Hello!

The new issue of Noir City has arrived … and it’s yet another quality film book in disguise as a special interest magazine. Editors Imogen Sara Smith and Danilo Castro enforce a high bar for quality.

The magazine is the academic outreach conduit for the Film Noir Foundation; the articles are at the forefront of thinking on the American style. This Issue 46 bursts with articles about American Noir Actors in Italy, peeping Tom movies, a newly-found noir called The Crimson Canary, and ‘pregnancy’ in noir … that’s a new one. Also an article on a Japanese noir trilogy by Imogen Sara Smith — plus regular articles and disc reviews by colleague Sean Axmaker.

Details on subscribing are to be found at the Film Noir foundation page:

The Bright Lights Film Journal has touched on a subject that hasn’t had much new thought in a spell, Sam Peckinpah’s  The Wild Bunch. Writer Daniel Gauss takes a psychological approach to the film, with a fresh investigation of motivations and rationalizations for crime and violence .. ‘micro-moralities.’

We like this kind of analysis, which reminds us of critical studies directions back with professor Howard Suber at UCLA. Mr. Gauss goes beyond generalities (the sin of reviewers like CineSavant) to nail down ‘fifty discrete moral incidents’ in The Wild Bunch for inspection. Sure, it’s academic, but its not dis-connected.

And intelligent criticism on Peckinpah is always welcome. The publication date for Daniel Gauss’ essay was March 12, 2026.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson