The short excerpt from Vanity Fair below outlines the grand contour and strokes of reactions to the spectrum of an historical period,an epoch. It paints a nihilist or existentialist picture 0n canvas and raises to our consciousness this canvas of bleak images to bring to the forefront a vision of a sterile and meaningless universe depicted in the noir films of the 40's and 50's at their height but starting in the 30's. Even Romance,the affirmation of meaning in the humanistic model, becomes perilous in these vapid winds.
"Between the Great Depression and the start of the Cold War, Hollywood went
noir, reflecting the worldly, weary, wised-up under current of midcentury
America. In classics such as Laura, Sweet Smell of Success, and Double
Indemnity, where the shadows of L.A. and New York pulse with killers, corpses,
and perilous romance, failure is not only a logical option but a smart-talking
seduction."- Vanity Fair March 2007- Vanity Fair March 2007
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