Abstract
Section One put forward the argument that Duhamel’s Série Noire translations of Peter Cheyney appropriated the author for French noir fiction. This chapter discusses the relatively more straightforward contribution of two American film-makers to the canon of French film noir: Jules Dassin (1911–2008) and Bob Swaim (1943-).
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Notes
Dassin was a fervent admirer of neo-realism, particularly of aaa Rossellini’s Rome Open City (1945).
Reggiani also had a successful acting career, playing leading roles in two French noir classics: as Georges Manda in Becker’s Casque d’or [Golden Marie] (1952) and as Maurice Faugel in aaa Melville’s Le doulos [The Fingerman] (1962).
‘Que diable, si vous avez tant besoin de vous libérer de vos instincts sournois, rendez-vous compte que le roman, la poésie, la fiction, la simple fantaisie sont là, prêts à vous accueillir, et que, dans ce domaine, tout est permis’, Boris Vian, preface to Manuel de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Paris: Pauvert, 1997), p. 32 (text first published by Éditions du Chêne, 1974).
This opening close-up is a clear reminder that the prominence of jazz and blues in French noir was due in large part to the physical presence of so many Black musicians in post-war Paris. Historians estimate their numbers to have been around five hundred. Their collective story was later told through Bertrand Tavernier’s Autour de minuit [Round Midnight] (1986), starring jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon.
Claude Zidi’s Les Ripoux [My New Partner]) (1984), which won best picture in 1985 is more a black comedy.
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© 2009 Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker
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Walker, D. (2009). Americans in Paris. In: French and American Noir. Crime Files Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244825_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244825_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35865-6
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