Hopperesque

Hopperesque

Thursday 28 February 2013

Set 'em Up Joe ............


                             
           The archetypal lullaby to drowning of the sorrows. Described by writer John O'Hara as the epitome of  'Metropolitan melancholic beauty'.

One for My Baby ( And One More for the Road)
(Arlen/ Mercer)
Frank Sinatra
1947

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Fell One by One


                              The stars fell one by one into his eyes and burnt.

Frank O'Hara
Meditations in an Emergency
1957

image
Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder
1944

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Memory Can Change


        Memory can change the shape of a room. It can change the colour of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.

Leonard Shelby
Memento
2000





Monday 25 February 2013

Every Outsider


        Every neighbor is suspect, every outsider, every period ; even one's own husband or wife or sweetheart. There is no ease on Uneasy street. The longer one's tenancy the more untenable it becomes.

Jim Thompson
The Grifters
1963

author image
Sharon Thompson Lee

Sunday 24 February 2013

Noir in a Shadow #2

Lola Alvarez Bravo

Horst Schaefer

Martin Hurliman

Aaron Siskind

Max Dupain

Paul Wolff

Robert Disraeli

Todd Webb

Bedrich Grundweig

Francesc Catala-Roca

Saturday 23 February 2013

Is That All There Is ?


     Is that all there is, is that all there is
     If that's all there is my friends, then lets keep dancing
     Let's break out the booze and have a ball
     If that's all there is


Is That All There Is
(Leiber/ Stoller)
Peggy Lee
1969

image
Glen Luchford
reblogged from PraytoPrada

Friday 22 February 2013

John Alton


Big Combo

Border Incident


He Walked by Night


T- Men

Elmer Gantry

Raw Deal

Alain Delon

Le Cercle Rouge

Rocco and his Brothers

Plein Soleil

Le Samourai

L'Eclisse

Un Flic

Off screen 1965

Thursday 21 February 2013

Hammett - Glass Key


             When he awakened again he could stand, and did. He doused his head in cold water and drank four glasses of water. The water made him sick and after that he began to shake with a chill. He went down to the bedroom and lay down on the bare blood-stained mattress.

Dashiell Hammett
The Glass Key
1931

Wednesday 20 February 2013

On Set

Millers Crossing

Armee Des Ombres

Kiss Me Deadly

To Have and Have Not

Chinatown

Man with the Golden Arm

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Look Good in Blue


                                 You look good in blue
                                 It matches your skin, your eyes dripping with pain
                                 Someone like you getting off on the lies
                                 'Cause it dulls your surprise again

Look Good in Blue
(J. Destri)
Blondie
1976

image
reblogged from Blackworkshop

Monday 18 February 2013

Corrupted by Money


          They had been corrupted by money and he had been corrupted by sentiment. Sentiment was the more dangerous. Because you couldn't name it's price. A man open to bribes could be relied upon below a certain figure, but sentiment might uncoil in the heart at a name, a photograph, even a smell remembered.

Graham Greene
The Heart of the Matter
1948

image
Portrait d'un assasin
1949

Sunday 17 February 2013

Forget it Jake, It's Chinatown

            
     Quite possibly the best Retro Noir ever made.Written by Robert Towne in 1974 with a definite Chandleresque feel and legendary performances from Nicholson as Jake Gittes and John A. Alonzo on cinematography that lead us to the closing line and what it could mean.