In a striking interpretation of film noir, Thomas Hibbs mines the philosophy and theology of these dark films to reveal a subtle but profound Insistence on the reality of redemption. Often denounced as nihilistic and even degenerate, film noir seems an unlikely antidote to the hopelessness and banality of modern popular culture, which Hibbs analyzed in his landmark book Shows About Nothing. Yet beginning with films of the classic noir period and continuing with more recent neo-noir and beyond, Hibbs reveals a theme of hard-won, penitential redemption. Hibbs's master stroke in Arts of Darkness is to approach noir through the thought of Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century philosopher of the hidden God whose tragic account of the human condition anticipates the alienation of contemporary culture.