More than Night

"Film noir" evokes memories of stylish, cynical, black-and-white movies from the 1940s and ''50s—melodramas about private eyes, femmes fatales, criminal gangs, and lovers on the run. James Naremore''s prize-winning book discusses these pictures, but also shows that the central term is more complex and paradoxical than we realize. It treats noir as a term in criticism, as an expression of artistic ...