Film Noir HoF III

Tools    





The trick is not minding
I actually watched that in preparation for this HoF. When CR mentioned a French film had been nominated, I was going to guess that it was this one haha.
Same. In fact, it was on my wish list along with Alphaville, The Killing, and Scarlet Street.
Still, this is a fricking strong lineup!



The trick is not minding
Since I just recently watched this exactly a week ago I’m going to just copy/paste my previous review:

Double Indemnity*


Planning the perfect murder is difficult. There’s a lot that could go wrong. You have to plan for witnesses, evidence, investigators, and sometimes a little man inside a insurance claims manager that ties him up in knots.**
Walter Neff (Played by Fred McMurray) is a straight arrow insurance salesmen. Until he meets Phyllis. Phyllis is the classic femme fatale, played brilliantly by Barbara Stanwyck.**
Stanwyck oozes sexuality throughout this film, the way she crosses her legs, converting her intentions. The icy stare that she gives. I find myself drawn to her face, one that looks so innocent yet hides her darker impulses.**
To me though, Edward G Robinson is the best in this film. Can you believe he never so much as garnered a oscar nomination in his entire career? It’s sacrilege!
The director, Billy Wider, does a great jobs of closeups on everyone’s faces at the right time, and his use of shadows. His attention to detail is also spot on. Watch at the beginning when Neff has been shot. It starts off as a small stain, at the entry wound. As time goes by, the stain grows larger. At the end, it’s dripping down his hand*
Wilder has always been one of my favorite directors. I count several of his films among my favorites, including Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Some Like it Hot, and The Apartment. I can add Double Indemnity to the list now.*



Aaaaaaand first!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
show off
__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio



What the hell, sent in my nomination. It's neo-noir according to Wiki (and me) so it should be fine but I'll wait for CR's approval and keep up the tension anyway
__________________



The trick is not minding
It was a good head start considering I needed it. I mean, I usually go at a slow pace on these so with that one out of the way, and the fact I own L.A Confidential and The Third Man, I should get a leg up on this during the weekend.
I hope to not be scrambling like I currently am with Western III when the deadline approaches. 😱



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
It was a good head start considering I needed it. I mean, I usually go at a slow pace on these so with that one out of the way, and the fact I own L.A Confidential and The Third Man, I should get a leg up on this during the weekend.
I hope to not be scrambling like I currently am with Western III when the deadline approaches. 😱
scrambling as become my Modus Operandi lol



What the hell, sent in my nomination. It's neo-noir according to Wiki (and me) so it should be fine but I'll wait for CR's approval and keep up the tension anyway
I've not seen it, but Wiki says it's neo noir so it's good to go.

Pahak nominated
Angel Heart (1987) by Alan Parker
Attachments
Click image for larger version

Name:	1524603250_a.jpg
Views:	785
Size:	77.8 KB
ID:	62199  



Same. In fact, it was on my wish list along with Alphaville, The Killing, and Scarlet Street.
Still, this is a fricking strong lineup!
All of those would've been cool. I've not seen Alphaville but it's well respected. The Killing would pair well with Ed's nom The Asphalt Jungle as both films are about the same subject and even both have Sterling Hayden...so they make a good comparison between the styles of Stanley Kubrick and John Huston. And Scarlet Street is another Fritz Lang noir with that guy in my avatar.



I've not seen it, but Wiki says it's neo noir so it's good to go.

Pahak nominated
Angel Heart (1987) by Alan Parker

Good pick, and yes it is a noir...it's a horror-noir which is pretty cool



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
I've not seen it, but Wiki says it's neo noir so it's good to go.

Pahak nominated
Angel Heart (1987) by Alan Parker
Funny thing is, this was my original pick that I WAS going to go for and then, at the last second, went with Asphalt Jungle instead.

F@CKIN AWESOME movie!!!!



I’ve seen none of these except mine as usual

Really excited!!



The Stranger (1946)


I get that Orson Welles is an influential director and technical innovator, but I haven't warmed to his movies that much. In that regard, The Stranger is vintage Welles for me; long-winded, pompous, and hyperbolic. And Welles himself is too grandiose for someone trying to hide in plain sight.

The intro at the harbor looks (and somewhat feels) like noir, but once the action moves to Harper, it's just a regular thriller. If this weren't a Film Noir HoF, I wouldn't have known this was noir. It seems to lack most of the things I'd expect to see in noir, like a cynical protagonist and moral ambiguity and sexual tension. Maybe my idea of the genre is wrong, though.

Like many old films, The Stranger is rather pedantic in ascertaining that viewers will surely get who's the bad guy and how the story unfolds. There's an evil nazi mastermind, a naive wife, an adamant nazi hunter, etc. No shades of grey, no depth, only an adjective and noun to describe everyone.

The Stranger isn't a bad film, though. It delivers a simple story in a comfortably compact form. It's a lot more naive than I expected, and there's too much hand-holding for the audience, but I could think a lot worse ways to spend 90 minutes.



I don't know if The Stranger was vintage Welles...also it's very important to remember that the film was shot in 1946. We understand the Holocaust and Nazi's today it took decades for the world to understand what the German's did. That film really was the first one to scratch the surface and it was..

Diary of Anne Frank (1947)
Night and Fog (1956)
The Diary of Anne Frank(1959)
Trial of Adolf Eichmann(1961)
Judgement at Nuremberg(1961)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Holocaust(1978)
Sophies Choice (1979)
Sophies Choice (1982)
Shoah (1985)
Schindlers List (1993)

It's easy to look back and say...oh hey theirs a typical Nazi but in reality Welles was tackling something that wasn't fully formed for 30 more years.



I was actually about to write something about WW2 still being so recent but decided not to. Also, I didn't precisely mean that the issue is Kindler being a "typical nazi" but him being so one-dimensionally evil character (and grandiosely pompous too). He's almost comical as a caricature.

I also need to point out, again, that I rate/review films by personal entertainment value so in relation to how good or bad the film is, isn't affected by how recent the war was or how few nazis had been seen in movies before.



I was actually about to write something about WW2 still being so recent but decided not to. Also, I didn't precisely mean that the issue is Kindler being a "typical nazi" but him being so one-dimensionally evil character (and grandiosely pompous too). He's almost comical as a caricature.

I also need to point out, again, that I rate/review films by personal entertainment value so in relation to how good or bad the film is, isn't affected by how recent the war was or how few nazis had been seen in movies before.

I think it's more of an issue of historical context, I don't think you can classify a film like the Strange as being pedantic when it's attempting to create a standard for the Nazi.



I think it's more of an issue of historical context, I don't think you can classify a film like the Strange as being pedantic when it's attempting to create a standard for the Nazi.
Like I (tried to) say, I don't really care about the historical context (I leave that for the people who wish to research the evolution of cinema, I'm only after personal pleasure). And if the standard the film is attempting to create is merely a caricature, I have no issue calling it pedantic.



I've seen them all except, Siddon's Le Corbeau. Of the nine I have seen, all are excellent...it's hard to find a bad noir IMO I haven't seen L.A. Confidential and Murder My Sweet in along time.
I too have seen them all except for Le Corbeau, so will look forward to watching the French noir.

I'm surprised that no one yet has chosen The Big Sleep which, along with Double Indemnity, are my two favorite noirs.

Should we go ahead and start with our commentaries/reviews?