Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[Tech-UK]

If you start subbing, there is going to be lots of different 'Noir types' with one or two titles in each and some are going to over lap. Neo Noir I believe is the easiest term to use for all modern noirs or just name it Modern Noir.

As MifuneFan suggested, he maybe able to add a description of what Retro Noir is, and add it to the first post.

[Tech-UK]

Could Melancholia be classified as being film noir?

It is certainly stylistic and moody, plus it also features love and betrayal.

[yhzmr]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

Could Melancholia be classified as being film noir?

It is certainly stylistic and moody, plus it also features love and betrayal.

... but lacks an essential criminal element.

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

Could Melancholia be classified as being film noir?

It is certainly stylistic and moody, plus it also features love and betrayal.

No. Not at all.

[Tech-UK]

Originally Posted by yhzmr

... but lacks an essential criminal element.

Good point.

[Le Samourai]

Ignore please.

[Blu Titan]

Just ordered this :

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

Well, as I'm sure you know, Film Noir follows certain style choices, such as shooting night for night and day for day (no artificial lighting to make a shot done at night look like day, or a shot done at day look like night). The story also follows the point of view of the detective. (The term "Film Noir" wasn't even used until later, people didn't set out to make a noir, they set out to make a detective story).

Film Noir encompasses a lot of different types of stories; the detective film is just one of many sub-genres.

Originally Posted by Scarface32

As a side note: Film Noir ended in 1958, exactly. Touch of Evil is the last Noir, making the definitive year 1958.

No it didn't. Plenty of films exist in the 1959-1965 period that carry all of the thematic and visual hallmarks (including black and white cinematography) of classic noir: City of Fear (1959), The 3rd Voice (1960), Man-Trap (1961), Shock Corridor (1963), The Naked Kiss (1964), Hysteria (1964), Brainstorm (1965), The Money Trap (1965), etc.

[jetthead]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Just ordered this :

Yes! I must have this!

[oildude]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Just ordered this :

Great choice. A very enjoyable film with the usual stellar direction and human drama elements from Elia Kazan.

I really wish Fox would bring out the remaining four titles from their Kazan box sets that still don't have individual releases.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

No it didn't. Plenty of films exist in the 1959-1965 period that carry all of the thematic and visual hallmarks (including black and white cinematography) of classic noir: City of Fear (1959), The 3rd Voice (1960), Man-Trap (1961), Shock Corridor (1963), The Naked Kiss (1964), Hysteria (1964), Brainstorm (1965), The Money Trap (1965), etc.

Then how come Touch of Evil is universally agreed upon by many film historians as being the last Film Noir? Because it is, that's why.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by oildude

Great choice. A very enjoyable film with the usual stellar direction and human drama elements from Elia Kazan.

I really wish Fox would bring out the remaining four titles from their Kazan box sets that still don't have individual releases.

Thanks for the feedback oildude. I am taking the week of July 4th off. Going on a short trip with the family then I am taking a few days to relax and watch movies...this will be one of them . I needed a noir fix for that week. I also have "Laura" saved away.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Thanks for the feedback oildude. I am taking the week of July 4th off. Going on a short trip with the family then I am taking a few days to relax and watch movies...this will be one of them . I needed a noir fix for that week. I also have "Laura" saved away.

That is a tremendous double feature!

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

Then how come Touch of Evil is universally agreed upon by many film historians as being the last Film Noir? Because it is, that's why.

I'd say it's probably the last high-profile American film noir made by a major director in the classical canon. There are any number of under-the-radar noir films made over the next several years in the US, and plenty of fantastic Japanese noirs throughout the 1960s, plus a few decent French noirs from1959 into the 60s including a few semi-noirs in the French New Wave. In any case, good as it is, TOUCH OF EVIL is most definitely NOT the "last" film noir. Some critics have argued that TOUCH OF EVIL is actually the first "New Wave" film, made a year before the French supposedly invented that style. (They may not have seen even earlier films like LITTLE FUGITIVE or LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS, however, which are certainly not noir but definitely prefigure the New Wave.)

