Ciné-histoire : At the End of the Night

CINÉ-HISTOIRE : AT THE END OF THE NIGHT: THE FINAL ACT OF FILM NOIR (1955–1958)

Characterized by a highly distinctive aesthetic and narrative style, the golden age of film noir spanned just over fifteen years, marked on one side by John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941) and on the other by Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

Inspired in particular by German expressionist cinema (shadow play, contrasting lighting) and French poetic realism (characters from the working class trapped by their status), the genre established itself with a strong visual identity, often marked by dark and confined urban settings, and punctuated by an obsession with time and urgency. Cynical and ambiguous heroes, femmes fatales, sordid crimes, and betrayals run through film noir and reflect, through the narrative and its staging, a moral and social crisis deeply linked to the economic and political turmoil of the time.

For its 10th edition, Ciné-histoire has chosen to focus on the end of this golden age, a major period in the history of cinema, with five works shot between 1955 and 1958.