Film Noir

[merkurposite]

Anyone else here on NT a fan of film noir?

I took a crime fiction class this semester that focused on the pulp fiction of the 1930s and the movies of the 1940s and 1950s it inspired. This was my firstintroduction to the world of these movies, now known as film noir, and I'm hooked.

Some of my favorites:

"Double Indemnity"
"The Postman Always Rings Twice"
"Nightmare Alley"

 

[koolbarbone]

If you like Noir you need to check out The Third Man. It's one of the best Noir films ever.

 

[jville819]

I took a film appreciation class sophmore year of HS and remember watchin a lot of these.

The Postman Always Ring Twice was a pretty good one

 

[merkurposite]

Originally Posted by koolbarbone

If you like Noir you need to check out The Third Man. It's one of the best Noir films ever.

We were actually supposed to watch this in my class, but we ran out of classes to get it in. My prof told us to check this one out though, and as soon as Iget through finals I'm going to the library to pick this one up.

 

[jasko mostar]

the third man is definetly a must see. also check out the Film Noir Classic Collection sets(should be like 3 of them out) the criterion collection also hasalot of good ones. i'd recommend:

m
night and the city
the maltese falcon
naked city
blast of silence

 

[defconzero]

Third Man I saw in my film class, thought it was gonna be boring, but by the end of it I was so into the movie. One of the best movie endings I've seen

 

[lawinnn]

Batman
Big O

check it out.

 

[hamez3]

how on earth has no one mentioned Chinatown yet? amazing film.
i will have to check out the other suggestions.

 

[step your game up]

You can't talk about film noir without mentioning The Maltese Falcon (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/). Based off of Dashihell Hammett's novel, great book as well.

 

[i flipzkickz i]

I enjoyed Sunset Boulevard quite a bit. Check that film noir out.

I am actually writing a film paper due later today on Italian Neorealism. You should seriously check out movies from that movement like Bicycle Thief and LaTerra Trema. Good stuff.

 

[merkurposite]

I'm putting together a pretty good "must watch list" from reading all your suggestions. Cool stuff.

 

[tupack shaker]

Definitely watch Chinatown. Also check out Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jr. it has noir elements in it.

 

[enlightened thought]

in general, films in the 30s-50s were great.

i'm really curious to see how modern hollywood would adapt class noirs though...

 

[rebel rly]

Chinatown is one of the best movies I've seen

ever.

 

[merkurposite]

Originally Posted by Enlightened Thought

in general, films in the 30s-50s were great.

i'm really curious to see how modern hollywood would adapt class noirs though...

The few new noirs I've seen (or "neo noirs" as they're called) were really nothing to write home about. Jack Nicholson did a remake of"The Postman Always Rings Twice" in the early 80's and it didn't come close to the original.
Bill Pullman did one called "The Last Seduction" in the early 90's and it was okay, but definitely not as good as any of the originalfilm noirs.

"Sin City" has a lot of noir influence in it, but I didn't really care for the film that much.

To me, one of the greatest things about the original film noirs is that so much was left to your imagination. The crimes were usually committed just offscreen, and instead of all-out sex scenes there was some of the most brilliant innuendo ever. The crime and sex were more mysterious and were whatever yourimagination could make it out to be.

The reason for the most graphic material happening off camera was due to extreme censorship rules during the 40s and 50s. The directors had to come up withvery clever ways of incorporating the violence and sexuality in their films without riling up the censors, and what they came up with was often purebrilliance.

For me, sometimes not seeing is more suspenseful, jarring or gritty than actually seeing.

 

[dvdjamm5150]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Men_Don't_Wear_Plaid

 

[merkurposite]

Originally Posted by dvdjamm5150

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Men_Don't_Wear_Plaid

Now THIS looks highly entertaining!

I can always go for a goodspoof movie.

 

[enlightened thought]

that was actually a cool homage to noirs. saw it in film class, i got a few good laughs.

 

[gordon gartrelle]

Most movies with Edward G Robinson.

 

[rebel rly]

are italian neo-realism films similar to french new wave?

 

[typerpinoy]

for a modern noir check out mulholland drive....that movie still confuses me

 

[gordon gartrelle]

Originally Posted by Rebel RLY

are italian neo-realism films similar to french new wave?

Are you taking film classes at school? Sounds like it. I would say it's more the other way around since French New Wave cinema occurred after theformer.

 

[rebel rly]

yeah i took a couple classes but i missed the viewing for neo-realism, and i enjoyed french new wave a lot. i actually wanted to get a film degree but i didntsee much icould do with it. and wouldnt china town sorta not be considered film noir?

 

[gordon gartrelle]

Chinatown can definitely be considered film noir, yes. It's a pretty wide description for a genre of movies, which, at times, may not even appear to besimilar to one another stylistically or thematically though. Someone said Mullholland Drive earlier, which I think would classify as such though it's alsobordering with the surreal.

 

[rebel rly]

I know thematically and stylistically it can be considered a film noir, but the character of Gitties is like the complete opposite of a typical film noirdetective.
In the regular film noirs the detective works alone, and usual wraps everything up at the end, but in Chinatown Gitties has an assistant and he is a real
sharp dresser, which is impractical if you want to be inconspicuous. And he also finds a way to get all the facts completely wrong and #*$+ everthing up so
bad that at the end of the movie you realize that all of it could've been avoided if he didn't involve himself.