Darkness Calls: A Critical Investigation Of Neo-Noir

263 Pages·2019·2.278 MB·English

by  Sue Short

Darkness Calls
A Critical Investigation
of Neo-Noir
Sue Short
Darkness Calls
“This book makes a number of original contributions to the study of both classic
and neo-noir: it takes into account the genre’s appeal to both male and female
viewers; provides one of the first extensive treatments of the various functions
of comedy in neo-noir; includes a discussion of a number of twenty-first century
films as well as television noirs; and makes a convincing case for seeing noir as
a potentially optimistic genre and not just a fatalistic and despairing one. Short
writes with clarity and flair and the book offers a spirited engagement with exist-
ing scholarship—serving as an excellent introduction to noir criticism while una-
fraid to take issue with a number of long-standing claims. It should appeal to
anyone interested in film noir and its contemporary legacy and is accessible to
non-academics, with a potentially wide readership.”
—Douglas Keesey, California Polytechnic State University, USA. Author
of Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir from Chinatown
to The Dark Knight (2010)
“Darkness Calls takes us on a perilous trek across neo-noir’s bleak and ever-shifting
terrain, from lost sleazy sixties gem Lady in a Cage to Killing Eve’s dark slapstick.
Mapping out key themes and major tendencies, Short is never afraid to challenge
received wisdom or critical orthodoxies.”
—Mark Bould, University of the West of England, UK. Author
of Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City (2005) and co-editor
of Neo-Noir (2009)
Sue Short
Darkness Calls
A Critical Investigation of Neo-Noir
Sue Short
Birkbeck University of London
London, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-13806-6 ISBN 978-3-030-13807-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13807-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019934458
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
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In loving memory of my father.
C
ontents
1 Introduction: In Pursuit of the Neo-Noir 1
The Critical Profile Built—And Its Shortcomings 6
Why Is It Noir and How Is It New? 14
The Aims and Outline of This Investigation 30
Works Cited 39
2 Crime, Corruption and Social Critique: A Thematic
Overview of Noir 43
What Counts as a Counter Cinema? 44
Common Themes and Tropes 53
New Developments and Departures 70
Works Cited 82
3 Conflict and Crisis: Masculinity and Noir 83
The ‘Crisis’ Argument Reconsidered 84
Performativity and Reclaimed Machismo 94
Reluctant Avengers and the Rejection of Violence 109
Works Cited 113
4 Fear and Fantasy: Women in Noir 115
The Femme Fatale: A Figure of Antipathy or Potential
Identification? 116
Avengers, Assassins, Amnesiacs and Outlaws 124
vii
viii CoNTENTS
Heroic Helpers and Dogged Detectives 136
Works Cited 146
5 Noir by Any Other Name?: Generic Confusion
and Diffusion 149
Nothing New: A History of Hybridity 150
In League with the Devil or Doing God’s Work?: Some Big
Questions in Horror-Noir 154
Misused Power and Manufactured Realities: SF-Noir 159
Works Cited 180
6 A Lighter Shade of Noir: Differing Uses of Comedy 183
A Sign of Exhausted Ideas or Renewed Inventiveness? 184
Mordant Mirth and Cruel Comedy 187
From Fear to Absurdity: Outlandish Extremes and Parodic
Twists 195
Works Cited 209
7 Fatalism vs Free Will: Nihilism and Noir 211
The Labyrinth and Existential Malaise 212
Altruism Versus Egotism—Noir’s Competing Impulses 225
The True Proof of a ‘Counter Cinema’: Lighting the Darkness 230
Works Cited 234
Filmography 237
Index 249
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: In Pursuit of the Neo-Noir
Heists and homicides that rarely go to plan, assassins and amnesiacs
with identity issues, and an array of characters placed in difficult situa-
tions, whether it is lovers on the run seeking to evade capture; innocent
protagonists trying to clear their name; lone cops aiming to expose cor-
ruption in the force; or a number of detectives (both ‘official’ and other-
wise) whose investigation often reveals more about themselves than their
supposed quarry. As such a list suggests, neo-noir plots are both famil-
iar and diverse, inviting ongoing intrigue while frustrating easy analysis.
Whether set in the past or the present (or extrapolated to a near-future),
played relatively straight or radically revised, we can recognise repeated
themes and seemingly perennial concerns. Adopting various forms—
including cinema, television and new digital platforms—examples have
encompassed a range of styles and now span the globe, yet despite its
apparent prevalence today—and increased academic attention—many
core questions remain unanswered. What has propelled noir’s appeal,
half a century on after its supposed decline? What has led film-makers
and series creators to rework given tropes? What debates continue to
divide critics? And why are we, as viewers, so drawn to stories that often
show us at our worst? Referencing a range of films and series, citing crit-
ical work in the field—while also challenging many of the assumptions
made—this book sets out to advance our understanding of a subject that
has fascinated audiences and academics alike (arguably, for very different
reasons), enduring, in large part, due to its capacity to keep us guessing.
© The Author(s) 2019 1
