Naremore, James. "American Film Noir: The History of an Idea." Film Quarterly, 49.2 (1995) 12-28.

This article by James Naremore gives an extensive history of the genre of film noir, a term coined by the French to describe Hollywood crime dramas that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation.  Naremore comments upon the fact that noir is almost entirely a creation of postmodern culture - "a belated reading of classic Hollywood that was popularized by the cinéastes of the French New Wave." The writings of the existentialist film critic Andre Bazin (among others) on film noir are discussed, as is his influence on the up-and-coming critics for Cahiers that became the prominent New Wave film directors.

Just when the chronological history of film noir comes to an end, Godard's Breathless and Truffaut's The Piano Player appear on the scene - representing an art cinema based on the transformation of the film noir. As Naremore describes it, Breathless was a "fusion of Bazinian neorealism and surrealist disjunctions." Breathless is "littered" with references to American westerns, most notably Humphrey Bogart, the infamous star of the crime drama whom Michel Poiccard seemingly aspires to be.