Urban transformations are the burden of edward dimendbergs fitfully brilliant study film noir and the spaces of modernity the passage of a historical city of old neighborhoods traditional if often menacing public spaces and anonymous crowds into the postwar suburbs highways shopping malls and industrial landscapesdimendbergs animating insight remarks the coincidence of this radical reorganization in american space and the film noir cycle from 1939 to 1959 or as he slyly . Film noir and the spaces of modernity film noir remains one of the most enduring legacies of 1940s and 50s hollywood populated by double crossing unsavory characters this pioneering film style. Urban transformations are the burden of edward dimendbergs fitfully brilliant study film noir and the spaces of modernity the passage of a historical city of old neighborhoods traditional if often menacing public spaces and anonymous crowds into the postwar suburbs highways shopping malls and industrial landscapesdimendbergs animating insight remarks the coincidence of this radical reorganization in american space and the film noir cycle from 1939 to 1959 or as he slyly glosses . Film noir and the spaces of modernity begins with what seems to be a clear demarcation a break in historical time and social modes from centripetal to centrifugal and then has to keep strenuously explaining why there is in fact no definitive break only an ongoing and ever shifting tension between these two formations which may indeed to be a decent account of how social processes actually work ie messily but at moments it can seem as if the necessary . Inproceedingsdimendberg2004filmna titlefilm noir and the spaces of modernity authore dimendberg year2004 e dimendberg published 2004 art introduction 1 naked cities 2 centripetal space 3 walking cures 4 centrifugal space 5 simultaneity the media environment and the end of