The course will focus on the whodunit—the detective/mystery/thriller film—from the hardboiled detective film, like The Big Sleep; to "film noir" (Kiss Me Deadly); and modernist "detection" films (Blow-Up; Mulholland Drive) that attempt to interpret the "mysterious" and the unknowable. Besides the thorougly entertainment factor, there is also the important premise of the genre, its grounding in the basic principles of narrative film—the impulse to observe, continue, connect, infer, solve and complete.