Of course there is romance in film noir--but it's an unusual type of romance, mostly of the "not wisely but too well" variety.

The first noir with a large dollop of love/romance (but with the requisite dark twists) occurs at the actual dawn of film noir: 1932's COEUR DE LILAS. (If you didn't see it at FRENCH '24 part two, that's a shame.) A similar template is followed in AU NOM DE LA LOI, adding drug-taking to the addictive goings-on.)

Romance goes awry in LA BANDERA, Duvivier's warmup for PEPE LE MOKO (with its own pronounced romantic subplot). It crops up in LA BELLE EQUIPE as well, with Viviane Romance beginning a string of vampish performances that continue all the way to her virtuoso turn in MAYA at the end of the 1940s.

Jean Gabin continues to collide with romance in dark ways, as QUAI DES BRUMES, LA BETE HUMAINE and LE JOUR SE LEVE amply demonstrate in the late 1930s when poetic realism turns definitively noir.

In the Occupation period, romance that's somehow on the rocks is front and center in the "provincial gothic" (L'ASSASSINAT DU PERE NOEL, LE CORBEAU, SORTILEGES), and is morphed intriguingly in the post-war LA FILLE DU DIABLE, where Andrée Clément reveals her "I love an outlaw" crush on a startled Pierre Fresnay.

More in the romantic mainstream are Christian Jaque's exemplary triangle films, VOYAGE SANS ESPOIR and UN REVENANT (the latter actually a double triangle).

A supernatural love story superimposes itself into Delannoy's LES JEUX SONT FAITS, brought into passionate focus by the superb performance of Micheline Presle. That same year Edmond T. Greville gives us the strange but potent triangle in LE DIABLE SOUFFLE (another film you are unlikely to see if you didn't get to the Roxie Theater at exactly the right time).

A late-developing romance is a game-changer in GIBIER DE POTENCE, upending the odd bond between Arletty and Georges Marchal. A romantic marriage unravels piece by piece in Henri Decoin's masterful LA VERITE SUR BEBE DONGE.

Sexual attraction and romantic fervor bloom between Francoise Arnoul and Daniel Gelin in LES AMANTS DU TAGE. Something more removed generationally but not less passionate transpires between Arnoul and Jean Gabin in DES GENS SANS IMPORTANCE. And Gabin is wooed by a sweet-faced but ultimately unhinged femme fatale(Daniele Delorme) in Duvivier's wild & woolly VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS.

Romance remains an alluring ruse when we get to the "last wave" of French noir, as films such LES SALAUDS VONT EN ENFER, TOI LE VENIN, UNE MANCHE ET LA BELLE and RETOUR DE MANIVELLE amply demonstrate. ChiO would want me to mention LA NUIT DES ESPIONS here...so I will.

The fractures of love and romance figure prominently in the three Brigitte Bardot films--LA LUMIERE D'EN FACE, EN CAS DE MALHEUR and LA VERITE.

Robert Hossein will do literally anything to save his love in the sweaty DES FEMMES DISPARAISSENT.

In the sixties, romance turns into grifterdom in CONSTANCE AUX ENFERS, a situation Michele Morgan must walk through as if in a minefield blindfolded. Love tries hard to redeem the fractured identity of Dany Carrel in PIEGE POUR CENDRILLON. And Marisa Mell decides she can redeem her fractured warrior (Bruno Cremer) in OBJECTIVE 500 MILLION.

It's a rich world of romance in French noir...I leave it to you to fill in with the American version!