Abstract:

Film noir emerged in the early 1940s and
remained a potent force in Hollywood
filmmaking for nearly two decades. In the
groundbreaking article “Notes on Film Noir,” Paul
Schrader observes, “Most every dramatic Hollywood
film from 1941 to 1953 contains some noir elements.”1
Because of this pervasive influence, film noir has
received extensive coverage in both scholarly and
popular press. Yet a precise definition of the movement
is elusive. Cinema studies offers no consensus as to
whether film noir is a genre or just a style, what the
defining characteristics are, when the movement
began, and which films should be included in its
canon. The situation remains much as Schrader
described in 1972, “Almost every critic has his own
definition of film noir.”2 Unfortunately, most of these
definitions do not consider music. Relatively little
has been written about music for film noir. Cinema
scholars have concentrated on its visual and dramatic
qualities,3 and musical scholars have treated the topic
within larger contexts or have focused on the singular
aspect of jazz.4 Further research into the music of film
noir bears significance both to cinema studies, where
it can clarify further the notion of “noirness,” and to
musicology, where it can illuminate the expanding
roles of both popular and modern musical styles in
Hollywood films during the 1940s and 50s

Author: Roger Hickman