Monday, December 14, 2015

Exactly what Is Noir/Neo Noir?

This is a question that continues to draw debate. In the recent TCM Summer Of Darkness, Noir was defined as all these, a Style, a Genre, a Series, a Movement. Here is my take.


"A thought to throw into the equation of what makes a Noir/Neo Noir is an individual internal factor. It's subjectivity. Noir is in all of us. Think of us all as having an internal tuning fork, these tuning forks are forged by our life experiences which are all unique. When we watch these films their degree of Noir-ness resonates with us differently, so we either "tune" to them or we don't. The amount of "tuning" (I'm appropriating this term from the Neo Noir Dark City (1998)) to certain films will vary between us all also."

-Ray Ottulich
Noirsville 



“Here’s what film noir is to me.  It’s a righteous, generically American film movement that went from 1945 to 1958 and exposited one great theme and that theme is you’re ****.  You have just met a woman, you’re inches away from the greatest sex of your life but within six weeks of meeting the woman you will be framed for a crime you did not commit and you’ll end up in the gas chamber and as they strap you in and you’re about to breath the cyanide fumes you’ll be grateful for the few weeks you had with her and grateful for your own death.”

-James Ellroy
Novelist, L.A. Confidential

So lets hear your thoughts?

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