film noir

[bigtenchamps1899]

are there any film noir fans on the board? i have been getting into it the last couple of years, but it is so hard to weed the good from the bad.

my favorite noir is bladerunner. the mood is classic noir. in fact, i think it does classic noir one better. the cinematography is amazing, and it is harrison ford's best performance.

i also like other self-aware noir: sunset boulevard, double indemnity, seven, and fight club. but i am not a fan of much of the seventies noir, chinatown, taxi driver, etc.

does anyone have any suggestions? i would like to get into hardboiled noir, but it is daunting.

[Frink]

How do you feel about Bogart? The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep are both good bets.

[Gopher4Life]

I've been told I have every Bogart film ever made (on separate VHS tapes totaling about 70), even a few earlies in which he played bit parts. I'm a big fan.

[tikited]

are there any film noir fans on the board? i have been getting into it the last couple of years, but it is so hard to weed the good from the bad.

my favorite noir is bladerunner. the mood is classic noir. in fact, i think it does classic noir one better. the cinematography is amazing, and it is harrison ford's best performance.

i also like other self-aware noir: sunset boulevard, double indemnity, seven, and fight club. but i am not a fan of much of the seventies noir, chinatown, taxi driver, etc.

does anyone have any suggestions? i would like to get into hardboiled noir, but it is daunting.

Blade Runner is the greatest Sci-fi movie ever imo. Ford as Decker was awesome casting.

I'm a huge fan of the 70's movies mentioned. The 70's are widely known for being the greatest movie decade and I agree. Directors were bigger than the actors back then--the way it should be imo. Give some other 70's movies a try..

[UpnorthGo4]

I have two suggestions:

1) If you have trouble sleeping, I recommend that you tune into Turner Classic Movies (TCM) around 2:00am or 3:00am. They like to show great film noir during the middle of the night. Many of the films that TCM shows late at night (or early in the morning) never get shown during prime time hours. They are some of the best films ever made.

2) Check out Wikipedia's article on film noir. It covers the topic from A to Z, including providing recommendations for the best film noir from film making countries around the world. The following paragraph from Wikipedia provides a comprehensive definition of film noir:

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

The term film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the classic era. Cinema historians and critics defined the noir canon in retrospect; before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic film noirs were referred to as melodramas. The question of whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre is a matter of on-going debate among scholars.

Film noirs encompass a range of plots—the central figure may be a private eye (The Big Sleep), a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a hapless grifter (Night and the City), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy), or simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.) Though the noir mode was originally identified among American productions, films now customarily described as noir have been made around the world. From the 1960s onward, many pictures have come out that share attributes with film noirs of the classic period, often treating noir conventions in a self-reflexive manner. Such latter-day works in a noir mode are often referred to as neo-noirs.

[Iceland12]

are there any film noir fans on the board? i have been getting into it the last couple of years, but it is so hard to weed the good from the bad.

my favorite noir is bladerunner. the mood is classic noir. in fact, i think it does classic noir one better. the cinematography is amazing, and it is harrison ford's best performance.

i also like other self-aware noir: sunset boulevard, double indemnity, seven, and fight club. but i am not a fan of much of the seventies noir, chinatown, taxi driver, etc.

does anyone have any suggestions? i would like to get into hardboiled noir, but it is daunting.

Robert Mitchum made a good living in film noir.

The Racket
Crossfire
Out of the Past
Macao

All of those are good examples of noir. Even his 1970 something version of The Big Sleep, while not as good as Bogart's had it's moments.

[bigtenchamps1899]

Robert Mitchum made a good living in film noir.

The Racket
Crossfire
Out of the Past
Macao

All of those are good examples of noir. Even his 1970 something version of The Big Sleep, while not as good as Bogart's had it's moments.

nice! i have seen "out of the past" (own it actually) and "the night of the hunter"--very striking movie. i checked out his filmography at wikipedia and he has a TON of interesting movies.

[Iceland12]

nice! i have seen "out of the past" (own it actually) and "the night of the hunter"--very striking movie. i checked out his filmography at wikipedia and he has a TON of interesting movies.

Very true. I always thought that Mitchum like McQueen, Eastwood and Sellers, was always worth watching even in movies that weren't.;)