Session 2: Global Noir

September 7, 8:30 am PST

Back from Australia and New York City, I’m in sweltering Southern California, a place that sees its hottest days just as the rest of North America is cooling off. I am back to finishing up Traumatized, the manuscript of the book I hope to hand over to Verso by the beginning of October.

If you’re new to the Substack, I do a monthly reading/discussion group that started as a reading group about Monotheism, Critical Theory, the later Freud, Frankfurt School and the culture industry and has now evolved into a discussion of film noir. The first session was on classic film noir. This weekend’s session deals with the ways in which Noir has gone global. For paid subscribers! Low monthly sub of $5.00.

Alain Delon, star of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai passed away recently. His beautifully controlled performance as the utterly isolated protagonist in this film about 1960s Paris and its criminal underbelly is one of his great achievements and provides us with many of the iconic images of the star resonate still with fans of noir.