Dark Charisma in Noir FilmsThe Death of the Ideal Self

Presents an analysis of neo-noir films that focuses on their distance from the trials of the “noir generation,” the death of the self and the dynamics of expanding transgression

• Defines film noir as a new form of psychological melodrama that arose from the breakdown of liberal-Christian ideals and the rise of psychological models of human nature, Freudian and otherwise
• Introduces the notion of a distinctive “noir generation” as the historical and sociological grounding for the development of film noir
• Introduces the concept of a “noir imaginary” with national variations throughout Europe and America
• Defines the origins of dark charisma as located in the expression and mediation of novel and intoxicating fantasies, impulses, and experiences associated with eroticism, violence, greed, and power
• Presents an analysis of neo-noir films that focuses on their distance from the trials of the “noir generation,” the death of the self, and the dynamics of expanding transgression

Noir Films, Dark Charisma and the Death of the Ideal Self draws on sociocultural theory to illuminate the development and content of classic noir and neo-noir films, their audience reception and their continuing attraction by linking the origins of film noir to the extended moral crisis of the “noir generation” in America and Europe. It demonstrates that noir films and the neo-noir films that followed are inseparable from the continuing cultural revolution of late modernity.

This revolution began with the breakdown of liberal-Christian ideals and the rise of a new model of human nature during the first half of the twentieth century that leveled traditional hierarchical understandings of the self as divided into “higher” and “lower” motives.

Film noir is significant because it developed as a form of psychological melodrama in the mid-twentieth century that gave a powerful new cinematic vision and voice to fantasies and impulses, many of them previously defined as pathological, that had been condemned, repressed and denied by the dominant culture.