Noir is a pan generic dark story told in a stylistic way that triggers a vibe that you tune to, almost akin to a drug/alcohol high. You get a Noir buzz. But its a strange type of high that is actually topsy-turvy to a drug/alcohol high in that it works like this. For Noir neophytes they will only get that high from the hard boiled hardcore Noirs with Detectives, Femme Fatales, and murder. They are the Noir junkies, the mainliners. But with the more Noirs you get exposed to you'll find that there is an endless variety of stories that shuffle and spiral away on different tendrils that provide enough of the elements that make a film a Noir. Your personal life experiences will also inform your affinity to the types of stories that will tip Noir for you. So your tolerance level to Noir goes down, you don't need the hardboiled, hard core stories to get the fix and you recognize the noir in all the various tragedies and picaresque situations that plague the human condition. Noir expands out to an ill delineated, fuzzy "on the cusp of Noir" point where a film can tip either way for an individual. A good example of this effect is the the film Somebody Up There Likes Me that has a few very noir-ish sequences sprinkled through out its length. Its almost a Bio Noir but it turns into a love story with a happy ending.
Films Noir are recognized now as having a Yin and Yang. Originally the first studio bound films tended to be made on low budgets using expressionistic lighting and camera techniques to hide cheap sets and back-lots. These are the Yin (dark) Noir. Think Stranger On The Third Floor (1940), The Letter (1940), I wake Up Screaming (1941) Phantom Lady (1944).
Post war films using the lighter cameras developed for newsreel productions were able to make use of outdoor locations, not only real cites but now bleak deserts, and tropical locations were also the settings for these dark stories. The French coined these sun baked desert and tropical set Film Noir, Films Soleil. These are the Yang Noir. Think The Naked City (1948), Ace In The Hole (1951),The Scarf (1951), Hitch-Hiker (The) (1953), Highway Dragnet (1954).
During 1950s Hollywood was loosing their audiences to competition with TV. Previously the pool of dark themes and subject matter that Noir forged into stylish films, were held in check by a voluntary Motion Picture Production Code. Think of Hollywood productions under the Code as having a guardrail of violence on one side and a guardrail of sex and taboo subjects on the other. When the Big Studio motion picture companies began to get serious competition from television, they needed an edge to get butts out of the living rooms and into the theaters they began to no longer enforce the code and to explore more previous banned subject matter. The guardrails disappeared. Then independent producers in competition with the Hollywood Studios tried to out do them by being the Avant guard of exploiting the new freedoms. The legal challenges of, and ever changing benchmarks to the obscenity laws and the old taboo themes weakened the bulwarks of the pool and that arbitrary "dam" holding back all creativity burst out with predictable results.
So those Film Noir that went too far over the line depicting violence started getting classified as Horror, Thriller (even though they were just say, showing the effects of a gunshot wound, or dealing with weird serial killers, maniacs, and psychotics, etc.). Those that went too far depicting sexual, drug, torture, etc., situations were being lumped into or classed as various Exploitation flicks, (even though they are relatively tame comparably to today's films). The the noir-ish films that dealt with everything else, except Crime, concerning the human condition were labeled Dramas and Suspense. Those that tried new techniques, lenses, etc., were labeled Experimental.
