Author Topic: Noirvember 2020  (Read 6485 times)

1SO

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2020, 12:47:10 AM »
The Hot Spot (1990)
★ ★ ★ – Okay
As anything other than a Noir, this is pretty silly. Don Johnson drives into town and the women pounce on him. There’s Virginia Madsen with a campy southern accent and Jennifer Connelly who acts like she’s never seen a man before. Both have people they wish were dead and Johnson already has his own hustle going on. Ridiculous, except as a Noir where it’s pretty spot on. There’s even Charles Martin Smith as the clueless loser you’d expect to see Elisha Cook Jr. play and William Sadler as the uncouth scum. The three leads vary wildly in years, but each appears to be at their physical peak, which is needed to put this over, and the mostly, but not completely immoral male is a perfect part for Don Johnson.

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #11 on: November 14, 2020, 12:53:17 AM »
Whispering Footsteps (1943)
★ ★ ½
Likable guy looks like a serial killer and the town grows increasingly suspicious. I thought it was going to turn into a search for the real killer or that it would be someone close to the lead, perhaps setting him up, but it’s only interested in the B movie way people go from trusting to suspicious. The real killer is the friends you lose along the way.


The Border (1982)
★ ★
It’s hard to be a good apple when the barrel is corrupt. Jack Nicholson’s character is too stressed out to bring his usual cool, and his great freak out moments are limited to one moment of anger when he throws a barbecue of kabobs into a pool and announces, “Soup’s on!” Harvey Keitel and Warren Oates lend support, but their characters scream evil. Even worse is the girlfriend (Valerie Perrine) recklessly spending money without a moment of conscience. These aren’t even good clichés.

1SO

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2020, 10:52:54 PM »
Looks like I need to slow down.


Cry of the Hunted (1953)


Repeat Performance (1947)
★ ★ ★ - Okay
The plot is sort of Groundhog Day, but instead of repeating the same day, fate rewinds Joan Leslie back an entire year and asks if she can keep from killing her husband, who spends the 365 days losing his morals. There’s a better film here, where we don’t know who killed the husband and the wife spends the year solving the mystery while learning about her husband’s secrets, but then it wouldn’t be Noir.


Hunt the Man Down (1950)
★ ★ ★ - Okay
Gimmicky but agreeable courtroom mystery mostly thanks to a strong lead performance by Gig Young and the way it shows how a murder several years ago destroyed the lives of all the suspects involved even though only one did the killing.


Bewitched (1945)

So bland you might not notice how silly it is for awhile. Multiple Personality Disorder played at the level of demonic possession.

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2020, 12:54:26 AM »
Sorry I have not been updating the first post. Will do so in a few hours

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2020, 07:07:58 AM »
Well I just watched Rope and I was not going to write a review for Noirvember for it, but according to iCheckMovies it is on the TSPDT top 1000 Noir list. This had me wondering exact what is a film noir film. Of course Wikipedia is my go to source and it has this to say:

Quote
Film noir : is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.

Then it discusses the problems with the definition the key points of that are:

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"We'd be oversimplifying things in calling film noir oneiric, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel ..."—this set of attributes constitutes the first of many attempts to define film noir made by French critics Raymond Borde and Étienne Chaumeton in their 1955 book

also:

Quote
Though film noir is often identified with a visual style, unconventional within a Hollywood context, that emphasizes low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions,[7] films commonly identified as noir evidence a variety of visual approaches, including ones that fit comfortably within the Hollywood mainstream.

Based on the very stage like set up, Rope does not match the common low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions, nor is it a conventional Hollywood mainstream. So not very noir there.
It is not dream like (oneiric). So no match.
It is strange, in that it is the action based on a theoretical superior / inferior power dynamic. Match
It is not erotic, although the unspoken, apparent, homosexual relationship between our two killers is very unusual for the time. No match
Ambivalent and Cruel, the driving force behind the murder is both. So match

Going through those leads me to not changing me view of seeing Rope as not film noir, but I am not sure either of the other 2 films I have reviewed for this thread would meet the criteria.

I will say this I enjoyed Rope, and rate it 79 / 100 (the stagey presentation did not work for me, and knocked down my rating). I will not be listing it in the first post. Of course I am open to having my mind changed.

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2020, 02:55:46 PM »
It might help or further confuse to look at 962 Noir Films from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

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The TSPDT 250 Quintessential Noir Films list all contain three key ingredients.
1) They were all produced in the United States;
2) They were all shot in black-and-white;
3) They were all produced between 1940 to 1959.

Other titles included in the list are noir precursors, modern noir, non-American noir, and additional films between 1940-1964 that have noir elements.

Section changes will be listed in this complete list (so the reader will know where in the list modern noir films begin/end, etc.).

Films 1 - 250 TSPDT's 250 Quintessential Noir Films.

Films 251 - 358 Category A: films often cited as film noir. These films weren't far away from being included on the 250 Quintessential listing, and most of them contain many - if not all - of the classic noir ingredients.

