Detours and Lost Highways

Noir 'lives', but like any genre that endures, it has had to continually reinvent itself. While its defining subjects -- violence, sex, greed, loss of innocence -- remain as do its dominant character types -- the femme fatale, her vulnerable male victim and the private eye burdened with his own code of honour -- these ingredients have been blended in strikingly new ways. Charting these ways is what Foster Hirsch accomplishes so brilliantly in this enlightening and entertaining book. He demonstrates how neo-noir has reflected changes in contemporary life from film technology to social values. Restlessly mobile camerawork, multi-layered soundtracks and lush colours now work to create dark stories that tell of growing cynicism about government, distrust of the press, tensions in gender politics and race relations. The text is illustrated with over 100 seductive, visually exciting stills. In words and pictures he enrichingly explores a landscape that now seems an indestructible part of the American cultural scene.