L.A. Noir: The City as Character

Category: Books,History,Americas

L.A. Noir: The City as Character Details

From Booklist Film noir continues to generate a remarkable outpouring of pedantic prose, but the would-be scholars may have expended the most effort while achieving the least on the topic of how the genre uses the urban landscape. Only Nicholas Christopher, in Somewhere in the Night (1997), managed to say something truly memorable about how, in the best noir films, the labyrinth of the postwar city came to reflect the psychic wounds of its inhabitants. This extensively illustrated guide to Los Angeles as a noir setting makes a useful adjunct to the Christopher book. Moving throughout the city, from downtown to the Westside, the Pacific Coast, and on to the suburbs, the authors show how specific streets and buildings helped set the mood and convey the dark messages in such classic noirs as Criss Cross and Kiss Me Deadly as well as in neo-noirs, including Chinatown and Blade Runner. The black-and-white illustrations of cityscapes prove every bit as evocative as the actual film stills, eloquently making the point that place is every bit as capable of driving meaning as action. Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more Review "No one is better qualified to explore the L.A. noir connection than [the authors] who cover [it] with style and savvy." —Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight Read more See all Editorial Reviews