Official Film Noir on Blu-ray Thread

[noirjunkie]

I just discovered that Frank Darabont's neo-noir TV show/mini-series Mob City (2013) received a region free blu-ray release in Germany. It's currently sitting at a dirt cheap €4.99 on Amazon.de.

[Drake2222]

So there’s various noir I like, from the standard crime noir like Asphalt Jungle, to Dead End, to period noir like The Black Book, boxing noir like The Set-Up, racing noir like Rivalen am Steuer (Rivals at the Wheel), espionagish noir like Man Hunt or perhaps Decision Before Dawn. I was just wondering, are there some films considered Sci-fi noir? (I suppose there is H-man for one)

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

I was just wondering, are there some films considered Sci-fi noir? (I suppose there is H-man for one)

Blade Runner and Dark City ('98); I'd say Kiss Me Deadly also qualifies here.

[latehong]

This "New Wave science fiction film noir classic by Jean-Luc Godard" comes to my mind.

youtu.be/CzaATgGHmy0

[Drake2222]

Hmm, I have Blade Runner and Dark City, and I just saw Alphaville a few weeks ago, I haven’t seen Kiss Me Deadly though, i’ll look that up

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

Hmm, I have Blade Runner and Dark City, and I just saw Alphaville a few weeks ago, I haven’t seen Kiss Me Deadly though, i’ll look that up

Calling it a sci-fi noir is a stretch, given that it's not dealing with typical sci-fi elements, which are typically contained to the speculative and/or fantastical. Instead, it uses as a plot point a very real scientific issue on a lot of people's minds at the time (the outset of the Cold War).

However, regardless of how you want to label it, it's a top-shelf noir through and through, and Criterion's release does it justice.

[EVERYONE LIES]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

So there’s various noir I like, from the standard crime noir like Asphalt Jungle, to Dead End, to period noir like The Black Book, boxing noir like The Set-Up, racing noir like Rivalen am Steuer (Rivals at the Wheel), espionagish noir like Man Hunt or perhaps Decision Before Dawn. I was just wondering, are there some films considered Sci-fi noir? (I suppose there is H-man for one)

Not a film but The Twilight Zone

[chas speed]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

So there’s various noir I like, from the standard crime noir like Asphalt Jungle, to Dead End, to period noir like The Black Book, boxing noir like The Set-Up, racing noir like Rivalen am Steuer (Rivals at the Wheel), espionagish noir like Man Hunt or perhaps Decision Before Dawn. I was just wondering, are there some films considered Sci-fi noir? (I suppose there is H-man for one)

I would call the "Demon with a Glass Hand" episode of Outer Limits Sci Fi Noir. That the whole episode was filmed in the Bradbury building helps.

[SeanJoyce]

I gave The Lady from Shanghai another look last night and while I liked it better this go-around, it's still one of the oddest films noir out there. Welles' pointless, itinerant brogue, Hayworth's bleached-blonde hair, Glenn Sanders' excruciatingly awful performance, and a frankly ludicrous plot.

But there are a couple of excellent monologues (the sailor's in the bar about having an edge and Welles' recounting a shark-feeding genocide) and cool set-pieces (the theater and climax in the funhouse) while Indicator's Blu-ray is superb.

All said it's solid, but both Welles and Hayworth made better and more memorable contributions to the genre.

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by Drake2222

...I was just wondering, are there some films considered Sci-fi noir? (I suppose there is H-man for one)

A few have already been mentioned, I'll add these:

1. Cat People (1942)
2. Decoy (1946)
3. D.O.A. (1949)
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
5. The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972)
6. Brazil (1985)
7. Angel Heart (1987)
8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
9. The City of Lost Children (1995)
10. Strange Days (1995)
11. Gattaca (1997)
12. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
13. Cypher (2002)
14. Minority Report (2002)[Spielberg himself has said he specifically watched films like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon to get him into the right mindset for the movie]

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I gave The Lady from Shanghai another look last night and while I liked it better this go-around, it's still one of the oddest films noir out there. Welles' pointless, itinerant brogue, Hayworth's bleached-blonde hair, Glenn Sanders' excruciatingly awful performance, and a frankly ludicrous plot.

But there are a couple of excellent monologues (the sailor's in the bar about having an edge and Welles' recounting a shark-feeding genocide) and cool set-pieces (the theater and climax in the funhouse) while Indicator's Blu-ray is superb.

All said it's solid, but both Welles and Hayworth made better and more memorable contributions to the genre.

Well, it didn't help that Harry Cohn sliced an hour of footage out of it before he released it.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

A few have already been mentioned, I'll add these:

1. Cat People (1942)
2. Decoy (1946)
3. D.O.A. (1949)
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
5. The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972)
6. Brazil (1985)
7. Angel Heart (1987)
8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
9. The City of Lost Children (1995)
10. Strange Days (1995)
11. Gattaca (1997)
12. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
13. Cypher (2002)
14. Minority Report (2002)[Spielberg himself has said he specifically watched films like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon to get him into the right mindset for the movie]

I was going to bring up Gattaca. It's actually not on the list in the op currently, but would most peple say it should be? It's definitely hugely inspired by film noir as far as style goes, but I'm not sure if it fits otherwise. It's a brillant films though, completely ahead of its time.

[BucketheadPikes]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I was going to bring up Gattaca. It's actually not on the list in the op currently, but would most peple say it should be? It's definitely hugely inspired by film noir as far as style goes, but I'm not sure if it fits otherwise. It's a brillant films though, completely ahead of its time.

