The Dark Interval: Film Noir, Iconography, and Affect

Description

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. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Prelude: 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