to have and have noir

Last Saturday night I looked up film noir on the internet, read some articles, and exited more confused than ever.

Am not really confused, however...I know noir when I see it.

But when you read about it, it's like -- people speak, type, argue, refute, expound, and after a while you are only hungry and tired.

A U.K. publication had a list of the [heavily sarcastic-ized] "top ten" films noir...(too many "Top Ten" lists -- it has become meaningless...)

and I didn't agree with all films listed on their "Top Ten" anyway, nor do I see a need for nine of them to be not-as-good as the "Top" one.

So  my list of ten "Core" noir films reads as follows
(and they're all good, they are not listed 1st "down to" 10th, or 10th back up to the -- oneth -- or whatever.  They're all good; they're listed alphabetically.

----------------------

Big Sleep, The

Body Heat

Double Indemnity

Killers, The

Lady in the Lake

Laura

Maltese Falcon, The

Out Of The Past

Sweet Smell of Success

Third Man, The

----------------------------

The Postman Always Rings Twice is another noir; there are two versions of that.   Also, Chinatown.  Sunset Boulevard is certainly noir, I think.  Alfred Hitchcock's movies Notorious, Strangers on a Train, and Shadow of a Doubt all have a strong noir influence, or styling.  To Have And Have Not, Casablanca, and Key Largo have visual and dialogue style elements which borrow from, or "channel" film noir.

How many of these movies did Humphrey Bogart appear in?
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
To Have And Have Not
Key Largo
Casablanca.

In the 70s there was an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show where Rhoda says something like, "We're going to a film festival -- four Humphrey Bogart pictures -- all of them The Maltese Falcon."  Something like that...When I heard that the first time, I was in -- probably -- junior high -- and my parents sort of chuckled -- they thought that was funny, and I was wondering, "What?  Why is that funny?  I don't get it...all the same movie?"

And of course all of Humphrey Bogart's movies are not the same, they're different, & they're all good, but the characters he played, after his career was established, tended to be similar, and the above-mentioned films along with some others that could be considered noir, had enough similar elements that people who have seen them could laugh at the line, "four Humphrey Bogart pictures -- all of them The Maltese Falcon"...

I think someone tried to explain it to me, but they weren't much in an explaining-mood, we were watching the show, and I didn't get it.  But I do now.

======================

In Body Heat, after Matty Walker shows Ned Racine the chimes, at her house on the waterway, they begin a relationship which includes physical intimacy.  They are passionate and intense, desirous; it has the excitement of the new and unknown; they relate with abandon; it's as if they are the only two people in the world.

Next morning Ned is walking to his office -- on a sidewalk, crowded with pedestrians, the heat of the day already upon them.  He's dressed right, and properly "put together" yet there's a sense, viewing him, that he's a little tired.  He's wearing sunglasses.

His office is modest; the outside reception area with his secretary -- behind that, his own small office.

The secretary says, "Some messages for you," pushing them forward on her desk.  When Racine walks up to her the secretary says in a low voice, "Mrs. Singer."

He looks back, over at a sofa -- an older lady sits there, clutching a walking stick.  Racine sets the stack of messages back down, whips off his sunglasses and strides across the room, turning his full solicitous charm on the client.

RACINE
Mrs. Singer, I would have gladly come to your house.

MRS. SINGER
Oh no, the doctor said I should walk, and I did have some shopping.  Not that that quack knows what he's talking about.  Mister Ray-seen, I'm just not sure his testimony is going to be useful.

RACINE
Don't worry; we'll find a doctor who's more understanding.
(change of tone)
Is it bad today?

MRS. SINGER
Oh!  You can't imagine!  Nothing can re-pay me for the pain I've been through.

RACINE
(as he ushers Mrs. Singer into his office)
How well I know.  We'll sue those reckless bastards dry.  Oh, excuse my language.

MRS. SINGER
(looking back up at him)
Oh no, don't apologize!  You have to have an attitude like that, these days...!

As Ned follows her into the office he mimics Mrs. Singer's pounding gesture with her cane and hunches his shoulders & puts his head a little forward, like "yeah let's go get 'em!" for the benefit of the secretary. ...
------------------------------
-----------------------

It's kind of like --
After the Night Of Love, it's
Back To Reality, such as it is.

{excerpts, dialogue and description, Body Heat film and screenplay, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, 1981}

-30-