The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

I think I only recently learned of Serie Noire through I think you, so I haven’t gotten to it just yet.

As for the other two, I just keep forgetting about them. They’ve been on my watch list for decades. Literally. I even have The American Friend saved on Criterion.

Which means I’ll be getting to The American Friend soon

That's my one-pointer.

i do like that movie, but it wasn’t in consideration for my list.

the american friend is very good, although i don’t remember many details about it. certainly would’ve made my top 40-50.

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I've seen both The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The American Friend. Both are pretty good, but neither made my ballot.

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No votes from me but that's a quality pair to start the countdown with.

That's sort of a good guess, but I didn't submit a list for either of the noir countdowns. Also, The Ninth Gate would have been higher on my list had I submitted one. I, too, like it a lot.

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Glad you're enjoying it, my friend. It's a long one. You'll need coffee... Sam is not only a fine composer and teacher, but he's an articulate and savvy interviewer.

Due to my reluctance to use Zoom, I did the interview from my wife's Face Time feature on her iPhone. Me on the Dixie Riviera, and Sam in Strasboug, France. As a result there was a good deal of video freezing, although the audio didn't seem affected. Gregg Bendian did one recently that is much better quality. There are several on YouTube if you're at all interested.

Good points. Classic noir was a movement. Neo-noir is more of an imitation updated. Obvious differences? No more femme fatale. No black & white. Sexual themes and overt sex scenes became commonplace, due at least to the loss of film censorship.

I knew that a neo-noir countdown would be all over the map, so we'll have to hold onto our hats...

Pretty similar thinking. I had it at #23...

no votes. both friends of eddie coyle and american friend are very good, though. really need to rewatch the latter.

blackhat was my one-pointer. mann's going to get a fair bit of rep on my list with some of his more widely-accepted classics, but i figured i'd also throw in for his decidedly underrated exercise in fighting cyber-crime. hemsworth's prison-hardened hacker is a worthy neo-noir protagonist who has to fight, shoot, and solve his way through an international mystery involving soy futures and nuclear meltdowns - it's definitely more dense/obtuse than the likes of, say, collateral, but it's proven to have a charm all its own that not a lot of other quote-unquote neo-noirs from the past decade or so seem to have.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Hello Friends. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is decent but I'm not a big fan - it's been a while. It's also been a while since I watched The American Friend but I had to get it on my list - I'm the third and final voter at #23.

Also, it is me, I voted for Serie Noire! I thought it would be a good one pointer. Bleak, but oddly humorous, with great performances.

You know while I was making my list and thinking of including some international neo noirs, these were two that stuck out right away.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

And yes the ranking cards (is that what we call them?) look great. Thanks guys!

Seen neither, but I've been salivating over the prospect of watching The American Friend for quite a while now - just haven't got to it yet.

Seen : 0/2
Heard of : 1/2

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I predict that I'll see more films from this countdown than the film noir countdown.

FWIW, IMO on past countdowns, 91-100 is often the second or third best grouping of ten films out of the hundred.

The American Friend is pretty amazing, I saw it only recently but forgot to put it on my list. And my review was:

I've not seen Eddie Coyle but I need to.

I do think there are "femme fatales" in neo-noir; just a different kind of "femme fatales".

Either way, yeah, you all better buckle up

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This is the list of one-pointers that have been picked up already.

• Affliction (1997)
• Blackhat (2015) - Iroquois
• The Chaser (2008) - CosmicRunaway
• Johnny Handsome (1989) - Holden Pike
• Kill Me Again (1989)
• The Laughing Policeman (1973) - Siddon
• The Little Things (2021)
• Long Day's Journey into Night (2018)
• Mirage (1965) - John-Connor
• The Ninth Gate (1999) - Wyldesyde19
• Portrait in Black (1960) - Citizen Rules
• Pulp (1972)
• Reindeer Games (2000)
• Série noire (1979) - Harry Lime
• Swoon (1992) - beelzebubble
• Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)

He was, indeed. Robby Müller may not have the brand-name recognition that some of his contemporaries do, but there's no doubt he was one of the greats. If you only take his collaborations with Wenders (eleven projects, including Alice in the Cities, Until the End of the World, and Paris, Texas) and Jarmusch (five films: Down By Law, Mystery Train, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Coffee & Cigarettes) there's enough there to merit a label of greatness. Then when you add in Saint Jack and They All Laughed (Peter Bogdanovich), Repo Man (Alex Cox), To Live and Die in L.A. (Billy Friedkin), Barfly (Barbet Schroeder), and Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier)...very impressive.

Some screen captures from Der Amerikanische Freund...

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I haven't seen The American Friend, but Müller's cinematography in Down by Law is gorgeous.