Cinema Junkie Episode 219: Down Noir Alley With Eddie Muller

Femme fatales, private dicks, wooden kimonoes... welcome to the world of film noir. The term was coined by French film critics to describe a style of cinema rooted in hard-boiled crime fiction of the 1940s. It revealed a darkness and cynicism that challenged audiences with something new — a world where women used sex to get what they wanted, where betrayal and deceit were to be expected, and murder was a given. Classic noir is usually defined as films made between 1941 and late 1950s. It’s marked by a visual style rich in shadows, cigarette smoke, and dimly lit streets. The term literally means black film and the darkness comes not just from the visual look but also from the dark motives of the characters. To explore this shadowy, treacherous terrain, Cinema Junkie has invited The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller, host of TCM’s Noir Alley and the founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation. He has just revised and expanded his book “Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir” and we’ll be discussing that as well as all things noir as Cinema Junkie dives into Noirvember.