When it appeared in France in 1955, A Panorama of American Film Noir was the first book ever on the genre. Now this classic is at last available in English translation. This clairvoyant study of Hollywood film noir is "a ?benchmark? for all later work on the topic" (James Naremore). A Panorama of American Film Noir addresses the essential amorality of its subject from a decidedly Surrealist angle, focusing on noir?s dreamlike, unwonted, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel atmosphere, and setting it in the social context of mid-century America.

Raymond Borde (b. 1920), founder of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, has written extensively on film history.

Etienne Chaumeton was the film critic of the Toulouse newspaper La Dépêche until his recent death.