318
Murder by Contract 594
Murder, My Sweet 302
Night and the City 458
Nightmare Alley 374
Obsession 250
Odds Against Tomorrow 602
Out of the Past 382
Peeping Tom 608
Phantom Lady 258
Pickup on South Street 496
Psycho 614
Rear Window 504
Rebecca 217
Shadow of a Doubt 242
Sunset Boulevard 486
Sweet Smell of Success 560
The Asphalt Jungle 476
The Big Combo 520
The Big Sleep 358
The Killers 366
The Killing 550
The Lady from Shanghai 400
The Maltese Falcon 234
The Night of the Hunter 542
The Postman Always Rings Twice 350
The Third Man 436
The Woman in the Window 294
They Live by Night 416
Tirex Sur Le Pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) 622
T-Men 392
Touch of Evil 568
Vertigo 576
White Heat 444
February 7, 2019
ini buku keren baget dah ...bahas lengkap tentang film itemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
noir dibaca noar kate orang betawi ....
wajib buat para sinema fatalis
noir dibaca noar kate orang betawi ....
wajib buat para sinema fatalis
July 2, 2022
Wonderful illustrated book on the classic period of film noir. Good reference material and lavish photos. Captures all the elements of noir and their Top 50 essential noirs is a good list for a novice to start with.
December 23, 2019
Great list for reference, short concise essays on each topic tackled in noir and great stills and artwork
November 16, 2020
Muy interesante.
Un libro a detalle del cine noir. Si bien es cierto ya conocía de algunos de estos filmes, la mayoría fueron nuevos para mí.
Super recomendado
Un libro a detalle del cine noir. Si bien es cierto ya conocía de algunos de estos filmes, la mayoría fueron nuevos para mí.
Super recomendado
August 14, 2023
Stunning trove of visuals and well focused outline of key genre tropes and stylistics. Not heavy on text or analysis, but a great volume for newbies or veterans
January 13, 2023
Being hooked on watching weekly Film Noir offerings from Eddie Muller on TCM, we found this book to be a helpful resource.
Our personal favorite so far is Asphalt Jungle. But we have identified more films to be viewed, thanks to this book. Enjoy your own exploration of this rich, mostly-American film sub-culture!
What would compel me to issue a 5-star rating for this book? An index: Sorely lacking in the copy I purchased.
Our personal favorite so far is Asphalt Jungle. But we have identified more films to be viewed, thanks to this book. Enjoy your own exploration of this rich, mostly-American film sub-culture!
What would compel me to issue a 5-star rating for this book? An index: Sorely lacking in the copy I purchased.
July 7, 2021
I falsely assumed a 640 page book of film history on film Noir would have an index that I could use as a reference. I am unable to look up movies, directors, actors or anything else .
.
.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews