| World Cinema 1945-1949: Into the Shadows of Noir (Online)

Explore the visionary filmmakers and movements that reshaped Hollywood and world cinema in the 1940s, one of film history’s richest decades.

Note: This workshop will be held in a live, online format utilizing the Zoom platform.
Class meets Tuesdays, Jan 14-Mar 4, 2025 from 8-9:45pm ET.

The 1940s were one of the most creative and consequential decades in cinema history. In the United States, the forties marked Hollywood’s most successful period, with audience attendance at movies reaching its all-time peak at the middle of the decade. But this high point also saw the beginnings of radical changes that would eventually bring down the studio system, from legal challenges to the birth of television, the rise of independent filmmaking, and the breakdown of censorship. Artists broke new ground in narrative structures and visual techniques; after World War II, “semi-documentary” techniques and an interest in social problems and true crime brought a new level of realism to Hollywood films. In other countries, the war and its aftermath brought drastic changes to political systems and film industries, and filmmakers used new freedoms to address head-on their national traumas and rebuild their cultural identities. The 1940s saw the rise of film noir, Italian neorealism, and golden ages in national cinemas as diverse as Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Join film historian and critic Imogen Sara Smith for this fascinating journey into one of cinema’s most extraordinary decades. In addition to being a regular speaker on The Criterion Channel, and on disc commentaries for Criterion and other labels, Imogen is the author of two books on film and has published many articles and essays in leading film publications.

This survey of 1940s cinema will be offered in two parts, which can be taken individually or as a sequence. Part One, Film History 1940-1949: Mavericks & Dreamers (September 10-October 29, 2024), will focus on the visionaries who broke new ground and expanded our sense of what cinema could be; Part Two, World Cinema 1945-1949: Into The Shadows Of Noir (January 14-March 4, 2025), will explore global trends of the postwar era, with a focus on the international family tree of film noir.

World Cinema 1945-1949: Into the Shadows of Noir

This second part of this survey of 1940s cinema will explore global trends of the postwar era, with an emphasis on the international family tree of film noir. The term was coined by French critics in 1946, as they caught up on Hollywood movies they had missed during the Occupation and identified a new movement, which had been thriving (under names like “crime thrillers” and “crime melodramas”) since the beginning of the decade. But noir was always an international movement shaped by a circulation of influences, from German expressionism to French poetic realism to Italian neorealism, all mixing with American hard-boiled fiction. In the years after the war, the influences flowed back the other way, as European countries took inspiration from Hollywood noir, applying its inky shadows and fatalistic tropes to their own shattered landscapes.

1945 was dubbed the “Year Zero,” reflecting how completely some nations were starting over in the wake of unimaginable devastation. Movies served as a means of reckoning with trauma, guilt, and the need to reimagine national identities. Germany produced “rubble films,” portraying life among the ruins of bombed cities, where victims of the Nazi era mingle uneasily with perpetrators. In Japan, Akira Kurosawa made searing portraits of postwar malaise and social breakdown—and minted a new star, Toshiro Mifune—laying the groundwork for the golden age of Japanese cinema that would begin in the 1950s. In England, noir became a vehicle for films about black markets, the rise in crime, and the trauma of the Blitz. Italian neorealism, a movement that began in the early 1940s but flourished after the war, had a tremendous influence on worldwide cinema with its commitment to raw authenticity, its use of real locations, non-professional actors, and a focus on poverty, social injustice, and the turbulence of the war years.

In Hollywood, both neorealism and wartime documentaries fed a new hunger for authenticity, with more and more films shot on location, based on true stories, and using documentary techniques. The years after the war saw the rise of independent filmmaking, with many stars escaping studio contracts to start their own production companies, often making more personal and more politically charged films than the studios would countenance. The anti-communist witch-hunts and the Blacklist that began in 1947 cast a pall of anxiety and paranoia over Hollywood that further nourished the noir sensibility, and led some filmmakers to go into exile in the UK or France. 

Meanwhile, the flourishing film industries of Mexico and Argentina dominated the Spanish-speaking world with distinctive brands of melodrama, thriller, musical, and comedy. Mexican noir, helmed by directors like Roberto Gavaldón, Julio Bracho, and Emilio Fernàndez, is distinguished by its gorgeous, lush cinematography and powerful roles for women. It channeled the anxieties of an era of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and social change while expressing the vitality of Mexican culture, music, and aesthetics. 

Come and explore the decade that changed cinema forever!

Course requirements:

Note: Participants will watch films through streaming platforms and join a virtual classroom for live lectures and group discussions. Links to recommended texts will be provided. Students should expect expenses of approximately $50 to stream assigned films.