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Wouldn't "Compelled and Obsessed" make a good title for a film noir? I think maybe it would. Recently on Internet exploring film noir and Alfred Hitchcock's movies and commentary upon them: Dial "H" For Hitchcock is a good documentary that's on You Tube.
When not watching / listening to videos about Hitchcock movies, clicking on videos about film noir -- then I start wanting to make my own list of movies that are noir: I don't want to have a "best noir" list because that's too subjective, and it's like saying other noirs that are not on my list are not good or worthwhile. And I didn't want my list to "rank" them -- best to -- what, worst?? No no.
So I made a list entitled Basic FILM NOIR.
These are "basics" to introduce oneself to the genre.
I put them alphabetically. (No playing favorites, or pitting one against the other...)
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Basic FILM NOIR
The Big Sleep (1946)
Body Heat (1981)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Laura (1944)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Out Of The Past (1947)
Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
The Third Man (1949)
(I include the year each film was released because sometimes another film or films could have the same title, so I want to specify. Like, if you look up Criminal, or Bad Company -- there are several different movies with those titles....)
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The Guardian online has an article, "Top 10 film noir" (Nov. 29, 2013).
Their list does the 10 to 1 "countdown" style:
10. They Live by Night
9. Kiss Me Deadly
8. Blood Simple
7. Lift to the Scaffold
6. The Third Man
5. Out of the Past
4. Double Indemnity
3. Touch of Evil
2. Chinatown
1. The Big Sleep
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The Guardian puts lists like this, and then it's -- Let the Reader Comments begin:
Id1983
The Maltese Falcon?
Whitworthflange
Possibly too early to be called noir. But definitely one of the finest, and incidentally one of the most cynical films of all time, and it should have been there.
Fabrisse
I've always thought of it as the first noir.
Matt O'Neill
Basically Films Noir start with Maltese Falcon and end with Touch of Evil. By definition they must be American (i.e. French doesn't count). Chinatown, Blood Simple, etc. are Neo Noirs....
...What about The Big Combo, The Big Knife, or In a Lonely Place?
Mildred Plotka
...Replace those with Gilda, The Maltese Falcon, The Lady from Shanghai, The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Heat, The Big Combo, Human Desire, Scarlet Street, Night and the City, Phantom Lady, Woman in the Window, You Only Live Once, Pick Up on South Street...At least something by Fritz Lang.
Mildred Plotka
And Criss Cross, which I don't think has had a mention.
Mildred Plotka
I like the idea that film noir ended half way through Psycho.
streakky > Matt O'Neill
Sir, you are to be commended as one of the few who actually knows the difference between genres. We've had everything from Citizen Kane to Casablanca suggested below.
But I think if you're gonna comment, you have to come up with your own top 10 so here goes:
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Double Indemnity
The Killers
The Killing (Kubrick)
Gilda
Laura
The Asphalt Jungle
Farewell My Lovely
Out of the Past
Sean Murray > Matt O'Neill
At the risk/hope of offending the Noir Police, I'm allowing colour and non-American (though excluding post-60s neo-noir):
1. The Night of the Hunter. Expressionist cosmic noir, and possibly the greatest film ever made (Cahiers du Cinema).
2. Les Bonnes Femmes. A personal favourite, and one of the most shocking endings ever.
3. Vertigo. Yup.
4. Blast of Silence. Extraordinary blend of noir and Nouvelle Vague. Possibly the coolest film ever made.
5. The Third Man.
6. Out of the Past.
7. Nightmare Alley.
8. They Live by Night.
9. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
10. Leave Her to Heaven. Technicolor, but who can seriously doubt this film is noir?
(Skulks down an alley while the Noir Police go galumphing by).
OzMogwai
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid?
Nomates
"You'll take your slaps and like it"
Fantastic!
Brandenburg
Blade Runner
Edward James Olmos' delivery of his final line is a work of art.
JackBurgess > Brandenburg
Look for the Sci-Fi top 10. I think it's number 3. But I agree it does have a noir feel to it; especially the music and cinematography.
"It's too bad she won't live. But then again who does?"
Best line in sci-fi history!
Nick909
Excellent choices!
Does Citizen Kane count as Film Noir??? If so I'd add that as a #11.
Jennyanydots
Does Citizen Kane count as Film Noir???
--I would say no.
I think "Sunset Boulevard" should be included as a top ten noir film.
alexito
...I might stick I Saw The Devil in, too -- South Korea's been doing fascinating things with noir elements -- and The Last Seduction would tick the 90s erotic thriller box, which is where noir found its home for a good 15 years.
LaszloKovacs
Detour is cool. But an even better cheap, desperate film noir "B" film is Gun Crazy by Joseph H Lewis. Check out the 3-minute take from the back of the car during the bank heist.
Paddyboro
Yeah, Gun Crazy -- what a movie: 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male.' Set the standard for the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers -- The 'Lovers on the Run' subgenre.
Rvaucbns
But where oh where is The Long Goodbye.