Films 359 - 513 Category B: films quite often cited as film noir, but not to the same degree as those listed in Category A. It must be considered that in most cases these films contain strong film noir elements.

Films 514 - 750 Category C: films not often cited as film noir. These films include certain film noir characteristics, even though - in many cases - they belong in other clear-cut genres, e.g. Westerns. However, it should also be acknowledged that many of these films are without doubt 'fully-blown' noirs (of the very neglected variety).

Films 751 - 825 British-produced noir (1940-1964).

Films 826 - 837 French-produced noir (1940-1964).

Films 838 - 843 are classified as "other" non-American noir produced between 1940-1964: 1 Italian, 3 Japanese, 1 Mexican, and 1 Austrian, respectively.

Films 844 - 871 "Noir-Precursors": films that shaped the look of noir before the style came into its own during the 1940s. All are American-produced except The Green Cockatoo (UK), La Bête Humaine, Pépé le Moko, and Quai des brumes (France), and M (Germany).

Films 872 - 962 "Neo-Noir / Modern Noir" films made after the 'golden age' of film noir up to 2002. They are grouped them by decade, and all are American-produced, except for:
French-produced: Le Samouraï, Le deuxième souffle, Le cercle rouge, Série noire, La femme Nikita, Léon, and Mulholland Dr.
German-produced: Der amerikanische Freund
UK-produced: The Big Sleep (1978), Get Carter (1971), and Mona Lisa


Rope is #693 - films not often cited as film noir. These films include certain film noir characteristics, even though - in many cases - they belong in other clear-cut genres
« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 03:03:07 PM by 1SO »

Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2020, 09:38:14 PM »
Interesting so that is why Rope was in the list. I am going to have to look at the first 250 for better examples in this month.

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2020, 03:22:06 PM »
Loophole - A bank teller comes up $50,000 short and an investigator is determined to nail him for theft. The film is something of a mixed bag. The cinematography is pedestrian, the narration is hokey, and the ending is too neat to be satisfying. However, a story about someone being wrongfully accused always makes my blood boil in a way that holds my attention. Barry Sullivan is great as usual, but more interesting is Charles McGraw. McGraw usually plays a righteous character, but here he's such a relentless, contemptible bastard that you can't wait to see him get what's coming to him. The film could have paid off a little better in this respect, but it's an engaging performance. Dorothy Malone is unfortunately saddled with a dull good girl role that doesn't exploit her talents, but there is a small but delightful femme fatale part for Mary Beth Hughes. Ultimately the positives outweigh the negatives and it's a fun watch. Rating: Good

Bringing this up because I watched the film last night, and I cannot overpraise how great it is to watch an obscure Noir and then count on finding a Martin review. Agree or disagree, it gets me to stop and think for a few minutes, which is a skill I need to exercise more. It also allows me to sign my name to a review I agree with, doubling the potential of putting a Good film on a person’s radar.
★ ★ ★ - Good

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2020, 08:12:41 PM »
A question for the experts…

I just watched The Steel Trap (1952), which is a variation on the “perfect crime” plot. Rather than one thing going wrong, everything that can go wrong does. Not only is the hand of fate against our lead, it’s clear the plot wasn’t as well planned as they thought. I can only think of one other version of this, Cause for Alarm starring Loretta Young trying to get back an incriminating letter. Can you name some others?

colonel_mexico

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Re: Noirvember 2020
« Reply #19 on: November 19, 2020, 11:58:58 PM »
THE KILLING (1956) - I know Sterling Hayden as Capt. McCluskey in THE GODFATHER and he is such an intimidating presence. I love his role in this interesting noir directed by Stanley Kubrick.  If I hadn't known going into it that it was a Kubrick there would have been no way I could have guessed it, it seemed more like a Hawks (though I felt SCARFACE was just a touch better).  The femme fatale is great, Marie Windsor as Sherry the no-good wife to one of a mob intending to knock off a racetrack on the day of a big race.  Hayden plays this incredible ringleader who has organized and plotted out the perfect heist. With his large stature and deep bass voice the character called Johnny Clay is simultaneously the anti-hero that I wanted to win.  The story plays well enough with several points of view, but the narrator was a bit distracting, the authoritarian sound gave away the ending and made the movie pretty predictable.  As I mentioned this is why I thought Hawks' SCARFACE is better because while it does seem to be a bit didactic, instructing the masses that crime does not pay, but still giving us very likeable characters like Johnny and his wrestler friend Maurice, whereas SCARFACE there aren't really any likeable characters (I'm not sure why I'm splitting hairs between Tony and Johnny because they are similar in a lot of ways).  The femme fatale's love interest played by Vince Edwards (who eerily looks like Mark Ruffalo) arrives just in time to gum up the works and creates a Mexican standoff that can only end one way.  There's also a really interesting part where a police officer basically shoots and kills someone without giving much of a chance to surrender that sort of toes that abuse of power line, but I think there is an underlying assumption he was armed and going to shoot his way out so there is some basis of justification.  All in all a great ride, I despised the ending, but then I guess it makes sense for the era.
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