Dark Interval

Invoking key concepts from the philosophical writings of Gilles Deleuze and Giorgio Agamben <i>The Dark Interval</i> examines a subtle but distinct iconography of passivity stillness and profound self-affection that recurs across noir films of every era. In doing so it identifies the emergence of a specific cinematic figure - the 'intervallic' noir protagonist exposed to the redemptive force of his or her own passion. Significantly the book contextualises the iconography of film noir in relation to prior art-historical visual traditions in particular earlier representations of melancholia and the saturnine locating noir against a much broader canvas than has been the norm. Examining central noir films of the classic and modern era (<i>The Killers</i> <i>The Man Who Wasn't There</i>) as well as films at the peripheries of noir (from Jacques Tourneur's <i>Cat People</i> to Wong Kar Wai's <i>2046</i>) the book locates a series of iconographic gestures performance traditions and affective tonalities at once specific to noir and yet resonant with a deeper cultural and philosophical heritage. It is a meditation that uniquely grapples with the <i>look</i> and the <i>feel</i> of noir and which dares to detect a unique quality of 'beatitude' that runs through a certain strain of noir films. In doing so it illuminates why film noir remains one of the most provocative and affecting visual milieus of our time.