Here is a list of the best Film Noir books, some I have read myself, some that I did research on, and all have great reviews!
- The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir (2014)
- Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 (2010)
- Film Noir FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About Hollywood’s Golden Age of Dames, Detectives and Danger (2013)
- The Dark Side of the Screen (2008)
- Noir City Annual, No. 11 (2019)
- Film Noir Reader (Limelight) (2004)
- Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2019)
- Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir (2005)
- A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953) (2002)
- Film Noir (Insider Film) (2002)
The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir (2014)
The poster art from the noir era has a bold look and an iconography all its own. During noir’s golden age, studios commissioned these arresting illustrations for even the lowliest “B” thriller. The Art of Noir is the first book to present this striking artwork in a lavishly produced, large-format, full-color volume. The more than 300 dazzling posters and other promotional material range from the classics to rare archive films such as The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Blonde Kiss.
Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 (2010)
More than 700 films from the classic period of film noir (1940 to 1959) are presented in this exhaustive reference book–such films as The Accused, Among the Living, The Asphalt Jungle, Baby Face Nelson, Bait, The Beat Generation, Crossfire, Dark Passage, I Walk Alone, The Las Vegas Story, The Naked City, Strangers on a Train, White Heat, and The Window.
Film Noir FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About Hollywood’s Golden Age of Dames, Detectives and Danger (2013)
Illustrations throughout
The Dark Side of the Screen (2008)
A revised and updated edition of the definitive study of film noir—the most original genre of American cinema—with a new afterword by the authorSince The Dark Side of the Screen first appeared over two decades ago, it has served as the essential take on what has become one of today’s most pervasive screen influences and enduringly popular genres.
Noir City Annual, No. 11 (2019)
2019’s NOIR CITY Annual 11, the best of the best from the Film Noir Foundation’s 2018 quarterly NOIR CITY e‑magazines, is an essential addition to any film lover’s library-essays, interviews, profiles, tributes, and reviews of classic and modern noir films from today’s top writers — including Imogen Sara Smith, Jake Hinkson, Ray Banks, Vince Keenan, Alan K.
Film Noir Reader (Limelight) (2004)
This bountiful anthology combines all the key early writings on film noir with many newer essays, including some published here for the first time. The collection is assembled by the editors of the Third Edition of Film Noir: An Enclyclopedic Reference to the American Style, now regarded as the standard work on the subject.
Film Noir: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2019)
Film noir, one of the most intriguing yet difficult to define terms in cinema history, is usually associated with a series of darkly seductive Hollywood thrillers from the 1940s and 50s–shadowy, black-and-white pictures about private eyes, femme fatales, outlaw lovers, criminal heists, corrupt police, and doomed or endangered outsiders.
Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir (2005)
Challenging conventional scholarship placing the origins of film noir in postwar Hollywood, Sheri Chinen Biesen finds the genre’s roots firmly planted in the political, social, and material conditions of Hollywood during the war. After Pearl Harbor, America and Hollywood experienced a sharp cultural transformation that made horror, shock, and violence not only palatable but preferable.
A Panorama of American Film Noir (1941-1953) (2002)
When it appeared in France in 1955, A Panorama of American Film Noir was the first book ever on the genre: this clairvoyant study of Hollywood film noir is at last available in English translation.A Panorama of American Film Noir addresses the essential amorality of its subject from a decidedly Surrealist angle, focusing on noir’s dreamlike, unwonted, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel atmosphere, and setting it in the social context of mid-century America.Beginning with the Author(s): Raymond Borde , Etienne Chaumeton, et al.
Film Noir (Insider Film) (2002)
Film Noir is an overview of an often celebrated, but also contested, body of films. It discusses film noir as a cultural phenomenon whose history is more extensive and diverse than American black and white crime thrillers of the forties.
Best Film Noir Books You Must Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some film noir books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood
Author(s): Nathaniel Deyo
ID: 2883678, Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan, Year: 2020, Size: 2 Mb, Format: pdf
Film Noir Style The Killer 1940s
Author(s): Kimberly Truhler
ID: 2908842, Publisher: GoodKnight Books, Year: 2020, Size: 17 Mb, Format: epub
Film noir: a very short introduction
Author(s): Naremore, James
ID: 2728741, Publisher: Oxford University Press, Year: 2019;2018, Size: 1 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are absolutely hot items according to Los Angeles Times, others are composed by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.