Friday, 31 May 2024

Into the Hell

          Servais's Tony is cold as a corpse, part desiccated Jean Gabin, part deadpan Count Dracula. Too tough to check his hat when he descends into the hell of L'Age D'Or to find his old flame Mado (Marie Sabouret), Tony discovers that she has taken up with the joint's sinister owner (played, in keeping with the movie's internationalist subtext by a Romanian emigre, Marcel Lupovici). He establishes himself as the apache dancer's apache dancer when he collects Mado mid-assignation and, in the movie's most shocking scene, takes her back to his fleabag, where he orders her to strip, starting with her jewels, then beats her up and tosses her out - keeping the rocks but not the mink, which her hurls contemptuously after her down the stairs.

He Saw Keechie



      ..... there had been no rumbles when he was gone, and now he closed the door quietly and the leaves on the walk crackled under his moving shoes. He lifted on the knob so the door would not scrape and went in. Pale coals studded the mound of dark ashes in the fireplace and then he saw Keechie sitting on the end of the cot by the shadowy radio.

Thieves Like Us
Edward Anderson
1937

Thursday, 30 May 2024

Coming Off Shift #4

Double Nickel (2023)

Ashes and Diamonds

End of Violence

A Double Life

Apple Pie, Ice Cream

Fallen Angel

The Booth at the End

Last Picture Show

Goodfellas

Big Sleep

The Sting

Brighton Rock

Mad Men

Mildred Pierce (1945)

After Hours

Terminal

Shack Out on 101

Wonder Wheel

Twin Peaks

Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Self Portrait #18

Andre Gamet

Jean Dieuzaide

Hector Garcia

Laszlo Moholo Nagy

Fred Herzog

Vivian Maier

Arnold Newman

Dirk De Herder

William Gedney

Andreas Feininger

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Life in the Shadows #37

The Killers (1946)

The Grifters

Ashes and Diamonds

Le Cercle Rouge

Les Diaboliques

The Godfather

Kiss Me Deadly

Chinatown

Lost Weekend

Vertigo

Branded to Kill

Armee Des Ombres

Murder My Sweet

Night of the Hunter

Klute

Maltese Falcon

Rear Window

Mildred Pierce

Zodiac

I Wake Up Screaming

Reservoir Dogs

Touch of Evil

Plein Soleil

The Set Up

Out of the Past

Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Le Samourai