Paris, city of shadows: French crime cinema before the New Wave

Author: Palmer Tim  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1740-0309

Source: New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol.6, Iss.2, 2008-08, pp. : 213-231

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Abstract

Scholarly attention to the French New Wave has obscured 1950s French film, a dynamic popular cinema derived in part from the crime thriller, or policier, genre. This article provides a revisionist historical approach to the 1950s, analyzing the neglected significance both of the policier and commercial French cinema itself. It considers the policier's history and re-emergence in the mid-1950s, its generic constitution, and its depiction of underworld Paris as a transitional site of urban modernity. The essay also explores the policier as a catalyst within 1950s Franco-American popular culture, situating crime film as an overlooked source for the criticism and filmmaking of the Cahiers du cinema collective.