JCC Amph Smoking Cigarettes and Femme-Fatales . Let's talk Film Noir .

Film Noir seems to have gone out of fashion, so when I heard that the new Batman was taking a film-noir approach I thought great .

So - what are your favorite film-noirs? I mean let's face it Double Indemnity is probably the king , but let's talk anyway .

Most films like to peddle the myth that we can improve ourselves , but film-noir knows that we can't escape our dark nature .

And dames are bad news.

 

There needs to be a lone saxophone playing when this thread is opened

 

And the page theme goes black and white.

All fonts should be serif also.

 

Body Heat is one of those movies , I love it, but I just know if I watch it I'll start smoking again.

 

Of course Roger Rabbit counts

 

I don't think Get Carter is , it's very much crime . Film Noir is a particular thing , altho film noir is dark , it's still romantic . Get Carter is a brilliant movie but there's no romance.

 

The thing about Noir films...is they are usually more about style then substance.

So while you can experience a great Noir Film...it's usually A) not memorable and B) not a great film story-wise.

Noir scratches a particular itch for high style, clever camera work, and a gritty story that is cliche and xeroxed a thousand times.

 

You need to be taken down a dark alley and have some sense slapped into you.

 

Walter: [after Phyllis shoots a gun at him, missing him] You can do better than that, can't you, baby? You'd better try it again. Maybe if I came a little closer? How's this? Think you can do it now? [She lowers her gun, trembling. He takes the gun] Why didn't you shoot again, baby? Don't tell me it's because you've been in love with me all this time.
Phyllis: [crying] No, I never loved you, Walter, not you or anybody else. I'm rotten to the heart. I used you just as you said. That's all you ever meant to me. Until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot. I never thought that could happen to me.
Walter: Sorry, baby, I'm not buying.
Phyllis: I'm not asking you to buy. Just hold me close. [she hugs him, but then draws back when she feels the gun against her]
Walter: Good-bye baby. [He shoots her]

I mean it don't get hotter than that.

 

Casablanca isn't exactly film noir, but it's close.

 

I like the neo-noir films from the 90s. LA Confidential was a real stand-out for me. The dynamic between Basinger and Crowe was great and the brooding, morally ambiguous 50s atmosphere really made the film stick in my mind when I first saw it.

 

For neo-noir films, for me nothing beats the original Blade Runner. It's more than just its noir elements, of course, but it's just so good at creating its dark ambience through the magical combination of its soundtrack and imagery.

Edit: I'll put the gifs inside a spoiler tag to avoid clogging up the thread

Spoiler: just 3 examples of the noir gorgeousness that is Blade Runner

 

Ooooo, this thread might become one of my new homes on here. I've been on a pretty massive noir kick lately (it tends to happen every few years), and have been watching a lot of 40s/50s noir again (and a healthy dash of more contemporary neo-noir films as well). The big prestige pictures, the much smaller, cheaper B-movie noirs, all of it. I can't get enough of it right now.

Please Murder Me (1956, Peter Godfrey) with Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury is one that I had never seen prior to this month that I ended up really loving.

 

Witness for the prosecution, with Marlene Dietrich

 

I Wake Up Screaming (1941, H. Bruce Humberstone) and The Mob (1951, Robert Parrish) are a couple more that I hadn't seen prior to this year that I ended up being really into. Also, when it comes to Orson Welles, I feel like everyone's go to noir outing of his is Touch of Evil (1958), but I also have to throw in some love for 1946's The Stranger as well.

Also also, if anyone's looking to do a neo-noir double feature, I found this year that a couple long-time favorites of mine, Blood Simple (1984, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) and Blow Out (1981, Brian De Palma) are very fun to watch back-to-back.

 

"Well, Wilmer, I'm sorry indeed to lose you. But I want you to know I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, it's possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."

One of my favourites. Other Noir I like are:

Out of the Past (aka Build My Gallows High): Superb noir with Mitchum on form and Jane Greer as one of the best femme fatals ever, imo.

Sunset Boulevard: Ultra-cynical and blackly comic, it's a classic for a reason.

The Big Sleep & Murder, My Sweet: Both excellent Raymond Chandler adaptations.

His Kind of Woman: Mitchum again, this one isn't so well-known, but it is worth catching; Vincent Price's turn as ham actor Mark Cardigan, caught in real-life heroics, is definitely memorable.

Key Largo: Bogart and Bacall again, this time caught between Edward G. Robinson's psychotic gangster and a hurricane.

 

Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)

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Not too long ago I watched The Third Man (1949). Magnificent film.

As for neo-noir, I really enjoyed Chinatown (1974).

 

I'd never heard of Please Murder Me! , will have to look for that one.