Here's a viewpoint that I've read:

"Director Andrew Niccol probably could have gone with any aesthetic to shape this 1997 tale of a future ruled by eugenics, but Gattaca’s sleekly retro sets and noir-inspired costumes lend a serious layer of eye candy to the story’s small-man-against-the-system theme." - Cheryl Eddy

[SeanJoyce]

Cat People, Angel Heart and Who Framed Roger Rabbit aren't sci-fi no matter how you slice it...horror and fantasy aren't synonymous with sci-fi.

And if we're going to disqualify Kiss Me Deadly (valid point), then the same should go for D.O.A..

I considered mentioning Johnny Handsome, but that's more of a dark fairy tale than sci-fi.

[BucketheadPikes]

Cat People - "A beautiful woman (Simone Simon) can’t sleep with her husband because she fears an ancient curse will transform her into a giant cat if she does. His eye soon wanders, and his new flame can’t shake the feeling she’s being stalked... by a giant cat. Directed by Jacques Tourneur—who went on to make Out of the Past, one of the most highly-acclaimed noir films— 1942's Cat People is almost too early to be classified as a noir, plus it’s typed most often as a horror movie... almost. But we think this tense, atmospheric chiller, which dances around sexual themes and features a literally deadly dame, absolutely fits this list."

[Show spoiler]"RKO horror producer Val Lewton was just given titles and he came up with movies based on them—and boy, were they good. The crews and actors for these early 1940s film would later work on RKO film noirs like Out of the Past, so it’s no surprise that they ended up looking a lot like Lewton’s horror films. Cat People, about a strange woman who might turn into a jungle cat, is simply brilliant. You don’t actually see the cat until the end—and then, only because of RKO’s insistence that there be a monster in the movie—up until the film’s climax, you don’t know what to believe. It’s a shadowy, film noir-looking world where you can’t quite see the horror. The 80s remake is not without charm but it’s no noir."

Angel Heart - "There are some problematic things about 1987's Angel Heart, but its neo-noir plot—in which an NY PI played by Mickey Rourke travels to New Orleans for what he thinks is a routine missing person case, but is in fact waaaaay more ****ed-up than that—is a pleasingly trashy, sweat-soaked bowl o’ gumbo. Most pleasing of all is Robert De Niro’s scenery-gnawing performance as the big man who’s really pulling all the strings: “Louis Cyphre,” a noir archetype who happens to be a sharply-manicured Satan."

Who Framed Roger Rabbit - "An innocent patsy, a boozy private investigator who tries to help him, a va-va-voom nightclub performer, a terrifying villain, and a sinister conspiracy that goes to the very top—Roger Rabbit would almost be exactly a classic noir film, except for all the bright colors... and cartoons."

D.O.A. - "...DOA is a deeply strange movie. A man on a business trip is poisoned by a slow-working drug—a glow-in-the-dark, luminous toxin poison. He only has hours to figure out who murdered him. The main character in DOA is played by Edmund O’Brien—a regular in film noirs, who was also the lead in the noirish 1984 released in 1956. 1984 was a former Noir of the Week and, although it doesn’t pack quite the same punch as the book, it’s not bad. Sexy Jan Sterling is in it (and is one of many things that went wrong with the film). Ultimately, though, it’s a movie that’s not all that bad if you watch it as a 50s thriller."

[SeanJoyce]

Nothing you posted here helps buttress your points and in fact only reinforces mine. Again, horror and fantasy is NOT sci-fi.

[BucketheadPikes]

I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything, I just posted other opinions. I'm not trying to have these films included on a definitive list of sci-fi noir. After reading a question in the thread I simply posted these films with the purpose of suggesting them for viewing. Others have the option of agreeing, disagreeing, discussing, debating or ignoring. It's not my intent to argue over them, you can look at the films however you'd like as it pertains to classifying them.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by BucketheadPikes

I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything, I just posted other opinions. I'm not trying to have these films included on a definitive list of sci-fi noir. After reading a question in the thread I simply posted these films with the purpose of suggesting them for viewing. Others have the option of agreeing, disagreeing, discussing, debating or ignoring. It's not my intent to argue over them, you can look at the films however you'd like as it pertains to classifying them.

No problem, you had some great suggestions there.

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I was going to bring up Gattaca. It's actually not on the list in the op currently, but would most peple say it should be? It's definitely hugely inspired by film noir as far as style goes, but I'm not sure if it fits otherwise. It's a brillant films though, completely ahead of its time.

I love the film, but the only possible noir signifiers it contains are the costumes/sets. The story is a love story, a sci-fi drama, and ends on a fundamentally uplifting note.

[trentdiesel]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I gave The Lady from Shanghai another look last night and while I liked it better this go-around, it's still one of the oddest films noir out there. Welles' pointless, itinerant brogue, Hayworth's bleached-blonde hair, Glenn Sanders' excruciatingly awful performance, and a frankly ludicrous plot.

But there are a couple of excellent monologues (the sailor's in the bar about having an edge and Welles' recounting a shark-feeding genocide) and cool set-pieces (the theater and climax in the funhouse) while Indicator's Blu-ray is superb.

All said it's solid, but both Welles and Hayworth made better and more memorable contributions to the genre.

For me all the odd touches are what elevates it. I really enjoy it and I should give it another go round as well. As you said the theater and climax in the funhouse are worth the price of admission on their own