The Dark Interval

Film noir, Padraic Killeen argues, is a cinema of missing persons. It is around this condition of missingness, gleaned from intervallic moments of inertia and irruption, passivity and passion, arrest and absorption, that this perceptive and philosophically probing study gracefully pivots. Through an eclectic and innovative montage of theories and films that effortlessly transcends the discursive constraints of genre, period and style, The Dark Interval presents a fresh and conceptually rich prism that brings out a paradoxically redemptive light from the shades of noir. * Henrik Gustafsson, Professor of Media Studies, Film & Visual Culture, University of Tromsø, Norway, author of Crime Scenery in Postwar Film and Photography (2019) * One of the classic images of film noir is the moment where the hero pauses to light a cigarette and exhale slowly as if unaware of the narrative’s demand for action. Now, in this masterly study of the genre from Padraic Killeen, that moment gets its due. Arguing for this state of apparent passivity to be considered as a “dark interval” or glimpse of potentiality, Killeen invokes a pantheon of thinkers to tease out just how this might affect our reading of noir. As he moves easily between his choice of texts, from Cat People through Alphaville, The Long Goodbye, and The Big Lebowski, Killeen demonstrates an extraordinary facility for interrogating established perspectives, while always remaining lucid and focused. This is at once a film lover’s guide to noir and a rigorous application of philosophical thought to one of popular culture’s most enduring genres. * Ruth Barton, Head of School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and author of Irish National Cinema (2004) and Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film (2012) * Killeen brings a fresh perspective to an exhaustively studied genre ... [A] refreshing and illuminating take on familiar existential tropes in film noir. * Journal of American Culture *