Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- List of contributors
- Introduction The a-chronology of medieval film
- 1 Cinematic authenticity-effects and medieval art: a paradox
- 2 Forward into the past: film theory’s foundation in medievalism
- 3 A time of translation: linguistic difference and cinematic medievalism
- 4 ‘Poison to the infant, but tonic to the man’: timing The Birth of a Nation
- 5 The medieval imaginary in Italian films
- 6 Towards a theory of medieval film music
- 7 Border skirmishes: weaving around the Bayeux Tapestry and cinema in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and El Cid
- 8 Medieval noir: anatomy of a metaphor
- 9 ‘Medievalism’, the period film and the British past in contemporary cinema
- Further reading
- Index
8 - Medieval noir: anatomy of a metaphor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2025
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- List of contributors
- Introduction The a-chronology of medieval film
- 1 Cinematic authenticity-effects and medieval art: a paradox
- 2 Forward into the past: film theory’s foundation in medievalism
- 3 A time of translation: linguistic difference and cinematic medievalism
- 4 ‘Poison to the infant, but tonic to the man’: timing The Birth of a Nation
- 5 The medieval imaginary in Italian films
- 6 Towards a theory of medieval film music
- 7 Border skirmishes: weaving around the Bayeux Tapestry and cinema in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and El Cid
- 8 Medieval noir: anatomy of a metaphor
- 9 ‘Medievalism’, the period film and the British past in contemporary cinema
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter argues that certain films with medieval themes and settings, mostly dating from the 1940s to the 1960s, demonstrate a surprising affinity with the themes and techniques associated with film noir. The romanticism of medieval films may be regarded as a virtual antidote to the cynicism and nihilism of film noir. Film theory has also drawn some implicit parallels between medieval films and noir. Medieval historical movies and crime films share a certain generic status in cinematic taxonomies. Film noir historians have always attempted to distinguish between earlier crime films and the unique characteristics of films noir. German expressionism is one of the most widely cited sources for film noir, especially given the exile of so many fugitive film-makers from Nazi Germany in Hollywood. But German expressionist film is also one of the tributaries of high-art medieval movies.
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- Medieval film , pp. 182 - 202Publisher: Manchester University PressFirst published in: 2025
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