by Coota on Sun Dec 02, 2001 11:51 am
Well, Benny, let me give you a quick crash course in noir:<P>Film Noir normally revolves around a cynical, world weary character's search for truth. This could be a reporter(His Girl Friday), a Government agent(Notorious, Charade), a detective(The Maltese Falcon, the Big Sleep, Bladerunner), an ordinary cop(LA Confidential), a criminal(Nothing comes to mind at the moment), or an ordinary joe(Double Indemnity, Dark City, Memento, The Big Steal). It normally contains certain conventions(such as the hardboiled detective and the femme fatale), but does not neccessarily need them. It relies more on dialogue and strength of characters personalities than actual plot, because the plot is not the important part of the film(most film noirs have almost identical plots, but it doesn't matter). They're basically studies of human nature, and were heavily inspired by the German Expressionism movement. Female heroes are rare, but not unheard of(Notorious, His Girl Friday), though in most noir they are usually in the role of obstacle to the main character.<P>However, after the early fifties, film noir basically evaporated as a movement. It has since been combined with a multiplicity of other genres(most notably, sci-fi, with Bladerunner and Dark City and parody, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion) in order to give it new life. Neo-Film Noir(Seven, Memento, LA Confidential) is also revitalizing the movement, but has proven unpopular with the populace for the most part. <P>And if noir isn't your kind of thing, Burning Moon has action and governmental conspiracies too. "Last Man Standing" is the only film I've seen that combines the pure action and film noir genres, and it's a pretty craptacular movie, but I think that action and noir combinations *can* be good. <P>Any questions, etc, I'm the man to ask.
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There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.<P>The Future is Noir: <A HREF="http://burningmoon.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://burningmoon.keenspace.com/</A>