Cousins claims the film noir genre began in 1941, yet it is widely regarded as beginning with Stranger on the Third Floor, which was made in 1940.
Cousins claims that the more 'adventurous' American directors were working in Europe in the mid-40s despite the fact that most European film industries were crippled by the ongoing Second World war.
Cousins states that the Italian neo-realist movement was among the inspirations for the creation of film noir, a genre that began in 1940, yet the specific film he cites - Rome, Open City (1945) - was not made until 1945 and not seen in the USA until 1946.