The MoFo Top Film Noir Countdown - Preliminary Thread
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You're right that film noir was an American film movement, which did of course influence other countries' film makers to do their own noirish thing. After the close of the 1950s it was like a light went off for noir and it was done and over. With the start of the 1960s the baby boomers came of age and styles, culture and film making changed to suit them. Though some say the last film noir was 1961's Blast of Silence. Which I've never seen.
Huge recommendation and it's the connective tissue between the likes of This Gun For Hire to Le Samourai and Taxi Driver.
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You're right that film noir was an American film movement, which did of course influence other countries' film makers to do their own noirish thing. After the close of the 1950s it was like a light went off for noir and it was done and over. With the start of the 1960s the baby boomers came of age and styles, culture and film making changed to suit them. Though some say the last film noir was 1961's Blast of Silence. Which I've never seen.
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You're right that film noir was an American film movement, which did of course influence other countries' film makers to do their own noirish thing. After the close of the 1950s it was like a light went off for noir and it was done and over. With the start of the 1960s the baby boomers came of age and styles, culture and film making changed to suit them. Though some say the last film noir was 1961's Blast of Silence. Which I've never seen.
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I say this not to litigate the eligibility based on release dates, but just with the acknowledgement that with any strict classification, there are probably going to be some edge cases that are going to break those rules, but if I were to try to name post-1960 movies that I would probably classify as classic-noir, Cape Fear is the first one that comes to mind.
If I were to try to pick up on one of the subtle differences between what would get lumped in with neo-noir as opposed to noir, would probably the presence of the classic Hollywood acting as opposed to method acting which started to rise in the 50s.
If I were to try to pick up on one of the subtle differences between what would get lumped in with neo-noir as opposed to noir, would probably the presence of the classic Hollywood acting as opposed to method acting which started to rise in the 50s.
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Blast of Silence is worth watching if only for its deliciously noir narration. I’d consider one of the first neo-noirs.
I say this not to litigate the eligibility based on release dates, but just with the acknowledgement that with any strict classification, there are probably going to be some edge cases that are going to break those rules, but if I were to try to name post-1960 movies that I would probably classify as classic-noir, Cape Fear is the first one that comes to mind.
If I were to try to pick up on one of the subtle differences between what would get lumped in with neo-noir as opposed to noir, would probably the presence of the classic Hollywood acting as opposed to method acting which started to rise in the 50s.
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I agree that the strict lines kinda hurt certain films...I think Cape Fear is one of the last noir's while Elevator to the Gallows is the first neo-noir. But because one film came out in 58 and the other in 62 I ended up putting them on different ballots.
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I agree that the strict lines kinda hurt certain films...I think Cape Fear is one of the last noir's while Elevator to the Gallows is the first neo-noir. But because one film came out in 58 and the other in 62 I ended up putting them on different ballots.
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Ultimately that's how I'd consider Blast of Silence too.
I wouldn't consider Cape Fear a noir. It's pure thriller and a fore funner to modern horror films with a boogie man Mitchum chasing helpless victims throughout the movie.
I wouldn't consider Cape Fear a noir. It's pure thriller and a fore funner to modern horror films with a boogie man Mitchum chasing helpless victims throughout the movie.
I see what you're saying but I've seen so many 40s-50s film noir that I can say that many if not most have actors delivering their lines as if they were living the character.
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I'd say that doesn't sound mutually exclusive with being a noir, seeing as how noir overlapped with a number of different genres. One of the characteristics of noir is often the use of light and shadow. It's been a while, so it's possible my memory is super-imposing a number of different things onto the movie that weren't actually as present as I remember them being there, which might cause me to revise that assessment whenever the time comes that I rewatch it (fwiw, the first line of wikipedia does describe it as a noir psychological thriller, so my recollection doesn't sound completely off-base).
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I've said this before and I'll say it again...Thriller isn't a genre. Cape Fear isn't a Thriller because Thrillers don't exist on their own. Any and all Thriller's have to be something else they don't stand on their own as a singular genre. They can be action films, horror films and dramas but a Thriller that is just a thriller...that's only Michael Jackson.
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...
I wouldn't consider Cape Fear a noir. It's pure thriller and a fore funner to modern horror films with a boogie man Mitchum chasing helpless victims throughout the movie.
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I wouldn't consider Cape Fear a noir. It's pure thriller and a fore funner to modern horror films with a boogie man Mitchum chasing helpless victims throughout the movie.
...
I didn't know until recently that the picture was directed from storyboards originally made by Alfred Hitchcock, the first director on the film.
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Imagine my disappointment when I couldn't vote for Strange Days. I watched it just for the games.
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Re: Cape Fear, I haven't seen the original but there are some places and sources that do cite it as a noir or neo-noir. As we are getting ready to start this countdown soon, I think it's better to acclimate ourselves to that notion regarding many films.
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You're right that film noir was an American film movement, which did of course influence other countries' film makers to do their own noirish thing. After the close of the 1950s it was like a light went off for noir and it was done and over. With the start of the 1960s the baby boomers came of age and styles, culture and film making changed to suit them. Though some say the last film noir was 1961's Blast of Silence. Which I've never seen.
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Re: Cape Fear, I haven't seen the original but there are some places and sources that do cite it as a noir or neo-noir. As we are getting ready to start this countdown soon, I think it's better to acclimate ourselves to that notion regarding many films.
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Strange Days was eligible for the neo-noir countdown
You needed two of the three websites to get it eligible. It was only eligible on one website.
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Was the Cape Fear remake eligible for the Neo Noir countdown? I've not seen it either, just curious.
- identified as an "American noir psychological thriller film" on Wikipedia
- "neo-noir" is the first keyword listen on its IMDb page
- it is included under "Noir and Dark Dramas" themes on Letterboxd
- it has a "film noir" tag on TheMovieDB
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Right, Cape Fear is not a noir, nor a neo-noir It's a psychological suspense film, nearly horror. It's at best reminiscent of noir due to its black & white filming, many night time scenes, along with Bernard Herrmann's excellent score. It was a pretty shocking film for its day. Reportedly many cuts were necessary in order to keep the censors from giving it an "X" rating.
I didn't know until recently that the picture was directed from storyboards originally made by Alfred Hitchcock, the first director on the film.
I didn't know until recently that the picture was directed from storyboards originally made by Alfred Hitchcock, the first director on the film.
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