ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explores film noir, a cycle of 1940s films set primarily in Los Angeles. It offers an overview of the historical development of Los Angeles and Hollywood, as well as the emergence of the studio system and the Production Code. Film noir continues, transforms, and updates styles, tropes, and figures from Weimar cinema. The flâneur and the prostitute become the urban detective and the femme fatale. A defining aesthetic with low-key and chiaroscuro lighting, extreme angles, and pervasive shadows creates a dark mood. Lonely characters in streets suggest urban alienation. During the late 1940s, the action of film noir moved from urban centers into the suburbs, while beginning in the late 1960s, neo-noir in the United States and Japan updated the style to later periods and other locations.
