What kind of noir do you prefer?

[Midnight Palace]

I tend to lean towards the noirs that take place in the city and involve the usual shady characters. I've yet to see "The Lady from Shanghai", simply because I have such a hard time envisioning the setting as "noir". I could be wrong and will still give it a shot. I also seem to like the B-noirs and those with lesser-known actors and actresses. Don't get me wrong, noir's familiar faces like Mitchum are great, but there's something more gritty about the unknowns. They seem more like regular people, if that makes sense.

What kind of noir do you guys like?

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Of course I love any Noir that has great dialogue, cinematography, and acting, but the ones that draw me in the most are the ones with actual location filming. Seeing old Los Angeles or NYC and being able to see downtowns as they once were and long since defunct areas is as close to jumping into a time machine and being there.

Dead Reckoning (1947) comes to mind, as does Armored Car Robbery (1950) I'll provide a list of such films in a post later on.

 

[Midnight Palace]

I love seeing the old locations too. But I also enjoy the "fake-looking" Dick Tracy-esque skyscrapers often seen in the far distance

 

[jake_fink]

Stop everything. Don't write another word about film noir until you've seen Lady from Shanghai. The phrase "a little target practice" will never sound the same again. (But then how often does a fella get to use the phrase "a little target practice"?)

The Hitch Hiker is a great noir and takes place largely out in the desert on and off the highway.

 

[dhermann1]

"Lady from Shanghai" is a cool flick. But my maybe favorite is "Asphalt Jungle". I love the characters and the irony (Louis Calhern and Marilyn Monroe, what a combo!). Noir needs irony.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I actually dislike The Asphalt Jungle (minus Monroe). I also don't care much for The Killing, The Killers and most "heist" noirs.

I dislike The Lady From Shanghai, too, but I'm a strange guy who hasn't liked Orson Welles in anything except for Touch of Evil.

I like a lot relationship noirs with the love/hate stories. The classics. Out of the Past, Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd, Gilda, Detour etc. But it ain't my favorite kind.

I love PI flicks. Murder, My Sweet. Kiss Me Deadly. Maltese Falcon. But they are kind of one-dimensional, I think, like a summer movie.

My all time, favorite noirs, however, are a little off the radar simply because they are hybrids. Cross-genre. I love noir westerns like Johnny Guitar and High Noon and I LOVE noir horror like Cat People and Laura and I LOOOOVVVEEE postmodernist melodrama noirs like The Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor. So there you have it.

 

[Naphtali]

I am not trying to be contrary. I have not cared for "film noir" in the past. I'm interested in finding out something about the genre from people who do.

Here's a frame of reference for my query. . . . I don't consider "The Maltese Falcon" to be "noir." I do consider "Chinatown" to be so, and I enjoy it every few years. The 1964 version of "The Killers" -- dunno. "The Wild Bunch" is to me. I loathed it as exceptionally well-crafted and pointless violence.
***
Must "noir" be in the past? If not, please identify some that are approximately current.

Is part of the definition of "noir" that the endings must be among the following: good guys lose; good guys don't win; everybody loses; no information about winners and losers?

Is part of the definition of "noir" that whimsy and humor be excised?

 

[Feraud]

I like Noir in whatever style story it shows up in. Detective stories, heist flicks, love triangles, etc.

Is part of the definition of "noir" that whimsy and humor be excised?

Nope. Check out The Big Lewbowski.

 

[BeBopBaby]

I like Noir in whatever style story it shows up in. Detective stories, heist flicks, love triangles, etc.


Nope. Check out The Big Lewbowski.

Great example - it's like a Raymond Chandler novel set to bowling. lol Big Lebowski is a movie that I didn't care for when I saw it at first, but now I love it. For me, it's the kind of movie that gets better with age and after I had a chance to reflect about it. Like O' Brother Where Art Thou, it's just so brilliant on so many different levels, I think some of the levels need some time to sink in.

 

[Feraud]

The Coen bros. are brilliant filmmakers.

 

[Starius]

Anyone ever see Fritz Lang's 1944 movie Ministry of Fear?
Not a exceptional movie, it does have some pacing flaws, but I rather enjoyed it. Its kind of a mysterious quirky noir spy movie.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Noir, I would say, is pretty goofball hilarious more often than not. PI flicks especially are basically comedies.

Anyone see the movie Split Second? I couldn't stop laughing.

I think a lot of neo-noirs these days fail BECAUSE they take the genre too seriously. The Big Lebowski was great because it didn't.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I revived this thread because I didn't see the point in starting yet another film noir thread.

If you're interested in film noir as a reflection of American society in the 40s in 50s, check out this fascinating social analysis by Richard Schickel:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=269893

 

[Amy Jeanne]

but there's something more gritty about the unknowns. They seem more like regular people, if that makes sense.

Totally! I feel the same way when I'm watching old movies. "Unknowns" make for a great, cozy movie.

 

[vintage68]

Must "noir" be in the past? If not, please identify some that are approximately current.

Blade Runner is noir. Not current, but futuristic noir.

 

[Starius]

Blade Runner is noir. Not current, but futuristic noir.

There is an animated French movie called "Renaissance" that is futuristic noir as well.

 

[Fast]

Noir. What Noir?

The term noir, applied to cinema, came before television. Noir in film never went away. Pessimism, fatalism, and menace make noir noir. Sin City, Get Carter (the recent stallone, like it or not), Road to Perdition. I guess whan you get down to it a guy who'll dress up in a bulletproof bodysuit and drive an assault vehicle around town, psychopathacillay chasing down sociopaths is pretty noir (especially without the boy wonder).

If you figure in television, the sopranos and deadwood make the content grade, if not the theater grade.

Carpe Diem
Fast

 

[carter]

Originally posted by Naphtali
I do consider "Chinatown" to be so, and I enjoy it every few years

which, BTW, has a sequel, The Two Jakes, that may be better than the original. Then I'd toss in LA Confidential, Mulholland Falls, and The Departed. Thematically, I think they fit.
If we're discussing a specific period in time, the films called noir are all over the board. For instance, I don't find Call Northside 777 to be a particularly dark picture. For classic noir, I like dark, atmospheric films driven by suspense, tension, and characters in peril.

Then again, I also like the old Nancy Drew films with Bonita Granville. I watch thm with my daughter.