Sunday, May 15, 2016

Film Noir……..Shiny suits, skinny ties and jazz.



I am obsessed with Film Noir. But then youse guys know that. I go off on tangents and get obsessed with subjects all the time. Starlets of the 1960’s. Hallmark TV. Sinead O’Conner. Trump. So I do a bunch of posts on the subject. Currently I am jonesing on Film Noir.

Film Noir has been defined as a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and menace. I think of it when I watch those late fifties early sixties TV shows that I love. Brooding protagonists in cheap shiny suits with skinny ties sitting in a club listing to jazz while drinking whiskey neat with a blowsy dame. Getting mixed up in some craziness with sinister overtones.


I sort of had a similar lifestyle back in the day in the early 1980’s. Now I didn't solve crimes or get involved in murders. Well except for the Chinese couple that owned Szechuan D’or. But I hung out at a couple of bars/clubs just about every day. When people were looking for me they would stop by the bar or call and leave a message. Many a late night listening to jazz with a drink chatting up women who reminded me of my elusive ideal Sheree North. I would work like a dog all day and then party all night. Get a late start and restart the game. It was Film Noir in a lot of ways. When you drink a lot and are around people who drink a lot you are around a lot of pessimism, fatalism and despair. There was sometimes an aura of menace but more one of impending doom. In the beginning of the night the alcohol made the atmosphere light and breezy and there was laughter and jokes and flirting. But as the night went on you would dive into despair and longing and misery. That your fellow patrons were happy to lay on you.

I would like to explore Film Noir in fiction. I tip a toe in it with some of my Mafia stories. To write it is different even if you are going for an almost cinematographic style in your prose. You know. Write something that reads like a movie. It is certainly not literary fiction that you would find in rags like the New Yorker. Just plain honest genre fiction. There is a place where Film Noir and “Hard Boiled” fiction sort of merge.  Writers like Robert B. Parker, James Ellroy, George Pelecanos, Loren Estelman and Michael Connelly sort of hit that sweet spot. In fact I think the “Harry Bosch” series on Amazon is really good Film Noir. Now it is not in black and white or set in the 1950’s but it has many of the elements. A brooding damaged protagonist who listens to jazz. With an air of menace and despair hanging over everything. It is very well done.

There are several different schools of Film Noir. There is the French of course. I bet you could write a really great story about the conflict from the original French and the Muslims that are destroying their country. Then there are the LA guys who trace their lineal descent from Hammet and Chandler. Of course I prefer the New York venue. Let’s take a couple of swings and see what happens

13 comments:

ampersand said...

Before everything got pretentious these movies were known as crime melodramas.

ricpic said...

If you want to get all sociological the heyday of Film Noir was the late forties. Why then? Probably the inevitable letdown that came with the end of WW II. Yes, millions came home raring to go and did go -- Levittown, the exploding suburbs, making babies. Film Noir was the expression of the anxiety of the others...the anxious outsiders. The ones who needed the "ideal" social arrangements that the war promised to deliver. but of course couldn't deliver. It shouldn't be a surprise that many of the writers of those Noirs were communists and many of their directors were European transplants. After all, dread is a very unAmerican expression and the Noirs were drenched in dread. For example, Burt Lancaster, that quintessential American, played very much against type in Criss Cross, a Noir drenched in doom and dread. Even the look of the Noirs, strong black and white contrasts intermixed with scenes drowned in shadow, came directly out of German Expressionism. Robert Mitchum, that born outsider, fit well in several forgettable Noirs. Double Indemnity was probably the greatest of the Noirs, down, straight down from first reel to last.

The Dude said...

Well bust my cuckoo clock and hand me a zither - film noir, you say? Touch of Evil, Kiss Me Deadly, Key Largo - guess I have seen a few of those myself.

Trooper York said...

The thing about movies today is that there are very few actors who could carry a movie like that. Mitchum. Lancaster. Kirk Douglas. Lee Marvin. Robert Ryan. Even Fred Macmurray or Gig Young.

Who are they going to use? Seth Rogan? Tom Cruise?

There is a reason that every other action movie stars 60year old Liam Neeson.

The Dude said...

Fred Gwynne, too! How will they ever remake My Freakin' Cousin Freakin' Vinnie?

chickelit said...

I thought Richard Roundtree epitomized acting in "Film Noir"?

chickelit said...

For example, Burt Lancaster, that quintessential American, played very much against type in Criss Cross, a Noir drenched in doom and dread.

Criss Cross makes a good zin.

The Dude said...

Shut your mouth!

Trooper York said...

Hey Fred Gwynne had an important place in the cinema. His portrayal of a physically imposing burly huge but kind and gentle soul was always masterful. His Judge in "My Cousin Vinny" was just one of them. He was sublime in the "Munsters" and superb in "Car 54." He was wonderful in
"Pet Sementary" and the voice of reason in "Fatal Attraction." Of course I thought his best most nuanced performance was in "The Cotton Club" where he played Owney Madden's partner in crime Frenchy Demange.

Don't dis Fred!

The Dude said...

Far be it from me to ever speak ill of the gifted Mr. Gwynne. Even his Alabama accent passed muster - trust me, that's a rare thing.

Classic!

Just because it's funny.

Third Coast said...

One of my all time film noir favorites is Asphalt Jungle. Sterling Hayden's real life bio could've been made into a film noir movie.

virgil xenophon said...

@Third Coast/

If you're a Stirling Hayden an you should read his autobiographical work "Wanderer" about an around-the-world cruise he took his kids on in spite of a court order from his wife in a divorce proceeding. Hayden was quite a sailor. He once sailed a Barkentine (astonishingly almost single-handedly iirc) from the east coast to Cali around Cape Horn

Third Coast said...

@Virgil Xenophon
Thanks for the recommendation. The reviews on Amazon are excellent.