Obsession is perhaps the defining psychological engine of film noir. Characters become consumed by desire, revenge, ambition, jealousy, or an unattainable dream until every other consideration disappears. What begins as determination gradually becomes compulsion, drawing ordinary people into extraordinary acts of self-destruction. Noir repeatedly suggests that the greatest danger lies not in the criminal world itself but in the inability to let go. The essays collected here explore films in which fixation overwhelms judgment and desire becomes destiny.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
Vertigo (1958)
Gun Crazy (1950)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Criss Cross (1949)
Scarlet Street (1945)
Point Blank (1967)