The ambiguities and darkness of Nazi-occupied France propelled him to flee his country, take a new name, fight in the Resistance, and then invent film noir. But the past continued to haunt him.
Darkness! Angst! Paranoia! In the terrified films of the 1940s and ’50s, written and directed by Jewish refugees, hidden dangers lurk where hell is no longer a fantasy, where what’s false is true, and what’s wrong is even wronger.