Strongly influenced by domestic hard-boiled novels of the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most American film genres, film noir, had its boom time in the 1940s. Generally believed to have mostly vanished from studios and theaters by the late 1950s, the genre briefly resurfaces every few years in the so-called “neo noirs” of various […]
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Tag: Out of the Past
The Western Films of Robert Mitchum. Hollywood’s Cowboy Rebel by Gene Freese (2020)
Maybe one of the reasons why actor Robert Mitchum looked so comfortable and at home in western movies, was the fact that he bred horses, preferred the casual cowboy outfit off the film set, and seemingly simply played himself, whenever he took the part of the cowboy, the Sheriff, the outlaw or the weather-beaten stranger […]
Film Noir Style: The Killer 1940s by Kimberly Truhler (2020)
What may come to mind first whenever the visual aspects of the genre film noir are discussed, may be the dark atmosphere, the sharp contrast of light and shadow, and people in desperate situations whose actions echoed brilliantly the many original hard-boiled scripts and novel adaptations usually associated with the stlye. One aspect halfway neglected, […]
Out of the Past: Lacan and Film Noir by Ben Tyrer (2016)
There is little doubt today, that film noir research and the spread and development of psychoanalysis have boosted academic Film Studies to a large extend; for a short period in the early 1970s, the psychoanalytical approach to Film Studies even seemed to be the only method that brought results. For film and psychoanalysis had a […]
Mitchum, Mexico and the Good Neighbours Era by Liam White (2014)
Luckily, there is a great number of famous noir films, and many good actors that left their mark on the whole genre. Nevertheless, author White approaches those films mainly as plain detective movies and drama, very much the way they were labeled when they came out. In his opinion there are certain features that can […]
Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy by Robert B. Pippin (2012)
Whenever you hear a character in the next film noir you are watching say something that sounds a lot like sarcasm, heavy irony or simply like the words of a doomed man… you may have caught one of the moments Professor Pippin uses to build a whole theory. Build it around the attitude, not the […]
In Lonely Places. Film Noir Beyond the City by Imogen Sara Smith (2011)
There seem to be specific instances that make a particular type of movie clearly identifiable as belonging to a certain group. For example, we like to have deserts, gunfights and horses if we watch a western movie, and we may look out for earrings, battleships, sabers and the Jolly Roger when we watch a pirates […]