Tag: James Stewart
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The Pygmalion Complex in Film Noir: Benevolent Tyrants Who Create Their Ideal Women
In noir, dark characters who aim to control the vulnerable are easy to spot. Blackmailers, femmes fatale and hardened criminals exert their grip on others in unsubtle ways. But sometimes the aggressor arrives with a smile and a bouquet of roses. He may present a polished image, but his intentions are always unsavory. In “Pygmalion,”…
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Skepticism takes a holiday: When noir became public relations
Noir traditionally thrives on moral instability. Criminals, police, politicians and ordinary citizens occupy the same compromised terrain, where motives blur and institutions rarely deserve trust.But a parallel strain of postwar crime films moved in the opposite direction. Documentary-style procedurals borrowed noir’s visual tension while stripping away its skepticism, replacing ambiguity with institutional certainty and turning…