Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[tallguy58]

Merry Christmas.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by tallguy58

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you as well, and to everyone in the thread!

(Now we have two Robert Mitchum avatar posts in a row on Christmas Day.)

[tallguy58]

It's a beautiful thing

[*PREACHER*]

Watched The Blue Dahlia tonight it's amazing the chemistry between Ladd and Lake...nothing could penetrate that chemistry between them with the sharpest chisel.

[tallrichard]

With The Glass Key in Jan, Phantom Lady and a restored Detour coming in March, it looks like 2019 will have a good start in noir......

[Richard--W]

Don't forget Desert Fury is coming, too. 2019 looks promising, but let's remember a number of important releases this year. Mann's and Alton's Raw Deal, T-Men and He Walked By Night were finally restored by ClassicFlix along with The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By and Down Three Dark Streets. The Man Who Cheated Himself came from The Film Noir Foundation, Moonrise, Panique and Elevator to the Gallows from Criterion, Black Widow and The Incident from Twilight Time, La Mome Vert de Gris from Pathe, I Walk Alone, A Strange Adventure, A Woman's Devotion, The Mamie Van Doren Film Noir Collection from Kino Lorber plus others I'm forgetting. It's been a good year for vintage film noir on blu-ray.

[Richard--W]

Editor's note: As neo-noir is even harder than classic noir to define, I had a difficult time trying to decide what should be and shouldn't be on the list. So I encourage those more knowledgeable on the subject to chime in on what they feel belongs there, and what doesn't.

Too Late (2015) and Small Town Crime (2017) with John Hawks playing
loser private eyes, reviewed back-thread, are unambiguously neo noir.

[SeanJoyce]

Editor's note: As neo-noir is even harder than classic noir to define, I had a difficult time trying to decide what should be and shouldn't be on the list. So I encourage those more knowledgeable on the subject to chime in on what they feel belongs there, and what doesn't.

That's because the idea and very existence of "neo-noir" is utterly preposterous and it should be expunged from the cinematic lexicon (does it even exist beyond internet circles?) What's with this driving need to differentiate between "classic noir" and "neo-noir"? Drawing some imaginary hard line is both tremendously silly and increasingly futile.

A noir is a noir is a noir; life becomes much easier when one eschews the compulsion to place everything into neat little boxes.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

That's because the idea and very existence of "neo-noir" is utterly preposterous and it should be expunged from the cinematic lexicon (does it even exist beyond internet circles?) What's with this driving need to differentiate between "classic noir" and "neo-noir"? Drawing some imaginary hard line is both tremendously silly and increasingly futile.

A noir is a noir is a noir; life becomes much easier when one eschews the compulsion to place everything into neat little boxes.

Actually no, I’d say it’s not as simple as that, which is why this is a widely debated issue. Film noir was certainly an era in Hollywood classicism. It flourished during the WWII years and then into the height of the Cold War. I also tend to agree with the thinking that film noir is more of a style than a genre, so there’s that as well. Paul Schrader wrote a really good essay defending this POV.

And yes, neo-noir is actually a thing that exists “beyond internet circles”, as neo-noir has also been heavily theorized by film scholars. Film was one of my majors in undergrad and I took an entire course on film noir, neo-noir just refers to films that mimic the film noir style but were made OUTSIDE the noir era (roughy 1941-1958), hence “neo”. Also most neo-noirs are shot in colour, whereas one of the staples of film noir was its b&w cinematography.

~Matt

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

That's because the idea and very existence of "neo-noir" is utterly preposterous and it should be expunged from the cinematic lexicon (does it even exist beyond internet circles?)

Since the term pre-dates the existence of the internet, I'd say yes.

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

What's with this driving need to differentiate between "classic noir" and "neo-noir"?

Chronology, for starters. The term is simply referring to new ("neo") noirs.

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Drawing some imaginary hard line is both tremendously silly and increasingly futile.

Most scholars and critics aren't interested in drawing a hard line but understanding how a movement can morph and change over time.

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by Matt89

Actually no, I’d say it’s not as simple as that, which is why this is a widely debated issue. Film noir was certainly an era in Hollywood classicism. It flourished during the WWII years and then into the height of the Cold War. I also tend to agree with the thinking that film noir is more of a style than a genre, so there’s that as well. Paul Schrader wrote a really good essay defending this POV.

And yes, neo-noir is actually a thing that exists “beyond internet circles”, as neo-noir has also been heavily theorized by film scholars. Film was one of my majors in undergrad and I took an entire course on film noir, neo-noir just refers to films that mimic the film noir style but were made OUTSIDE the noir era (roughy 1941-1958), hence “neo”. Also most neo-noirs are shot in colour, whereas one of the staples of film noir was its b&w cinematography.