S. Short, Darkness Calls,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13807-3_1
2 S. SHoRT
Although the term ‘neo-noir’ is regularly used by critics, and readily
adopted by the media industry, confusion reigns about what this label
means and how it should be applied. Published work in this area has
yielded much debate yet also relatively little consensus, with commen-
tators unwilling to stray too far from an established academic doctrine,
or simply asserting their own individual preferences, resulting in assess-
ments that are often too partial or subjective to be much use as a guide
to neo-noir. This book aims to avoid these pitfalls by treating its subject
as a cold case reopened, keen to find what apparent ‘experts’ may have
missed. It provides an informative and accessible appraisal that questions
why noir has proved so ripe for continued revision on screen, as well as
renewed academic interest. While various strands of interpretation are
discussed, many critical claims are also interrogated, including question-
able assessments about its assumed audience and underlying ideology. In
contrast to the dogmatic assertions often made by noir scholars, a more
balanced approach is favoured here, acknowledging noir’s potential to
be both progressive and problematic. It challenges the idealism that has
often led critics to look upon neo-noir as a pale imitation of film noir,
takes issue with many claims about the purported meaning of texts and
updates existing scholarship in a number of ways: drawing attention to
television series as well as cinema, emphasising contemporary examples
not discussed elsewhere, and endeavours to shed some light on dark tales
by examining various factors behind neo-noir’s appeal—a question that
demands due consideration in seeking to understand its differing modes
of engagement.
Noir’s interest is a complex question, especially given the diverse
forms it has assumed. As James Naremore asserts
‘The truth is the history of noir is not over and it cannot be given a sin-
gle explanation. No doubt movies of the noir type have always appealed
strongly – but not exclusively – to middle class white males who project
themselves into stories about loners, losers, out-laws and flawed idealists at
the margins of society. The different manifestations of noir, however, can
never be completely subsumed under a single demographic group or psy-
chological explanation’. (1998: 275)
Naremore is right in warning against trying to oversimplify noir’s attrac-
tion (including contentious claims about its main audience) yet he also
asserts a particularly important idea in terms of its appeal, suggesting
1 INTRoDUCTIoN: IN PURSUIT oF THE NEo-NoIR 3
viewers might find some affinity with the marginalised protagonists on
screen, who are either drawn into unlawful conduct or struggle to stay
honest in a crooked world. What might viewers gain from immersing
themselves in such a fraught fictional environment? or by identifying
with characters who seem to lack any control over their lives? Is there a
transgressive pleasure to be had in witnessing characters break the law,
sometimes securing a degree of power that is otherwise untenable, and
what other pleasures might this narrative form offer? From its earliest
examples, noir has skirted controversy in its depiction of criminality and
‘taboo’ subject matter, allowing us to observe illicit activities in a world
beyond the norm. In the intense dramas that unfold temptation, betrayal
and tragedy often feature, giving noir what Naremore terms as ‘mythic
force’ (277). Richard Martin suggests that noir might even be regarded
as a ‘contemporary nightmare-like correlative to classical mythology’
which updates the action yet maintains the same underlying concerns,
‘presenting essentially timeless narratives about the darker side of the
human condition’ (1999: 6). As occurs in myth, flawed characters are
tested in some way and it is these flaws—a veritable gamut of human
folly including lust, greed, megalomania and ruthless aggression—which
heightens the sense of drama in these tales and also makes such charac-
ters relatable.1
It is by inviting us to identify with largely ‘unheroic’ figures that noir
narratives first set themselves apart. Critic Nino Frank, credited with
coining the term ‘film noir’ in his article ‘A New Kind of Police Drama:
The Criminal Adventure’ (1946), notes a fundamental difference to the
standard policier in making the criminal, rather than police, its focus—
observing ‘the essential question is no longer “who-done-it” but how
does this protagonist act?’ Frank maintains that viewers are drawn to
more ‘psychological’ narratives because they better represent ‘the kind
of gross cruelties which actually exist and the past concealment of which
has served no purpose: the struggle to survive is not a new story’ (Frank
2018). By presenting the criminal not as a simplistic villain, but a figure
we might regard with some sympathy in their bid to survive respective
difficulties, noir is thus perceived as a significant new take on the con-
ventional crime drama. As other early commentators, Raymond Borde
and Etienne Chaumeton, put it in their article ‘Towards a definition of
Film Noir’ (1955), rather than reflect the point of view of the police
‘the film noir is from within, from the point of view of the criminals’
(1997: 20), granting a perspective that creates intrigue and an unsettling