Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

While few can deny its incalculable influence on popular filmmaking during and after World War II, film noir has been and remains one of the most contentious categories of cinema, providing more debate than consensus about what constitutes a noir. Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema explores the amorphous parameters of this dark cinematic phenomenon by utilising an expanded, nuanced definition of film noir which reaches beyond traditional conceptions of genre, style and cycle to examine its complex international origins and issues of liminality. Through illuminating case studies of single films from Argentina, the former Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Poland, Spain and the US, this collection consider elements of genre hybridity, border crossing, boundary breaching and other signifiers of liminality to reassess classical-era films that defy conventional generic and stylistic categorisation. Elyce Rae Helford is Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University Christopher Weedman is Assistant Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University