About Film Blanc

We're all familiar with Film Noir—those dark, brooding, cynical tales of intrigue, passion, betrayal, and revenge—great films like Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Somewhere in the Night, Kiss of Death, and Murder My Sweet . There are hundreds of them and they flourished from the post-World War II years through the 1950s. Do a web search for "film noir" and get scores of results; the field is well documented.

This site exists to recognize those films that represent the opposite in style and values of Film Noir, and some have described that category as Film Blanc, or "white film". Film authority Glenn Erickson, on his DVD Savant site, reports that he first encountered the term in Film Comment magazine in about 1975. I have not yet been able to locate that source, however Peter Valenti, PhD, was certainly one of the first to coin the term in his 1978 article in the Journal of Popular Film, "The “Film Blanc”: Suggestions for a Variety of Fantasy, 1940-45", reprinted here by permisssion.

Valenti's term was acknowledged and reinforced by Andrew Sarris, in a 1979 American Film article, "The Afterlife, Hollywood-style", where he said, "For these sunnier excursions into the extraterrestrial, the term 'film blanc' was coined by Peter L. Valenti in a recent issue of the Journal of Popular Film. ... Valenti proposes a 'scenario' for the film blanc: '(1) a mortal's death or lapse into a dream; (2) subsequent acquaintance with a kindly representative of the world beyond; (3) a budding love affair; (4) ultimate transcendence of mortality to escape the spiritual world and return to the mortal world.'"

In her book,Giving Up the Ghost: Spirits, Ghosts and Angels in Mainstream Comedy Films (1998, Wayne State University Press), Katherine A. Fowkes states, "Peter Valenti coined the term 'film blanc' to describe some of the ghost films of the 1930s and 1940s. Contrasting these films to film noir, Valenti argues that these sentimental ghost films became popular during World War II because they provided reassurance that deceased loved ones were going to a better place and that they were dying for a higher cause."

The Film Glossary on allmovie offers a definition:

Made in direct contrast to film noir, film blanc—literally white film—most often depicts some aspect of the afterlife and promulgates the idea that earth is not as bad as people make it out to be. These films were quite popular in the late 1940s, post World War II, and have occasional resurgencies during times of renewed hope. Most often these films are comedic in orientation.

In any event, the field is not highly documented and the term, while apt, is not widely used. That is the purpose of this site - to identify and describe those motion pictures that fall under this category. Film Blanc is not a genre; indeed, many genres can be found within it.

Film Blanc movies typically involve themes of the afterlife, Heaven and angels, Hell and the devil, reincarnation, time travel and magic, as well as romantic love—and the stories are often presented whimsically and lighthearted. And with a strong sense of life affirming optimism, unlike the cynical pessimism of Film Noir.

The subtitle on this site, "The Cinema of Feel-Good Fantasies" refers to two other qualities of Film Blanc—successful ones leave the viewer with a sometimes teary and almost indefinable state of "good feeling"; virtually all have strong fantasy elements, again in contrast to the dreary realism of Film Noir.

Another term that is relevant to many of the themes of Film Blanc movies is "spirituality" in the broad, not necessarily religious, sense of the word. Stephen Simon who produced two of the films found on this site, Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, and who founded the Spirtual Cinema Circle, wrote about the subject in his book, The Force Is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives. One of his main criteria in defining spiritual cinema is helpful to describing Film Blanc, "...films that make you feel good about being human."

This site is a work in progress, and I am adding new titles regularly. If you have a favorite Film Blanc movie that should be included here, drop me an email.

Bill Shepard