Film Noir HoF III

Down the aisle, up the stairs, collect award, and away she goes.
AWESOME

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I have watched Spellbound but do not have time to write up a review tonight, so, hopefully, I have it up by tomorrow night along with my Vote.

ill have a write up for Le Corbeau later on

I will say I really enjoyed it

Cool...I thought it was a neat choice for this HoF.

I was really riveted by it! It reminded me a lot of early Hitchcock films.

It really did seem like an early Hitch. My wife liked the movie too. Gosh we had so many great films in this HoF!

Will probably be the first HOF where I liked all of the films

Le Corbeau


Like an early Hitchcock, Le Corbeau grabs you early and holds you in its thrall as you watch the mystery unfold.
Someone is writing letters to the townspeople revealing their dirty secrets. In particular, one person, a Dr with his own mysterious past, is targeted by this person. A person who calls themself “The Raven”.

This is my first film from Henri-Georges Clouzot, although I was already familiar with the name. *
The mystery unfolds slowly, as you try to guess who is behind the letters and why they target The Doctor to begin with. But the it’s way the mystery unfolds and how it’s handled that matters. *
Clouzot directs at a breezy pace that allows us to be drawn in. * He also shows us how quickly someone, no matter their Prior reputation, can be turned on by the populace. Rumor and innuendo are all that needed quite often. *Indeed, we see the town turn on a nurse falsely implicated by the towns people.*
And when it finally is revealed, its ending is at once satisfying and appropriate. *
A great film! *Love this pick.*

Le Corbeau was QUITE riveting and, like you, Wylde, I absolutely loved the ending

le corbeau

reminded me a lot of the simpsons episode where the kids start a radio show that exposes all of the adults' secrets. not only are the premises similar, but both the episode and the film take a rather bleak view of humanity, revealing the tenuousness of the bonds that forge a society. we can only function as a community because we are allowed our secrets and privacy, but our perverse attraction to gossip and judgement leaves us unable to resist any attempt to undermine that unspoken veneer of respectability from within. drawing a modern-day parallel to social media would be cliche, yet justified. clouzot keeps things a bit too cold and clinical for me to get really invested, but he manages some impressive shots and plenty of intrigue. every narrative escalation is successful, but it perhaps could've used a couple more i suppose.

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Double Indemnity

This one's a classic. Though I don't love it as much as most people, I still think it's a very good movie. Barbara Stanwyck is obviously a main attraction on this, but is also the reason why I don't adore this film. She has a perfect femme fatale personality, going from pure evil to apparently fragile, but I don't find her remotely attractive and that eventually hurts her credibility. I know it's a stupid reason and I have struggled with it everytime I watched this film but I think this time I finally can put my finger on it.
In a noir, I need to believe I'd fall in love with the femme fatale to believe everything that happens because most of it usually happens because of her. And I can't believe Double Indemnity.

+

L.A. Confidential

This might be one of the 2 or 3 neo noirs I actually respect. Because I associate the genre with a very specific period and style that I love, I usually hate to see neo noirs who steal all the concepts but ignore so many important parts. But not this film.

It plays like a real noir, with dark and twisted characters, perfect pacing and a clever and well written script. I only missed the typical cinematography but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The cast is also very very good obviously.

I also love that the plot, despite its complexity, never gets confusing. I can understand CR's opinion about the atmosphere change of this, as I felt it too. It's like the movie was striving for perfection but gets lazy when it's almost there.

Spellbound

Dr. Alex Brulov: Women make the best psychoanalysts until they fall in love. After that they make the best patients.

I am exceedingly torn with this one.
I LOVE Ingrid Bergman and there are countless films of Gregory Peck's I thoroughly enjoy. Alfred Hitchcock is an incredible director with a truly delightfully dark and twisted sense of humor. The opening snippets of his TV show were my favorite parts. He weaves great stories with excellent camerawork that have become iconic. Including the pistol that follows Bergman's Dr. Constance Petersen out of the room before turning around to its owner and to us, the audience.
Also, Michael Chekhov's Dr. Alexander Brulov is the highlight of the movie with some of the best lines. Stealing scene after scene after scene.


It is the character of Dr. Petersen that just aggravated me to no end. A scientific woman of very high standing and while her colleagues may take pot shots at her behind her back (which is what boys do when a girl kicks their @ss at a shared profession) they all do agree on her ability and intelligence.
Its how she crumbles, so easily, into a lost child unable to think, unable to act and forever panicking and seeking out, either others' help or "Let's just run away!" futility.
It drove me crazy and instead of my support for her, to believe she'll come out on top and prove them all wrong, I was, even knowing the outcome from previous viewings, in full agreement: Girl, for a brainiac, you are an idiot. He is the murderer and these high school puppy love emotions are going to get you killed.
Some of it is also that Peck's character is written off as the perfect scapegoat and his guilt appears as an absolute given throughout the entire film. To the point that the ending I am always waiting for is the two of them, having escaped the police are in an isolated cabin in a forest strewn mountainside. She rushes into his arms, ecstatic at the outcome and, holding her, his eyes, callous, tells her,
"They're right. All of them. For such an accomplished psychiatrist, you are nothing but a fool."
His hands close in on her throat. Squeezing the life from her.
"Because, in your foolish heart, you could not see what your scientific mind knew to be true. I am a murderer."
The camera moves in to capture her bulging eyes as the life leaves her. The shock and horror is all that is left on her dead face.
The end scene is her colleagues conversing, or perhaps, even a seminar where Dr. Brulov is making his final point, that this a prime example of the importance of why a psychiatrist MUST remain emotionally indifferent with their patients.

And that'll do 'er!
Now, for the really hard part: getting my vote together

Just finished Crossfire. Will have a write up later on

I must say that I enjoyed your commentary here more than I did the film itself...

With only 5 days left John-Connor & Double Indemnity is disqualified. I did give him plenty of time.

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Man. That was really going to be ranked high by me.
What a shame