Explore the vast range of titles available.

The production of suspense thriller films has recently surged in Taiwan. These films adopt narrative techniques and visual aesthetics reminiscent of classic and neo-noir Hollywood cinema but also address social issues in Taiwan and represent transcultural aesthetic appropriation of film noir. This article employs a case study approach to examine the narrative and visual style of the Taiwanese suspense thriller Who Killed Cock Robin (2017), using film narratology as a textual analytical framework. This study considers themes, characters, visual style, and narrative structures, focusing on fundamental characteristics of classic film noir and neo-noir. This study reveals that the selected film both appropriates and deviates from the aesthetics of Hollywood film noir. It effectively incorporates aesthetic elements from classic Hollywood film noir and neo-noir, enriching the intricacies of storytelling and character depiction, while also localizing them through complex narrative strategies and nuanced Taiwanese cultural and social elements. The film brings attention to several prevalent issues in Taiwan’s media landscape, including truth manipulation, sensationalism, tabloidization, and conglomerate and political control. The film portrays Yi-Chi as a morally compromised character embodying the detective archetype with classic noir traits, while also reflecting the “Eastern mentality” in Taiwan journalism. Despite his moral compromises, Yi-Chi partly retains traditional virtues, presenting a nuanced view of human nature that blends pessimism and optimism in Taiwan. This approach creates a distinct cross-cultural narrative that resonates emotionally with Taiwanese audiences, while also contributing to the broader global cinematic discourse on film noir.

Hailed for its dramatic expressionist visuals, film noir is one of the most prominent genres in Hollywood cinema. Yet, despite the \"boom\" in sound studies, the role of sonic effects and source music in classic American noir has not received the attention it deserves.Siren Cityengagingly illustrates how sound tracks in 1940s film noir are often just as compelling as the genre's vaunted graphics.Focusing on a wide range of celebrated and less well known films and offering an introductory discussion of film sound, Robert Miklitsch mobilizes the notion of audiovisuality to investigate period sound technologies such as the radio and jukebox, phonograph and Dictaphone, popular American music such as \"hot\" black jazz, and \"big numbers\" featuring iconic performers such as Lauren Bacall, Veronica Lake, and Rita Hayworth.Siren Cityresonates with the sounds and source music of classic American noir-gunshots and sirens, swing riffs and canaries. Along with the proverbial private eye and femme fatale, these audiovisuals are central to the noir aesthetic and one important reason the genre reverberates with audiences around the world.

From the glossy monochrome of the classic Hollywood romance, to the gritty greyscale of the gangster picture, to film noir's moody interplay of light and shadow, black-and-white cinematography has been used to create a remarkably wide array of tones. Yet today, with black-and-white film stock nearly impossible to find, these cinematographic techniques are virtually extinct, and filmgoers' appreciation of them is similarly waning.Black and White Cinemais the first study to consider the use of black-and-white as an art form in its own right, providing a comprehensive and global overview of the era when it flourished, from the 1900s to the 1960s. Acclaimed film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon introduces us to the masters of this art, discussing the signature styles and technical innovations of award-winning cinematographers like James Wong Howe, Gregg Toland, Freddie Francis, and Sven Nykvist. Giving us a unique glimpse behind the scenes, Dixon also reveals the creative teams-from lighting technicians to matte painters-whose work profoundly shaped the look of black-and-white cinema.More than just a study of film history, this book is a rallying cry, meant to inspire a love for the artistry of black-and-white film, so that we might work to preserve this important part of our cinematic heritage. Lavishly illustrated with more than forty on-the-set stills,Black and White Cinemaprovides a vivid and illuminating look at a creatively vital era.

Four DVD releases of classic films from Columbia Pictures, distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, are reviewed: \"Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics I\"; \"Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics II\"; \"Columbia Classics Bad Girls of Film Noir Volume 1\"; and \"Columbia Classics Bad Girls of Film Noir Volume 2.\"

When writing about a little-known silent film it is always a temptation to connect it to something with a bit more currency in the public imagination--people should be beyond this really. But some make no apology for connecting The Informer with film noir because there is something interesting, if not eerily prescient in looking at the film in that context. Here, Dixon examines the the 1929 film of Liam O'Flaherty The Informer which has all the ingredients of classic Hollywood noir--just a decade too early and an ocean away.