This is a class in which we will study the classics of the film noir genre as well as read noir fiction by the two pre-eminent masters of the genre: Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep and Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest. Students will make weekly video essays about the films and their relation to the genre. The films we will watch include Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard, Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep, John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, and Carol Reed’s The Third Man.