Author Description

For this expanded edition, the editor has brought together further essays which reflect the renewed interest in Film Noir which is apparent in many of today's most popular movies. Though Hollywood has employed a variety of stereotypes in its representation of women (dumb blonde, virtuous wife, vamp, girl next door) the woman's place has usually been subordinate to the man's and defined by him. Film noir, however, can in many ways be seen as an exception to this rule. This group of thrillers and melodramas of the 40s and the 50s contains a gallery of strong female characters who resist and disturb the male-ordered world. The essays in this volume examine many of the best-known films noirs, including Gilda, Double Indemnity, Lady from Shanghai and Sunset Boulevard. They show how within the noir world women's sexuality is consistently posed as a threat which the films can only with difficulty contain. It is this challenge to patriarchy which makes the film noir of such special interest to contemporary feminism.