The one spot of color in the otherwise monochromatic world of Film Noir was probably it's advertising. The guns, the painted faces of
femme fatales, the garish green and reds suggesting menace, the violence of the typography, promised the cruelty, but none of the moral ambivalence of the best of the Noir films. This is not a slam against the posters, but, rather, an acknowledgement of the peculiar artform of the movie poster, whose very existence is inextricably linked (perhaps subserviant) to another work of art, but can also carry its own aesthetic rules. Which is to say that the movie posters are very cool in and of themselves, and can be appreciated without knowing the film they're promoting (perhaps even more so, as if the weight of the film's content and reputation has been lifted from the viewer's mind and the eye can fully concentrate on the pictorial elements of the poster). But a very good
poster for a very good movie can be sublime, complimenting each other, adding meaning and context.
Here's the introductory
essay by Eddie Muller for his book
The Art of Noir: Posters and Graphics from the Classic Film Noir Era, published by Overlook Press, complete with a few examples. It looks like something to get.
