Title
Film Noir and the Culture of Electric Light
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Even during the Depression and World War II, the use of electric light by domestic consumers and industry was growing, and it rose sharply in the postwar years. Yet this brightly lit historical period produced a set of films famous for darkness: the film noir. This essay examines General Electric's own publications to show how the electricity industry had developed an optimistic new iconography of artificial light, endowing illumination technologies with connotations of progress, science, and glamour-cultural meanings that noirs like Call Northside 777, The Set-Up, and The Asphalt Jungle would adopt, reshape, and invert.
DOI
10.2979/filmhistory.27.1.58
Publisher
Indiana University Press
City
Bloomington, IN
Repository Citation
Keating, P. (2015). Film noir and the culture of electric light. Film History: An International Journal, 27(1), 58-84. https://doi.org/10.2979/filmhistory.27.1.58
Publication Information
Film History: An International Journal