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Post by William Smith on Jun 19, 2017 17:31:21 GMT -5
The most American of film genres--and, ironically, the French named it. General comments, or suggest a direction.
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pom
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Post by pom on Jun 20, 2017 21:35:13 GMT -5
Trying to think of the last noir I watched...
Probably Laura, for the 6th or 7th time. One of the most atmospheric and mesmerizing of all noirs.
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Post by William Smith on Jun 20, 2017 21:53:14 GMT -5
A couple of interesting noir notes. I wonder how many in the original audience for Laura interpreted Waldo Lydecker as gay, which certainly puts an interesting twist on the relationship. (In fact, that's part of the subtext in Gilda as well between Johnny and Ballin.)
There's a Thursday night series this month on TCM about gay people in Hollywood. A couple of weeks ago they showed Rope (which, curiously enough, was one of the few Hitchcock films I had not seen) and the hosts were discussing how Hitch was quite aware of the gay content. (Leopold and Loeb, on whom Rope is based, were gay; ironically, they escaped the death penalty because they were judged insane for that reason.) Farley Granger, John Dall, and screenwriter Arthur Laurents were all gay, and as out as one could be in the late 40s. Jimmy Stewart gives a fine performance in the film (he arguably did the best work of his career in the four films he did with Hitch) but he was apparently unaware that his character, too, is gay. (It's pretty obvious, of course.) It reminds one of the story that William Wyler and Gore Vidal told Stephen Boyd (when making Ben-Hur) that his part was written with the subtext that the character had had a fling with Ben Hur (Heston) when young--but never told Heston.
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stevign
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Well hello there......
Posts: 25
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Post by stevign on Jun 23, 2017 5:54:30 GMT -5
The most American of film genres--and, ironically, the French named it. Well then, I guess we need some appropriate music to go along with this topic.
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Post by William Smith on Jun 23, 2017 13:34:09 GMT -5
stevign: It's not a terrible film, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Truffaut understood noir.
And that score! Like howling chihuahuas.
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stevign
New Member
Well hello there......
Posts: 25
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Post by stevign on Jun 26, 2017 8:16:28 GMT -5
"Howling Chihuahuas": A great film noir by Truffaut.
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Post by William Smith on Jun 26, 2017 13:41:18 GMT -5
Best Truffaut noir? Probably The Bride Wore Black.
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Post by William Smith on Jul 27, 2017 12:18:43 GMT -5
Another perpetually interesting question--are any of Hitchcock's films noir, or do we have to create a separate genre for him? Alexandre Phillipe, the preening nitwit who is the guest commentator this month for the Hitchcock series on TCM, says no, and of course that's entirely wrong. Particularly if we see noir as a style, we have to call Shadow Of A Doubt, Strangers On A Train, and Notorious at the very least films noir, and I would extend that to others, like I Confess and also, in some very significant ways, Vertigo.
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