"FILM NOIR HAD AN INEVITABLE TRAJECTORY…
THE ECCENTRIC & OFTEN GUTSY STYLE OF FILM NOIR HAD NO WHERE ELSE TO GO… BUT TO REACH FOR EVEN MORE OFF-BEAT, DEVIANT– ENDLESSLY RISKY & TABOO ORIENTED SET OF NARRATIVES FOUND IN THE SUBVERSIVE AND EXPLOITATIVE CULT FILMS OF THE MID TO LATE 50s through the 60s and into the early 70s!" The Last Drive In (thelastdrivein.com)
Psycho (1960) (Hitchcock Noir) 10/10
Girl Of The Night (1960) (New York Call Girl Exploitation Noir) 7-8/10
Never let Go (1960) (Brit Crime Noir) 9/10
Murder, Inc. (1960) (Crime Noir) (7/10)
The Savage Eye (1960) (Los Angeles Experimental "Dramatized Documentary" Noir) 7/10
The 3rd Voice (1960) (Crime Noir) 6.5-7/10
Why Must I Die? (1960)(Bio Noir) 6/10
The Hypnotic Eye (1960) (The Psychotronic Femme Fatale - Thriller Noir) 7/10
The Rat Race (1960) Romantic Drama on The Cusp of Noir
La Vérité (1960) French Sex Kitten Noir 9/10
Women Are Like That (Comment qu'elle est?) (1960) The Fifth Lemmy Caution Flick 7/10
20,000 Eyes (1961) (Crime Noir) 6/10
Blast Of Silence (1961) (Crime Noir) 10/10
The Young Savages (1961) (Crime - East Harlem Gang Noir) 7/10
Night Tide (1961) (Beatnik Noir) 6/10
Underworld USA (1961) (Crime Noir) 7/10
Something Wild (1961) (New York Kitchen Sink Noir) 7-8/10
The 7th Commandment (1961) (Bizarre Evangelical Noir) 7/10
Living Venus (1961) (Girlie Mag Sexploitation Noir)
Victim (1961) Out of the Closet Brit Noir 8/10
All Fall Down (1962) (Dysfunctional Drama Noir) 7/10
Cape Fear (1962) (Southern Tail Fin Noir) 10/10
Experiment In Terror (1962) (San Francisco Tail Fin Noir) 9/10
Manchurian Candidate (The)(1962) (Cold War Spy Noir) 9/10
Private Property (1962) (Psychological California Smog Noir) 7/10
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) (New York-Boxing Noir) 10/10
Satan in High Heels (1962) (Early Sexploitation Noir) 6.5/10
Shock Corridor (1962) (Nutter Noir) 7/10
Stark Fear (1962) (Hokie Okie Oil Patch Noir) 6/10
The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) (Transitional SciFi Tail Fin Noir) 7/10
Eva (1962) A Man Obsessed
Le monte-charge aka Paris Pickup (1962) Parisian Christmas Noir 10/10
The Moving Finger (1963) (Beatnik Noir) 5-6/10
Le concerto de la peur (1963) (French Sexploitation Jazz Noir) 7/10
Twilight Of Honor (1963) (Crime Noir) 7/10
The Fat Black Pussycat (1963) (New York Beat/Quasi Transitional Noir) 5/10
Girl In Trouble (1963) New Orleans Tail Fin Sexploitation Noir 6.5-7/10
Scum Of The Earth! (1963) Early Exploitation Transition Noir 6/10
Chair de Poule aka Highway Pick-Up 1963 French "Spaghetti" Western Noir 9/10
The Atomic Brain aka Monstrosity (1963) Transitional Tail Fin Horror Noir 5.5/10
Magnate of Doom (1963) 6.5/10
The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) Transitional Brit Noir 7.5/10
Melodie en sous sol aka Any Number can Win (1963) Late French Classic Noir/Film Soleil 10/10
The Evil Eye aka (La ragazza che sapeva troppo )(1963) Roman Noir Italian Style 9/10
The Naked Kiss (1964) (Kinky Transitional Noir) 6/10
The Pawnbroker (1964) (Drama-Crime Noir) 10/10
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) (Black Comedy Noir) 10/10
Lorna (1964) (Sexploitation Noir) 6/10
Night Of The Iguana (1964) (Puerto Vallarta Film Soleil) 10/10
Nothing But a Man (1964) (Soul Noir) 7/10
The Glass Cage (1964) (Experimental Beat Noir) 7/10
The Killers (1964) (Crime Noir) 7/10
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) Dark Bizarro Comedy/Romance - Playboy Noir 8/10
The Thrill Killers (1964) (SoCal Film Soleil - Fringe Noir - Horror) 7/10
One Naked Night (1965) Woman's Noir Vérité 6.5/10
Strange Compulsion (1964) (Sexploitation Noir) 7/10
The Strangler (1964) (Serial Killer Noir) 7.5/10
Angel's Flight (1965) (Crime Noir) 7/10
Brainstorm (1965) (Psychological Noir) 7/10