Numbersix99
Was it elsewhere in one of these lists, perhaps as a "detective" film? But yes, I think The Long Goodbye is the ultimate Revisionist Noir, following its traits but utterly subverting them at the same time. Masterly.
Cotillon
It's wearing a trench coat on a rain-sodden sidewalk, smoking a cigarette
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Hunter Thompson wanted to feel what it was like to write like F. Scott Fitzgerald, so he typed out The Great Gatsby.
I want to feel what it's like to write like Hunter Thompson, so I could type out The Great Shark Hunt.
--------------------------- [excerpt] ----------------- Richard Nixon is living in the White House today because of what happened that night in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey lost that election by a handful of votes -- mine among them -- and if I had to do it again I would still vote for Dick Gregory.
If nothing else, I take a certain pride in knowing that I helped spare the nation eight years of President Humphrey -- an Administration that would have been equally corrupt and wrongheaded as Richard Nixon's, far more devious, and probably just competent enough to keep the ship of state from sinking until 1976.
Then with the boiler about to explode from eight years of blather and neglect, Humphrey's cold-war liberals could have fled down the ratlines and left the disaster to whoever inherited it.
Nixon, at least, was blessed with a mixture of arrogance and stupidity that caused him to blow the boilers almost immediately after taking command.
By bringing in hundreds of thugs, fixers and fascists to run the Government, he was able to crank almost every problem he touched into a mindbending crisis. ---------------------------- [Hunter Thompson]
--------------------------- [Gatsby excerpt] ------------------------- ...I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before.
"You live in West Egg," she remarked contemptuously. "I know somebody there."
"I don't know a single -- --"
"You must know Gatsby."
"Gatsby?" demanded Daisy. "What Gatsby?"
Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.
Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy-colored porch open toward the sunset where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.
"Why candles?" objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. "In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year."
She looked at us all radiantly. "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it." ---------------------- [Fitzgerald]
_____________________________________
{The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (Gonzo Papers, Volume 1). Hunter S. Thompson. Simon & Schuster, 1979.}
{The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.}
-30-
---------------------- [The Great Gatsby, excerpt] -----------------------------------------------------
Tom Buchanan, who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder.
"What you doing, Nick?"
"I'm a bond man."
"Who with?"
I told him.
"Never heard of them," he remarked decisively.
This annoyed me.
"You will," I answered shortly. "You will if you stay in the East."
"Oh, I'll stay in the East, don't you worry," he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. "I'd be a God damned fool to live anywhere else."
At this point Miss Baker said: "Absolutely!" with such suddenness that I started -- it was the first word she uttered since I came into the room. Evidently it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.
"I'm stiff," she complained, "I've been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember."
"Don't look at me," Daisy retorted, "I've been trying to get you to New York all afternoon."
"No, thanks," said Miss Baker to the four cocktails just in from the pantry, "I'm absolutely in training."
Her host looked at her incredulously.
"You are!" He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass. "How you ever get anything done is beyond me."
I looked at Miss Baker, wondering what it was she "got done." I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.
Her gray sun-strained eyes looked back at me with
polite reciprocal curiosity
out of a
wan,
charming,
discontented
face.
It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before. ------------------------------ [end, excerpt]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In the UK newspaper The Guardian (online), I read an article titled, "What makes The Great Gatsby great?" -- written by Sarah Churchwell, published 'Fri 3 May 2013' probably in relation to the Leonardo DiCaprio film that was coming out at that time.
One Reader Comment under the article said instead of seeing the movie, a person would be --
"Better to fly to NY and see the 6 hour play which reads the entire book."
Another Reader Comment said --
"Read somewhere that Hunter S 'Gonzo' Thompson typed up the Great Gatsby in its entirety. Apparently he wanted to know how it felt to write like Fitzgerald."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Boy, I can identify with that! ...
___________________________
{The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1925.}
-30-
"I ain't afraid of cops. I was brought up to spit whenever I saw one."
In the Otto Preminger movie Laura, this abrupt announcement is made not as an aside in conversation with a friend, but directly to an officer of the law.
And it's made not by some cigar-smoking tough guy in a fedora, but by a small Irish maid portrayed by actress Dorothy Adams (born in North Dakota), who "owns the room" each time she enters one.
_________________________________
_______________________________
I was trying to think how I would describe why I like this film. Then, -- read this on the AMC Filmsite:
"Laura is one of the most stylish, elegant, moody, and witty classic film noirs ever made...."
Oh -- kay -- right, what -- uhm -- What they said!"
__________________________
Noir was on my mind for a couple of other reasons besides Laura:
All The President's Men (the movie)
and
The Great Gatsby (the book).
__________________________________
Some scholars and readers are saying that The Great Gatsby (book) is noir, which is a concept that's got me fascinated.
And -- Netflix thinks the film adaptation of All The President's Men is noir. (?!!) -- they list it underneath a noir heading, along with, I think, The Third Man.
__________________________________
---------------------------- [The Great Gatsby] ------------------- The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house.
A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling -- and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.
They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.
