Out of the Past

"With Out of the Past: Lacan and the Film Noir, Ben Tyrer has written the definitive book on the intersection of psychoanalysis and film noir. Tyrer brings a thorough knowledge of psychoanalysis together with an encyclopedic understanding of film noir, and the result of this encounter is a stunning work that reshapes both fields. Reading this book allows one to see the treasures of film noir in a whole new light." (Todd McGowan, Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies, The University of Vermont, USA) "Why another book on film noir? Ben Tyrer has a brilliant answer to precisely this question. He argues convincingly why this perennially fascinating genre is all about retro-action, belatedness and retrospection, and why attempts at definition must fail or remain provisional. Elegantly written, Out of the Past: Lacan and Film Noir rewards the reader with many surprising and unexpected insights." (Thomas Elsaesser, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Media and Culture of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Visiting Professor at the School of Arts, Columbia University, USA)

This book presents a new reading of film noir through psychoanalytic theory.This book presents a new reading of film noir through psychoanalytic theory. In a field now dominated by Deleuzian and phenomenological approaches to film-philosophy, this book argues that, far from having passed, the time for Lacan in Film Studies is only just beginning. The chapters engage with Lacanian psychoanalysis to perform a meta-critical analysis of the writing on noir in the last seven decades and to present an original theory of criticism and historiography for the cinema. The book is also an act of mourning; for a lost past of the cinema, for a longstanding critical tradition and for film noir. It asks how we can talk about film noir when, in fact, film noir doesn’t exist. The answer starts with Lacan and a refusal to relinquish psychoanalysis. Lacanian theories of retroactivity and ontology can be read together with film history, genre and narrative to show the ways in which theory and history, past and present, cinema and psychoanalysis are fundamentally knotted together. Tyrer also explores Lacan through particular noir films, such as Double Indemnity andThe Maltese Falcon — and demonstrates the possibilities for a Lacanian Film Studies (as one that engages fully with Lacan’s entire body of work) that has hitherto not been realised.