Flesh and Lace (1965) (Kinky Dive Bar -Sexploitation Noir) 7/10
Hot Skin And Cold Cash (1965) (Hooker Sexploitation Noir) 6.5/10
Love Statue (The) (1965) (The Beats Turn On - Sexploitation Noir) 6/10
Mikey One (1965) Bosa Nova Jazz Noir Nightmare
Mirage (1965) (Hollywood Noir) 6/10
The Money Trap (1965) (The Last Classic Studio Noir?) 7/10
Once A Thief (1965) (San Francisco Beat/Transitional Noir) 7/10
Tell Me in the Sunlight (1965) (Sweet & Sleazy Drama Noir) 7/10
Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965) (Sleazy New York Noir Creepshow) 6/10
The Defilers (1965) (Sexploitation Roughie Noir)
Alphaville (1965) (French New Wave Twilight Zone Noir) 10/10
Sylvia (1965) Ascent From Hell Woman's Noir 6.5-7/10
Wild Seed (1965) (True Romance Noir) 7/10
Aroused (1966) (New York Pulp Sexploitation Roughie Noir) 8/10
Mister Buddwing (1966) (Amnesia Noir) 9/10
Seconds (1966) (Experiential Noir) 8/10
A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966) (Tease Sexploitation Roughie Noir) 5/10
Rage (1966) (Mexican Film Soleil Noir) 8/10
Harper (1966) (PI Noir) 7/10
The Velvet Trap (1966) (Campy Exploitation Noir) 5-6/10
Heat Of Madness (1966) (Exploitation Noir) 5.5-6/10
Take Me Naked (1966) (Beatnik/Art House/Sexploitation Noir) 4/10
Who's That Knocking At My Door (1967) (Transitional Drama Noir) 6.5-7/10
Spring Night Summer Night (1967) (Appalachian Noir) 8/10
In The Heat Of The Night (1967) (Crime Noir) 10/10
In Cold Blood (1967) (Crime / Bio Noir) 10/10
The Incident (1967) (Crime Noir) 9/10
Oddo (1967) (Sexploitation - Roughie Noir) 7/10
The Outsider (TV) (1967) (PI Noir) 8/10
Point Blank (1967) (Crime Noir) 7/10
Sweet Love, Bitter (1967) (Exploitation Noir) 7/10
The Sex Killer aka The Girl Killer (1967) (Sexploitation - Roughie Noir) 6-7/10
Shanty Tramp (1967) (Hilarious Hillbilly Hixploitation Noir) 5.5-6/10
Col cuore in gola, aka Deadly Sweet (1967) Psychedelic Swinging Sixties Noir 9/10
The Animal (1968) (Groovy L.A. Sexploitation Roughie) 6/10
All The Sins of Sodom (1968) (Café au lait Skin Trade Noir) 6-7/10
A Sweet Sickness (1968) (Sexploitation Cinema Verite Noir) 6/10
Boston Strangler (The) (1968) (Serial Killer Noir) 7-8/10
Bullitt (1968) (San Francisco Crime Noir Masterpiece) 10/10
Confessions of a Psycho Cat (1968) (Sexploitation Roughie) 5-6/10
Kitten In A Cage (1968) (Bean Town Sexploitation Noir) 5-6/10
No Way To Treat A Lady (1968) (Black Comedy Transitional Noir) 7.5/10
Some Like It Violent (1968) (Sexploitation - Roughie Noir) 6-7/10
The Pick-Up (1968) (Sexploitation - Roughie Noir) 8/10
The Detective (1968) New York Transitional Noir
Baby Love (1969) (Dysfunctional Family Brit Noir) 5.5-6/10
Career Bed (1969) (Sexploitation Noir) 5-6/10
Joë Caligula (1969) (French Yé-yé Sexploitation Roughie Noir) 6-7/10
Marlowe (1969) (PI Noir) 9/10
One On Top The Other (1969) (San Francisco Transitional Noir) 6.5-7/10
Shame, Shame, everybody knows your name (1969) (GoGo Dancer - Crime Noir) 8/10
The (Ultimate) Degenerate (1969) (On The Cusp Noir) 6/10
The Honeymoon Killers (1969) (Serial Killer Noir) 8/10
Venus in Furs (1969) Surreal Erotic Euro Trash Jazz - Cusp of Noir 6.5/10
Devil In The Flesh (1969) Italian Sexploitation Noir 7/10
The Minx (1969) Exploitation Noir Misfire 5/10
La Sirène du Mississipi aka Mississippi Mermaid (1969) French Film Soleil Noir 8/10
The Wild Pussycat aka Kafti ekdikisis (1969) Greek Sexploitation Noir 7/10
There are very likely a few more yet to be discovered, so readers, come up with some of your own suggestions.
Great post... There's a few definite standout movies on the list ; such as In Cold Blood, Point Blank, Blast of Silence, Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Killers
ReplyDeleteAnd a few that barely make it for the visuals, the 5-6/10 selections.
ReplyDelete