Fragments of Noir

Thursday 9 May 2024

Day of the Locust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr9Ib5LqAf8&ab_channel=LeafbyLeaf

Dark Reflections #28

The Set Up

Hard Eight

Tightspot

Heaven's Prisoners

Detour

Bullitt

The Good German

True Dectective

Crossfire

Talented Mr Ripley

Streetcar Named Desire

The Pledge

Le Doulos

Mulholland Falls

La Rouge est Mis

Millers Crossing

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Mikey and Nicky

M (1951)

Plein Soleil

Key Largo

Laura

Thieves Like Us

The Long Night

Angel Heart

Lady from Shanghai

Chinatown

The Lodger (1944)

Wednesday 8 May 2024

In Noir we live in the presence of characters who, for better or worse, and with a certain panache, are playing for keeps, and who sometimes shine most brightly when they lose - as though in loss there's a secret that does no earthly good but feeds the soul.

Michael Ventura
Austin Chronicle
2011

image
Leslie Peterson Sapp

Tuesday 7 May 2024

Spell Your Name Right

As long as they spell your name right and you are not accused of dope or rape, you are all right.

Humphrey Bogart

image
John Florea

Body and Soul

Body and Soul
(Heyman/Sour/Eyton)
Serge Chaloff

Monday 6 May 2024

Reveal the Time of Day

The only time when Fred MacMurray's Walter Neff is shown in broad daylight in Double Indemnity is when the flashback begins, right before he meets Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson. From then on, daylight only makes itself present through streaks of sunlight that come into interiors through the blinds of the windows which are more likely to suggest his being trapped in his own destiny rather than reveal the time of day. There is no escape for him. It's a feeling that follows him around at all times, a sense of darkness that takes hold of him, even if he is trying to keep it at bay with his cynicism and black humour. His apartment is rendered cold and strange, the Dietrichson mansion is menacing, stifling and shadowy, the office usually appears deserted, just a place where one can make a buck and take a shot at living, the phone booths and other urban spaces are dark, like unmendable gaps in the urban grid.

Deceit is in the Details
Ada Pirvu
Classiq.me
2020
https://classiq.me/deceit-is-in-the-details-barbara-stanwyck-in-double-indemnity

Sunday 5 May 2024

Bernie Gunther

Bernie Gunther
On Women
They're Odd creatures who don't know what they want right up until the moment they decide on exactly what they do want, and when you don't give it to them right away, they're apt to get sore with you.

Other Side of Silence
Philip Kerr
2016