Are Used To

         Because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away from us ; because we stand in the midst of a transition where we cannot remain standing.

Rainer Maria Rilke

image
Harry Todd
1942

Sean Penn

Dead Man Walking

Mystic River

State of Grace

The Game

Assassination of Richard Nixon

U Turn

All the Kings Men

Plans Always Go Awry

         A world where every femme is fatale, a world where heroes wear their flaws like hand-me-down medals, where best laid plans always go awry. Indeed Noir is moralistic : but beyond the fairytale world of good princes and evil witches, beyond a christian world of heaven and hell : these are tales for a fractured world of dimly-lit rooms and doomed schemes. Real redemption is rare.

from
Gutter to Gutter
The Dark Heart of Noir
2017

image
Troy Brooks

Night and the City

 

Night and the City
Jules Dassin
1950

Able to Imagine

       Seems that Hitchcock is simply saying that utopia does not exist in real life. We may be able to imagine some kind of perfect situation for ourselves, but it can never be achieved in reality. There will always be something to throw off the equilibrium of things. In a sense we all suffer from vertigo, and as Midge says to Johnny ''there's no losing it''.

Mikey Gee
Essay on Vertigo
Sept 2011

image
Valerie Burzo

I Don't Know

         I don't know about the rest of the country but in New York more people have achieved anonymity from rent control than ever discovered it in a twelve-step program.

Lawrence Block

image
unknown

More Poster Noir

Take the Risk

                    During the first period in a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.

Soren Kierkegaard

image
Guissepe Desideri

Mosaic Noir #230

Killers Kiss

Peeping Tom

Lady from Shanghai

Basic Instinct

Brighton Rock

After Dark My Sweet

The Big Combo

Deadly Affair

Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Farewell My Lovely

Phantom Lady

The Getaway (1972)

Public Eye

Miami Blues

Rope

Le Trou

Taxi Driver