The conventional wisdom I've always heard has been retronymic: French cinephiles observed the film patterns and described the trend just as it was ending, in the mid-50s; once film noir entered the critical parlance, the general term roman noir and its population of novelists began to be described.
I understood that Roman Noir preceded Film Noir as a coinage, because American hard-boiled novelists were packaged in black covered books in France.
In the same way that Italian thrillers became known as Giallo - which means yellow, and refers to the yellow covers of the source novels.
No love for Jim Thompson? Noiriest of the Noir.
What am I? Chopped liver?
Oh, yeah "The Grifters"
Cusack was creepy in it.
I like Thompson a lot but prefer Willeford, especially his early stuff like The Pick Up and the High Priest of California and the Woman Chaser. (I have the movie version of the last on tape, starring Patrick Warburton.)
Oh, Cor, I am Skimmy McSkimmerpants, and I bow my head in shame before you.
Oh, I know how it is. I'm just so much noirish background blather to you. Like Edward G. Robinson playing Charlie Brown's teacher.
I understood that Roman Noir preceded Film Noir as a coinage, because American hard-boiled novelists were packaged in black covered books in France.
True, but not by much. The term film noir was first used in 1946, partly for the way they were shot, but mostly due to coming on the tail of the
Série noire
novels, which Gallimard started publishing in 1945.
Good to know the dissertation's good for something...
In your face, Jasper Johns Nutty!
In the same way that Italian thrillers became known as Giallo - which means yellow, and refers to the yellow covers of the source novels.
That bring to mind that I was just reading (in VIDEO WATCHDOG) about a German variation called Krimis, which was a series of crime films in the 60s based on Edgar Wallace novels (often extremely loosely). They're almost unknown outside of Germany, and share several characteristics with the Giallos (decadent characters, violent murders by elaborately masked people, etc.), and are mostly set (ostensibly if not recognizably) in England. Klaus Kinski got his start in those, usually playing a depraved red herring/victim.
Though I guess that is more of a discussion for film, not literary.