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

I'd say it's probably the last high-profile American film noir made by a major director in the classical canon. There are any number of under-the-radar noir films made over the next several years in the US, and plenty of fantastic Japanese noirs throughout the 1960s, plus a few decent French noirs from1959 into the 60s including a few semi-noirs in the French New Wave. In any case, good as it is, TOUCH OF EVIL is most definitely NOT the "last" film noir. Some critics have argued that TOUCH OF EVIL is actually the first "New Wave" film, made a year before the French supposedly invented that style. (They may not have seen even earlier films like LITTLE FUGITIVE or LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS, however, which are certainly not noir but definitely prefigure the New Wave.)

I'm tired of arguing the point, so I'll just post quotes

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Orson Welles's baroquely styled Touch of Evil (1958) is frequently cited as the last noir of the classic period. Some scholars believe film noir never really ended, but continued to transform even as the characteristic noir visual style began to seem dated and changing production conditions led Hollywood in different directions—in this view, post-1950s films in the noir tradition are seen as part of a continuity with classic noir. A majority of critics, however, regard comparable films made outside the classic era to be something other than genuine film noirs. They regard true film noir as belonging to a temporally and geographically limited cycle or period, treating subsequent films that evoke the classics as fundamentally different due to general shifts in filmmaking style and latter-day awareness of noir as a historical source for allusion.

Originally Posted by http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/filmnotes/fnf00n3.html

This camera crane arabesque is the opening of Orson Welles’ TOUCH OF EVIL, perhaps the last great masterpiece of the film noir era. Along with John Huston’s equally remarkable THE MALTESE FALCON of 1941, TOUCH OF EVIL neatly bookends film noir

Originally Posted by http://www.examiner.com/review/film-noir-at-dft-orson-welles-touch-of-evil

Touch of Evil is arguably the last of the "classic" film noirs.

Originally Posted by http://www.amazon.com/review/R12K24DO2EYUKO/

Generally considered as the ultimate Film Noir (and the last film of the genre), TOUCH OF EVIL is certainly one of the most macabre, bizarre poignant films ever produced in Hollywood. The director Orson Welles is of course the man who made CITIZEN CANE, but many Welles affectionados such as Peter Bogdanovich actually consider TOUCH OF EVIL better than KANE; as a matter of fact the best film Welles has ever directed.

Plus my old professor in the Film Studies department, taught a class on Film Noir, and has worked with the National Film Preservation Foundation in the past, has said on multiple occasions that later films such as "The Naked Kiss" do not count as Film Noir.

[MifuneFan]

There is no "definitive" end, that's where you're completely wrong. It's very much open to interpretation, so while some might think 1958 is the last year of the Classic period, it's certainly not an objective end.

[retask]

Thank you for this thread!

[The Great Owl]

Film noir fans may find this of interest...

Last week, I received the Region A/B/C Spanish Blu-ray of Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once, starring Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney.



This 1937 film is a proto-noir by strict definition, but many critics place it squarely inside the classic film noir category, and I have no problem grouping it with the film noir Blu-rays in my own collection.

You Only Live Once was Fritz Lang's second American film after the brilliant Fury (1936), which is also a strong proto-noir entry. This is a great noir-edged crime thriller, but it's also a wonderful love story in an offbeat way.

In terms of picture quality, this black-and-white movie looks beautifully detailed, albeit with a few white specks and such inherent to the source. This looks comparable to the DVDBeaver findings for the Italian Blu-ray.

This site description states that the Blu-ray is untested for Region A, but it plays fine on my Region A player, and it defaults to English audio and English subtitles.

[kaseaver]

Watched Crimes & Misdemeanors when it was released by Twilight Time. I really enjoyed the Martin Landau story and was meaning to mention it as a quality neo-noir. (The Woody Allen part of the movie not so much.)

Anyway, I was wondering if Woody had directed any other films like Crimes & Misdemeanors. I read somewhere that Match Point was similar, so I tried it (Japanese version) and I hit the jackpot. It's like an updated version of C&M with younger actors but a very similar storyline. I would like to nominate both films for the neo-noir list.

Was wondering if anyone knows of any another Woody Allen film that are like these 2. I haven't seen Blue Jasmine or Hannah and Her Sisters, but they look like they might be like this.

[captveg]

If you're looking for more drama-Allen rather than comedy-Allen, Blue Jasmine and Hannah and Her Sisters fit with that (though not with noir, exactly).

You may like Shadows and Fog (1991), which atmospherically has a 30s Universal horror thing going for it (but not outright horror), and Interiors (1978) is straight-up 60s/70s Ingmar Bergman influenced.