Film noir is about crime, desperation, cynicism, and cigarettes. Throw in some moody lighting and nocturnal city scapes and you've got some highly evocative cinema.
Although let's be honest, it's really about the high-contrast black and white film.
Out of the Past, via Film Noir
Riddled with corrupt heroes and hard-bitten dialogue, film noirs appeal to the darker side, the gritty urban environment, and the pervasive sense of gloom that sometimes seems to creep into real life a little too much.
It's grungy vintage with plenty of fedoras and trench coats, pistols and betrayal. Good fun for a dark night's viewing.
The Big Combo
The characters are morally ambiguous and mostly miserable, the settings are enough to send anyone into depression. It's the land of black coffee, lamp posts, and disturbing shadows.
The Third Man is probably one of my favorites that I've seen in a long time. I particularly liked the ending--the hero, after he's just killed his best friend, stands at the end of the long entrace into the cemetery. He lights up a cigarette as his romantic interest slowly walks up. It's quiet, it's stark, he's just standing there waiting to say all the things he's felt during the movie, everything he wants to say to this girl who's been through hell with him. She walks up. She doesn't look at him. She keeps walking. He keeps smoking his cigarette. I'm a sucker for downer endings.
The Third Man
There's also quite a cool photoshoot by Vogue in a film noir style.
via Vogue
Very sleek. All of this was, in fact, brought about because of my frenzied but ultimate fruitless search for an independent movie that just came out, called The Perfect Sleep. Still can't get my hands on it, but it looks great and I'll be keeping my eyes open for a chance to watch it. Any movie that includes the line, "And now the blood spilled on this concrete must be getting lonely" is okay in my book.
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