L.A. Noir: The City as Character | Alain Silver, James Ursini

L.A. Noir: The City as Character | Alain Silver, James Ursini | Film Noir in Los Angeles, and Vice Versa, 1942-2004.

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L.A. Noir: The Cit...

	L.A. Noir: The City as Character Alain Silver, James Ursini Santa Monica Press, 2005 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Film buffs explore the world of noir cinema in a Los Angeles context with this guide to noir films and their California settings. This book illustrates how these films use L.A.'s diverse cityscape and architecture to convey a unique vision of urban corruption and existential fatalism, in both the gritty downtown area and the outlying affluent communities like Malibu and Beverly Hills. Dozens of noir and neo-noir films are featured including classics such as Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly, Sunset Boulevard, and Touch of Evil and more recent films such as Mulholland Drive and Pulp Fiction. More than 150 photographs?many never before published?further illustrate the rich and constantly changing backdrop of these movies.

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Explore the dark side of the City of Angels!

Due to the ever-increasing popularity of film noir, the amount of books on the subject seems overwhelming at times. Thus, it's up to writers/historians like Alain Silver and James Ursini to shed new light on the neglected categories of film noir. This book focuses on L.A.'s important role in film noir, and especially why it makes such a great setting in these dark crime stories. It takes you to the actual locations that were used for such classic noirs as "Criss Cross", "D.O.A.", "Double Indemnity", "Gun Crazy", "In A Lonely Place", "Kiss Me Deadly", "Mildred Pierce", "Night Has a Thousand Eyes", "Pitfall", "Quicksand", "Shockproof", "Sunset Boulevard", "T-Men", "This Gun For Hire", "Touch of Evil", and "White Heat". The book also shows locations used for modern noirs like "Devil in a Blue Dress", "Heat", "Impulse", "L.A. Confidential", "Mulholland Drive", and "2 Days in the Valley".

The best feature of this book is the pictures of course, as much of the text is merely recycled material from earlier work by Alain Silver and James Ursini. This book is generously illustrated with lots of photos from noir films, as well as photos of the actual L.A. locations used in the films as they look today. My favorite picture is the photo on the title page, a beautiful nighttime shot of the San Fernando Valley in the 1980s. I wish there'd been more focus on the older noir films. In fact, the section on "Blade Runner" shouldn't have even been included, especially when actual noir films like "The Crooked Way" (set in L.A.) were completely ignored. How do you confuse science-fiction with film noir?!? Anyway, although it's far from being a definitive work on the subject, film noir addicts will probably enjoy it just for the great photos, if nothing else.

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Film Noir in Los Angeles, and Vice Versa, 1942-2004.

In "L.A. Noir: The City as Character", film noir historians Alain Silver and James Ursini take a different approach to the films that they have written so much about in other books. This book looks at film noir, both classic and neo-noir, for which "Los Angeles and its environs serve as essential elements in the invocation of the noir mood." Silver and Ursini discuss over 40 films, noting their themes and characters, with an emphasis on the role location plays in the movies. The book is organized into four chapters: "Hollywood", "The West Side and the Coast", "Downtown Los Angeles", and "The 'Burbs". A brief history of the area introduces each chapter, and some films are included in more than one section.

Locations don't mean much if we can't see them, so "L.A. Noir" is packed with pictures. There are about 150 black-and-white photos, including production stills, behind-the-scenes photos, and 64 location photos. The location photos are also indexed in the back of the book with thumbnails and precise locations, so you could find the places yourself. Reproduction quality is good. To accommodate the photos, the book is much wider than it is tall. That would be fine in a hardback, but it's a minor annoyance in softcover, as the book flops awkwardly when open. I can't say that "L.A. Noir" is essential for film noir enthusiasts, but it goes over old territory with a different emphasis. Film noir aficionados living in the Los Angeles area may find it particularly interesting.

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Locations, locations, locations

The book doesn't quite live up to its subtitle: "The City as Character," though the authors do a whole lot of talking about L.A. You have to admire the effort that went into tracking down all these film locations, though many of them ("Present-day tunnel through Bunker Hill where Steve Thomson is dropped of in Criss Cross") are of the "so what" variety. Lots of film stills, but on the whole the book didn't seem worth the price. If you absolutely must have every book connected with noir films, then you might feel differently.

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