 Sheri
Chinen Biesen
Associate Professor
B.A. University
of Southern California
M.A. University of Southern California
Ph. D. University of Texas at Austin
Department:
Radio/TV/Film
Dr. Chinen Biesen
teaches American Film Directors, Film History and Appreciation II,
and RTF Research and Criticism.
Her research interests include American cinema history, film noir,
censorship, film industry and cultural history, classical studio
system, Hollywood genres, stars and directors.
BLACKOUT: WORLD WAR II AND THE ORIGINS OF FILM NOIR
Sheri Chinen Biesen, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005
"This volume stands out as one of the best and perhaps the single most essential book in English on film noir. Biesen reveals an untold part of the movement with originality, sophistication, and vitality. Her work will become a foundation for subsequent interpretation of film noir, as well as an ideal text in film, history, and cultural studies courses."—Brian Taves, film historian, author of The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies
Challenging conventional scholarship, placing the origins of film noir in postwar Hollywood, Sheri Chinen Biesen finds the genre's roots firmly planted in the political, social, and material conditions of Hollywood during the war. After Pearl Harbor, America and Hollywood experienced a sharp cultural transformation that made horror, shock, and violence not only palatable but preferable. Hard times necessitated cheaper sets, fewer lights, and fresh talent; censors as well as the movie-going public showed a new tolerance for sex and violence; and female producers experienced newfound prominence in the industry.
Biesen brings prodigious archival research, accessible prose, and imaginative insights to both well-known films noir of the wartime period—The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Double Indemnity—and others often overlooked or underrated—Scarlet Street, Ministry of Fear, Phantom Lady, and Stranger on the Third Floor.
"Outstanding. Highly Recommended. Excellent Book. A fascinating, engaging, innovative and original work. A fine account of film noir and 1940s Hollywood filmmaking, film censorship and propaganda, and wartime conditions in America's movie capital during World War II. Ample noir stories of Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart, James M. Cain, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alan Ladd, Peter Lorre, Howard Hawks with hardboiled crime, venetian blinds, swirling cigarette smoke and smoldering seductive femme fatales like black widow Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth. A rich provocative study. Terrific and enjoyable read for film buffs, cineastes, film critics, movie fans, industry insiders, cultural historians, researchers and cinema scholars, and an insightful and compelling look at the unexplored history of film noir and wartime Hollywood in the 1940s. Biesen's Blackout is quite a find, a must-read book on film noir. Wonderful revelations and essential reading for lovers of film noir."
Sheri Chinen Biesen is a film historian and associate professor of radio, television, and film studies at Rowan University. Educated at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television (B.A. 1987, M.A. 1995) and University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D. 1998), Professor Biesen is the recipient of numerous research awards and teaching honors and has taught cinema history at the University of Texas at Austin, University of California, University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, and University of Leicester in England. She has contributed to Film Noir Reader 4, Film and History, Literature/Film Quarterly, Popular Culture Review, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, The Historian, Television and Television History and edited The Velvet Light Trap.
For more info, see noirbooks, IAMHIST, Johns Hopkins University Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble:
noirbooks
IAMHIST
John Hopkins University Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
email
biesen@rowan.edu
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