Fourth Assignment: Blog #1

Paul Schrader, a noted filmmaker, has penned a far-reaching and time-spanning article titled simply, "Notes on Film Noir." More like an expansive exhaustion of the genre than a simple listing of "notes" as the title suggests, Schrader tackles several of the elements film noir has come to represent including 'War and Post-War Disillusionments,' 'Post-War Realism,' 'The German Influence,' The Hard-Boiled Tradition,' 'Stylistics,' and 'Themes.' Each of these dives deep into the influence it had on the genre as a whole, which he notes as one of "the best known and least known" periods in Hollywood film. This dichotomy, along with that list of topics that Schrader tackles, makes this an indispensable resource. One thing I learned that I didn't know comes from 'The German Influence' section, where Schrader notes famed cinematographer of Hungarian descent named John Alton who helped "adapt old expressionist techniques to the new desire for realism..." That kind of adaptation is an interesting one to explore not only in relation to John Alton but in relation to any noir film.