This course examines the origins, evolution, and contemporary resonance of film noir. Focusing on themes of identity, law, and community, we will examine a body of classic films made in Hollywood by German and Austrian exiles. Film noir of the 1940s and 50s offered mass audiences a critical view of U.S. society, and exiled directors were often ambivalent about their new home, an attitude reflected in films such as Scarlet Street (1945), Detour (1945), and Criss Cross (1949). We will also discuss films and media that reimagine noir from a contemporary perspective: Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001), and the recent TV series The Man in the High Castle and Jessica Jones.