Last Picture Show

         The 1971 classic directed by Peter Bogdanovich shows various lives within the uncertain atmosphere of a fading small town in 50s Texas is not a Noir but might just qualify as a Film Gris. It's shot in superb black & white by Robert Surtees and has a sad and at the same time raunchy background. Many have noted the influence of the director's heroes Orson Welles and John Ford in his portrayal of the flat windswept landscapes and it's desolate appearance.

All Night Gas

       His introduction to Hattiesburg was an all night gas station on highway 49 where a lone teenager-slash-halfwit was capturing 'pinching' bugs attracted by the bright lights and coralling them in a bucket of sand he kept inside his little glass booth, a diversion he favored because, as he said, he liked to watch the bugs kill each other.

Double Down ; Reflections on Gambling and Loss
Frederick and Steve Barthelme
1999

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Peter Helck

New Releases

                 Early previews of these new releases indicate they may be worth looking out for.

                                               Gary Oldman as George Smiley

The Bleak Western

We often find that Westerns, modern or traditional, have elements of darkness

and pessimism found in the Noir thriller especially, as with some of these, if the storyline is that of revenge.

                                                               Django

                                                     
                                                   Comanche Station

Border Incident

                                               Great Northfield Minnesota Raid

Ox Bow Incident

Wild Bunch

                                                         The Outrage

       True Grit    (2010)

The Last Picture Show

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

No Country for Old Men

High Plains Drifter

Major Dundee

                                                        The Shootist

Thunderheart

                                                          Junior Bonner

Hud

Unforgiven

Eagle's Wing

Once Upon a Time in the West

                                                Bad Day at Black Rock

Pocket Money

                                                         Matewan

                                                   One-eyed Jacks

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia