Film Noir Appreciation

[apocalypticdreamer]

Originally Posted by Tool Shed

Sunset Blvd - Gloria Swanson is fucking amazingly, frightening in this movie.

She sure is. The scene where she comes down the stairs is absolute gold, platinum even.

Originally Posted by Doc

I'm not sure that Noir is overlooked so much as there are a lot of people out there who think it's okay to overlook older movies in general, which is unfortunate.

I agree. I love watching them myself, and I actually prefer older films over the newer. My friends never watch them because theyre "boring" or "not in color".

[superfry]

My faves:D.O.A.

DETOUR
...ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS!

[Tool Shed]

I'm buying a bunch of noir from the DDD sale. It's going to be a black summer.

I'm thinking of profiling films and actors once a day or something just to keep this thread going.

[licata1708]

Ida Lupino





Interesting Woman and Early Female Film Noir Director (As well as Actress)

Encouraged to enter show business by both her parents and an uncle, Lupino Lane, Ida Lupino made her first film appearance in 1931, in The Love Race and worked for several years playing minor roles.
It was after her appearance in The Light That Failed in 1939 that she was taken seriously as a dramatic actress.
Her parts improved during the 1940s and she began to describe herself as "the poor man's Bette Davis". While working for Warner Brothers, she would also refuse parts that Davis had rejected, and earned herself suspensions.
During this period she became known for her hard boiled roles and appeared in such films as They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941). She acted regularly and was in demand throughout the '40s without becoming a major star.
In 1947, Lupino left Warner Brothers to become a freelance actress. Notable films around that time include Road House and On Dangerous Ground.


Directing
It was during a suspension in the late 1940s that she began studying the processes behind the camera. Her first directing job came when Elmer Clifton became ill during Not Wanted, a 1949 movie which she co-wrote.
Lupino often joked that if she had been the "poor man's Bette Davis" as an actress, then she had become the "poor man's Don Siegel" as a director. From the early '50s she began directing films, mostly melodramas and was one of the few women of her era to achieve success in this field.
She directed Outrage in 1950, and tackled the extremely controversial subject (at that time) of rape. In addition to acting in many films noir, she also directed The Hitch-Hiker (1953). The film was the first film noir directed by a woman.
She continued acting throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and her directing efforts during these years were almost exclusively television productions such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Donna Reed Show, Gilligan's Island, 77 Sunset Strip, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Rifleman, Bonanza, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, and Bewitched.
After guest starring in popular TV shows, she retired after making her final film appearance in 1978.

(wiki)

Hitch Hiker Trailer Teaser

Teaser for The Masks, a Twilight Zone Episode Directed By Lupino

[alleywaykrew]

I love Noir, it's probably my second favorite genre (after horror, and some days...horror takes second place), and as a lover of Noir...I can't fucking believe no one's mentioned Out Of The Past yet (at least not that I noticed). It's probably the best noir ever. As much as I'd like to ramble on...Shed's post is a better version of most of what I'd probably say anyway, so my message is simply: watch Out Of The Past...now.

...and after that: the shit that's been mentioned by Shed, along with Chinatown, Miller's Crossing, maybe Brick and Following as well ("neo-noir", but damn good as far as I'm concerned).

[Count Dragula]

Originally Posted by Tool Shed

The thing I think should be mentioned is lighting. Beyond story and characters, lighting is what also draws me to this genre. It is a pretty huge element to noir. If you have an interest in lighting (Argento fans!) you should check out noir.

The dark shadows make the viewer (or at least me :P) think as if something (or anything) can lie behind the next corner, physically and storywise. And it also helps get the point across that the individuals involved in the film are "shady" characters (ba-dum-chi!)

Good point. With noir, what isn't lit is often just as important as what is (often more so). The shadows bear a menacing loom, becoming more than just a back drop... it's a character in and of it's self. There's something about the darkness that brings a bleak empty desperation to the screen, a subtle suffocation. Only to set you up for a future hammering to the gut.

The Big Sleep - The story can get kind of confusing at times because it has a lot of twists and turns and even loose ends (due to multiple writers) but it's so incredibly awesome, I don't care.

Didn't really notice any loose ends, but it is a bit jumbled with content. It throws a lot at you all at once, yet still explains it (albeit hurriedly) along the way eventually laying it all out at the films conclusion.

I've been wanting to see Hitch Hiker for a few months now, although it looks as if all the current releasings are a bunch of shitty bare boned public domain releases.

Edit - I stand corrected, not sure how the print looks... too lazy to look at the moment.

http://www.amazon.com/Hitch-Hiker-Ed...1196432&sr=8-2

Double Edit - Cuntful Kino is.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare/hitchhiker.htm

[milby trillion]

great thread, been getting into the genre myself lately, this thread's a good reference point for films i should watch. carry on!

[Tool Shed]

Originally Posted by Count Dragula

Didn't really notice any loose ends, but it is a bit jumbled with content. It throws a lot at you all at once, yet still explains it (albeit hurriedly) along the way eventually laying it all out at the films conclusion.

I found this:
SPOILERS!

Joe Brody killed Owen Taylor and pushed his car into the ocean to get the film from Geiger's camera back

http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/B...p/bigsleep.htm

The film is fondly remembered for its extremely convoluted plot. A famous story tells that, during filming, the director and screenwriters could not figure out who had killed chauffeur Owen Taylor or if he had committed suicide. They sent a cable to the author. Chandler later relates this story to a friend in a letter and he recalls "They sent me a wire... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big...lm)#Background

The most famous loose end in the story concerns a chauffeur, one Owen Taylor, who turns up dead in a water-logged Packard, "washing around off Lido Pier." Questions on the set arose as to who, in the carnival of conflicting motives that made the film a Chinese box of mayhem, actually did kill Owen Taylor? Hawks realized he didn't know, and successive calls were put in to screenwriters Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, and William Faulkner; they didn't know, either. Finally, Chandler himself was reached; no, he said, he guessed he didn't know, either. Editor Christian Nyby remembered years later that work on the film stopped for two days while a way out of this narrative cul-de-sac was sought. At that point, Hawks realized it didn't matter who killed Owen Taylor, and the film went ahead, its atmosphere of treachery somehow improved by the ambiguity.

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue02...s/bigsleep.htm


So...who knows? I'm pretty sure I remember my professor making a point about mentioning that the murder is left loose.

Does anyone else have an opinion besides Drags and I? Now I'm confused.

[Count Dragula]

Originally Posted by Tool Shed

I found this:
SPOILERS!


Joe Brody killed Owen Taylor and pushed his car into the ocean to get the film from Geiger's camera back

http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/B...p/bigsleep.htm

Seems strange, as the above was my exact explanation earlier as to what had happened. Hmm. I'll just have too look it up later when the dvd arrives.

There has to be others here who've seen this, step up bitches!

[Tool Shed]

Bitches hatin' on the noir!

I ordered a some noir from that Deep Discount sale and am waiting for them to come in. I bought:

Suddenly
Touch of Evil
The Maltese Falcon
Film Noir Classics Collection Vol 1.: The Asphalt Jungle / Gun Crazy / Murder My Sweet / Out of the Past / The Set-Up
Nightmare Alley
Angels with Dirty Faces
Big Combo

Should be a fun summer.