Murder, She Wrote

The American hard-boiled school of crime fiction, associated with names like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Cornell Woolrich, is usually considered one of the major sources of inspiration for classic film noir. It would seem that this is a purely male affair, and that men are behind the vast majority of canonical dark tales. But this year’s section, aptly named after the iconic TV series Murder, She Wrote, aims to show that reality is not so black and white. Women acted as screenwriters in large numbers, and a significant percentage of films noir were directly adapted from novels by female authors. The Noir Film Festival already highlighted the important legacy of the American novelist Patricia Highsmith in the past and this year it will shine a light on other prominent figures: Vera Caspary (Laura, Bedelia), Dorothy B. Hughes (The Fallen Sparrow), Ethel Lina White (The Spiral Staircase) and Marie Belloc Lowndes (The Lodger).

Milan Hain