The Origins of Noir

Lloydville of mardecortesbaja.com has posted a series of interesting and provocative articles this month on the origins of film noir and a paradigm for classifying noirs:

Lloydville finds the origins of film noir in post-WW2 disillusionment, while I see the origins as more rooted in European existentialism through the post-war influence of directors such as Wilder, Siodmak, Lang, De Toth, Sirk, Ulmer, Dmytryk, Tourneur, Von Sternberg, and others. I also question the usefulness of developing a schema of sub-genres.

Lloydville is a thinker and his posts go beyond plot outlines and arcane trivia. While I don’t agree with all he says, I have found reading the posts stimulating and thought-provoking.