_________________________________
{The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald}
-30-
"For too many years the political class and elite, when they sense disgruntlement in the masses, blame the latest migrants for whatever the issue is."
~ Reader Comment in The Guardian
_________________________________________
headline:
Climate protests / Extinction Rebellion reports influx of support as protests continue
The Guardian
today
__________________________________________
----------------- [excerpt, The Great Gatsby] ---------------------------------------- And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on.
When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.
Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction -- Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.
If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.
This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the 'creative temperament' -- it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.
No -- Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
---------------------------------------------
___________________________
{The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Scribner's, 1925.}
-30-
"I have a responsibility to do what's best for the world and not what is most popular"
is a statement made this week by --
a) Vladimir Putin
b) Donald Trump
c) Beyoncé Knowles Carter
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You don't know me but I'm your brother
I was raised here in this living hell
You don't know my kind in your world
Fairly soon, the time will tell
You, telling me the things
You're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like
What I think I see
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Taking it to the streets)
Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty's despair
Oh -- you -- telling me the things
You're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like
What I think I see
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the -- )
Oh -- you -- telling me the things
You're gonna do for me
I ain't blind and I don't like
What I think I see
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Taking it to the streets)
Yeah, yeah
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the streets)
Before it steps farther
(Taking it to the streets)
Oh, Lord
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it, taking it
(Taking it to the streets)
Hey, yeah ha --
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it to the streets
(Taking it to the streets)
No more need for running
(Taking it to the streets)
No more need for hiding
(Taking it to the streets)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah
(Taking it to the streets)
No more
(Taking it to the streets)
Yeah, yeah
(Taking it to the streets)
Taking it, taking it
(Taking it to the streets)...
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{"Takin' It to the Streets" -- The Doobie Brothers -- written by Michael McDonald - April 1976, released.
Album: Takin' It to the Streets, Warner Bros. -- producer, Ted Templeman}
-30-
headline
Extinction Rebellion set to disrupt London rail and tube lines
sub-head
Climate protesters warn they will escalate action after blockading capital's landmarks
______________________
Climate change protesters, who police say have caused "serious disruption" affecting half a million people in London over the past two days, have said they are planning to escalate their protests to disrupt rail and tube lines.
Thousands of people have taken part in the civil disobedience protests, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis.
Now the activist group Extinction Rebellion says it is planning to step up its action to disrupt rail and tube lines in London.
A spokesman said:
"People really don't want to do this but the inaction of the government in the face of this emergency leaves us little choice."
On Tuesday, four sites -- Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus -- remained under the control of protesters, causing delays and diversions in the surrounding areas....
...The events in London were part of an international "climate rebellion" organised by Extinction Rebellion. Organisers said demonstrations had taken place or were planned in
80 cities across 33 countries -- from India to Australia, and around Europe and the US....
...At about 5:30 p.m., protesters crossed Princes Street, the Scottish capital's busiest shopping thoroughfare, and unfurled banners. Most were immediately carried off the road by police and six people were arrested.
Attending her first protest, Christine Patel, 69, said: "Usually I sit at home thinking: 'What can one person do?' But gathering together with other people changes that. We have to start thinking that we are a family."
The biggest protests have been in London, with
thousands of parents and their children joining scientists, teachers and environmentalists to demand urgent action
in the face of "possible human extinction"....
...One of those facing arrest was Angie Zealter, 67, from Knighton in Wales. "It will take the police some time to clear all these people and more will come here to support us," she said. "But this is a very important moment in history --
it should have happened 50 years ago."...
...Some of those on the bridge had been locked or glued to a lorry parked across the carriageway since Monday night. One of those glued to the underside of the van, Ben Moss, 42, a company director from Bristol, said he had been there since midnight on Monday.
"It's drastic times and drastic times need drastic measures.
I am taking personal action and personal responsibility for the ecological and climate crisis,"
he said.
By about 5 p.m., the atmosphere at Waterloo Bridge had calmed after police stopped arresting people. A singer sang blues music from a stage.
On Tuesday evening police turned their attention away from Waterloo Bridge to Oxford Circus, where hundreds of people were dancing.
Officers circulated around the crowd in groups, informing people that if they stayed in that location they were at risk of arrest. The Guardian witnessed at least one person being carried away, while others left the crowd themselves after speaking to police.
"We are peaceful, what about you?"
protesters chanted as police made an arrest.
About two dozen people sat beside the stage, a pink boat, next to signs warning that they were glued on and could not be moved.
__________________________
Tue 16 Apr 2019
written by Matthew Taylor, Damien Gayle and Libby Brooks
The Guardian
Oh, I shall not, I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
I'm on my way to Heaven, I shall not be moved
On my way to Heaven, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
Oh, I shall not, I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
Oh preacher, I shall not be moved
Oh preacher, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
I'm sanctified and holy, I shall not be moved
Sanctified and holy, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
Oh I -- I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree, planted by the water
I shall not be moved
___________________________
"I Shall Not Be Moved"
Mississippi John Hurt
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