ABSTRACT
What follows is a fragmentary chronology of the international picture of film noir we have assembled in this book.The chronology is meant to be representative only of the limited scope of this book. In other words, it is not meant to be comprehensive, definitive, or exemplary. It is a product of our own cinephilia and scholarly interests, and – following the “precinematic” portion – is loosely structured by four key rubrics in noir’s production around which our history pivots: global history, local culture, film history, and noir culture.We seek to stress the interdependence of local production with international and global phenomena, while reminding readers that film (even at times and places where its passport is revoked) has always been a global enterprise and mode of transnational communication. Most of the items in the chronology are central to the story we’ve presented here; others are threads we haven’t been able to pursue here, but might be suggestive to future scholars, students, and lovers of film noir seeking a more complete story of its international scope.
