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Noir

I have been fond of Noir as a genre for as long as I can remember.  I enjoyed watching The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep on television with my father when I was very young, so I guess it started with Humphrey Bogart and his appeal. I was always a reader so of course I turned to the novels that the movies were based on and read everything I could by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I branched out into other movies and authors. I think Double Indemnity has been one of my favorite movies for many decades now although I'm more fond of some of James Cain's other novels.

People more articulate than I have tried to describe Noir as a genre, and as much as I've been immersed in it for decades it is actually hard for me to do so. Part of the appeal is the intricacy of the plotting; no good Noir is a straight line. Part of it lies in the moral transitions in both directions---giving in to temptation and seeking atonement---and what they reveal about character. Part of it is that to a greater extent than in other genres (though far from perfect) women seem to have more agency and have a separate existence from the male characters.

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