This course revisits the Noir tradition in European cinema with special reference to French and Spanish case studies. Going back to the roots of noir conventions in Europe, and linking them with classic American Film Noir, Different Shades of Euro Noir will consider key stars and directors and explore the singularity of national and European motifs from French polar to Spanish cine negro.
The course will be illustrated by a series of film extracts of different periods that will be analysed in detail. The course includes two screenings: LE DOULOS (Melville, 1962) and BAD EDUCATION (Almodóvar, 2004).
Led by Carmen Herrero and Isabelle Vanderschelden, Manchester Metropolitan University
Beginners’ Level – no prior knowledge necessary
£60 full / £45 concs
Wallflower Press are offering a discount of 20% off Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City to all students of DIFFERENT SHADES OF EURO NOIR. Part of Wallflower Press’ Short Cuts series, Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City is a wonderfully compact and engaging entrée to the dark, doomed world of film noir. Vouchers to claim this 20% off will be inside the course packs which are given out at the first lesson of the course. The vouchers are redeemable in Cornerhouse’s ground-floor bookshop.
For more information on this and other Wallflower Press titles, including full contents lists, sample chapters and reviews please visit http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk
Tue 16 January: Introduction
We will bring together different definitions of what is understood by ‘film noir’, looking at popular motifs and going back to the roots of this style of film in the European films of the 1930s, and in the classic American period (1940-1958). We will then introduce possible themes to focus on during the course.
Cinema 1 Education Space
Tue 23 January
This week we will offer a historical survey of the Golden Age of film noir in France in the 1950s and as part of the French New Wave. The auteur approach to film noir will be evaluated and the films of Jean Pierre Melville will be introduced prior to the screening of Le Doulos.
Cinema 1 Education Space
Tue 30 January
Screening: Le Doulos (Melville, 1962)
Cornerhouse Cinema 3, 6.15pm
Tue 6 February
The first part of this session will consist of a feedback discussion on Melville’s film. The second part will be dedicated to considering the relationship between French stars and film noir (e.g. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon) and recurrent motifs such as issues of masculinity, the French gangster/underworld, the French femme fatale, etc
Cinema 1 Education Space
Tue 13 February
We will consider how Spanish film noir from the 1950s to 1975 confronted social and human questions under the limitations of strict censorship. In the second part, we will revise different trends within the cine policiaco from 1975 to the 1990s under the political and social background of the Transición from dictatorship to democracy.
Cinema 1 Education Space
Tue 20 February
Screening: La Mala educación (Almodóvar, 2004)
Cornerhouse Cinema 3
Tue 27 February
The first part will consist of a feedback session on Almodóvar’s film. The second part will be dedicated to considering the auteurist approach to Spanish ‘film noir’ (Eloy de la Iglesia, Carlos Saura y Vicente Aranda y Pilar Miro).
Cinema 1 Education Space
Tue 6 March
In the last session, we will evaluate European film noir with a focus on recent films: French neo-noir and the revival of the genre in the 2000s; and social and political motifs in recent Spanish and French films.
Cinema 1 Education Space
There is no prior reading required for this course but course participants may be interested in the following books.
Allinson, M., A Spanish labyrinth: the films of Pedro Almodóvar (London/ New York: I.B. Tauris, 2001)
Buss. R. French Film Noir (London: Marion Boyars, 1994)
Jordan, Barry and Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas, Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998)
Kaplan, E. ed., Women and Film Noir (London: BFI, 1999)
Medina, Elena, El cine negro y policíaco español de los años cincuenta (Barcelona: Ediciones Laerte, 2000)
Palacios, Jesús, Euronoir. Serie negra con Sabor Europeo (Madrid, T&B Editores, 2006)
Smith, Paul Julian. Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar (London; New York: Verso, 2 ed. 2000)
Spicer, A. (ed.) European Film Noir (forthcoming Manchester: MUP, 2007)
Stone, Rob, Spanish Cinema (London and New York: Longman, 2001).
Triana-Toribio, Núria, Spanish National Cinema (London and New York: Routledge, 2003Vincendeau G. Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris (London: BFI, 2003)
- General Filmography
The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)
M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Get Carter (Mike Hodge, 1971)
- Selected French Filmography
Les Diaboliques (Clouzot 1955)
Bob le Flambeur (Melville 1955)
Tirez sur le pianiste/Shoot the Pianist (FrançoisTruffaut, 1961)
Le Doulos (Melville 1961)
Le Samourai (Melville 1967)
Le Cercle Rouge (Melville 1970)
Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1980)
La Cérémonie/Judgement in stone (Claude Chabrol, 1995)
Sur mes Lèvres/Read my Lips (Audiard 2001)
De Battre mon Coeur s’est arrêté The Beat my Heart Skipped (Audiard 2005)
- Selected Spanish Filmography
Apartado de correos 1001 /P.O.Box 1001(Julio Salvador, 1950)
Brigada criminal /Criminal Brigade (Ignacio F. Iquino, 1950)
Deprisa, deprisa / Fast, fast (Carlos Saura,1980)
Asesinato en el Comité Central Murder in the Central Committee (Vicente Aranda, 1981)
El crack (José Luis Garci, 1981)
El pico/ The Shoot (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1983) and El pico 2 (1984)
Amantes / Lovers (Vicente Aranda, 1991)
Beltenebros / Prince of Shadows (Pilar Miró, 1991)
Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto / Nobody will speak about us when we’re dead (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 1995)
Tesis / Thesis (Alejandro Amenábar, 1995)
Entre las piernas /Between your legs (Manuel Gómez Pereira, 1999)
Carne trémula /Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar, 1997)
La caja 507 /Box 507 (Enrique Urbizu, 2002)
El alquimista impaciente / The Impacient Alchemist (Patricia Ferreira, 2002)
Las horas del día /The hours of the day (Jaime Rosales, 2003)
El lobo /The Wolf (Miguel Courtois, 2004)