~Matt

Let us all explore this question further.

I'm intrigued by the idea that film noir "is more of a style than a genre." I'm
not saying I agree, just that I'm intrigued by the proposition. I'm genuinely
curious, can you provide an example of a film noir determined by its style
rather than by its content?

In Chinatown, shot in color, dialogue constantly refers to the heat, the
dryness and sunshine. "The heat's murder" says the barber. "What can you
do, with this darn drought" says the Water Company manager. The heat is as
oppressive in Chinatown as the nighttime darkness in, say, Raw Deal (1948).
The motif is carried over to Body Heat (1981) with everyone complaining
about the heat and humidity and the detective pointing out it makes people
misbehave. Once again, the heat and humidity are as oppressive as the
darkness inside men's souls.

[chidecki]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Merry Christmas to you as well, and to everyone in the thread!

(Now we have two Robert Mitchum avatar posts in a row on Christmas Day.)

Oh, if I'd seen this earlier I would have said, "and now two Jane Greers in a row".

[noiradelic]

Question for anyone who has a copy of Film Noir: The Encyclopedia, 4th Edition (Silver, Ward, Ursini et al):

Are In a Lonely Place, Scandal Sheet and The Mob included in The Classic Period section? There's a list of the classic period films on Letterboxd, but these three weren't on there, which surprised me, especially since they're in earlier editions of the book.

The reason I haven't bought the 4th Edition is that I already own the 2nd Edition and didn't want to double-dip, particularly on a heavy hardcover edition. Also I bought American Neo-Noir: The Movie That Never Ends, not realizing it's just an expanded version of the second half of the 4th Edition.

The notes for the Letterboxd list say there are 410 films in the classic period section, but the Letterboxed list actually has 411 (Dangerous Passage is out of alphabetical order), so I'd also be interested in learning the total number of the classic period films included in the encyclopedia. But I don't want to put anyone out if it's too much effort.

[Richard--W]

Wish I could help, but I don't have the 4th.

Here's a DVD box-set from Spain that needs to be upgraded to blu-ray in the USA:



The films, all from his RKO period, are
Criminal Court (1946)
Born To Kill (1947)
Mystery In Mexico (1948)
Blood On The Moon (1948)
The Set-Up (1949)

[John Ross Ewing]

With the year coming to an end we've had a chance to see more noir. Instead of top 10, what is your list of top 25 noir? You can include neo noir too if you want.

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

With the year coming to an end we've had a chance to see more noir. Instead of top 10, what is your list of top 25 noir? You can include neo noir too if you want.

You mean top 25 newly released blu-rays or top 25 altogether?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

With the year coming to an end we've had a chance to see more noir. Instead of top 10, what is your list of top 25 noir? You can include neo noir too if you want.

I'm going to have to give this some thought. My top 10 films noir is pretty concrete, but there's so many great ones to choose from for the rest.

[John Ross Ewing]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

You mean top 25 newly released blu-rays or top 25 altogether?

Altogether. We had some great new additions this year didn't we?

[Richard--W]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

Altogether. We had some great new additions this year didn't we?

Certainly did. I rediscovered Raw Deal. For me that film was the most
dramatic improvement of the year. Always liked the film but the visual
quality with its compositions and lighting and mood, is a revelation in
ClassicFlix's blu-ray.

[latehong]

One for each director:

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940, Boris Ingster)
The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
Fallen Angel (1945, Otto Preminger)
Mildred Pierce (1945, Michael Curtiz)
Scarlet Street (1945, Fritz Lang)
Born to Kill (1947, Robert Wise)
Nightmare Alley (1947, Edmund Goulding)
Ride the Pink Horse (1947, Robert Montgomery)
The Big Clock (1948, John Farrow)
Raw Deal (1948, Anthony Mann)
Act of Violence (1949, Fred Zinnemann)
Caged (1950, John Cromwell)
Dial 1119 (1950, Gerald Mayer)
Gun Crazy (1950, Joseph H. Lewis)
Night and the City (1950, Jules Dassin)
No Way Out (1950, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Ace in the Hole (1951, Billy Wilder)
On Dangerous Ground (1951, Nicholas Ray)
The Prowler (1951, Joseph Losey)
Storm Warning (1951, Stuart Heisler)
The Narrow Margin (1952, Richard Fleischer)
The Sniper (1952, Edward Dmytryk)
Crime Wave (1954, Andre de Toth)
Nightfall (1957, Jacques Tourneur)
Murder by Contract (1958, Irving Lerner)