"Notes on Film Noir", by Paul Schrader, 1971.

The article is an interesting read.

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Just a note that in my browser the formatting of the text in the article was very annoying and unenjoyable to read.
Coping the text and pasting into a standard WordPad document fixed the formatting as it was intended and thus much easier to read.
In case anyone else had the same issue.

Example.

As per the web formatting on my browser (Firefox):
In 1946 French critics, seeing the American films they had missed during the war, noticed the new mood of cynicism, p
essimism and darkness which had crept into the American cinema. The darkening stain was most evident in routine cri
me thrillers, but was also apparent in prestigious melodramas.
Click to expand...


With text copied and pasted into a WordPad document = fixed:
In 1946 French critics, seeing the American films they had missed during the war, noticed the
new mood of cynicism, pessimism and darkness which had crept into the American cinema.
The darkening stain was most evident in routine crime thrillers, but was also apparent in prestigious melodramas.
Click to expand...

Much better.
 
I also found the formatting to wrap weirdly, it's not just you Gord. But it was interesting enough to read it anyway.
 
I honestly never thought of The Maltese Falcon as Noir before but maybe it's the way I remember it. I have it here so maybe that's one I should revisit this weekend.

(Eggborn: It reads great when repasted into WordPad.)
 
Gillvane said:
I like Noir, but I also like color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Color_film_noir
Click to expand...

Yeah, the use of color is a point of contention in the discussion of Film Noir. I think that folks that take Schrader's point of view that theme and tone are tied to style would dispute that. I think that the definition of Noir is broad enough (Or ambiguous enough) to include those great color films.

If you get a chance, compare the different versions of the movie "The Killers".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669/?ref_=sr_1


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058262/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2


Criterion has a two disc set with them both on it (Available from Netflix DVD). I am a much bigger fan of the Robert Siodmak directed 1946 version, but the Don Siegel directed 1964 version is also very cool.

One of my favorite color Noir films, made outside the "Classic" period, is the John Boorman directed "Point Blank", with Lee Marvin.


I have read that Walter Hill "...read Alexander Jacobs' screenplay for the John Boorman film Point Blank and considered it a "revelation" in terms of style and format.[3] He decided to tailor his own scripts in that manner, as he described it, "extremely spare, almost Haiku style. Both stage directions and dialogue." I have been looking for a copy of that screenplay but can not find it. I would love to read it.

While I am most definitely a huge fan of the films from the "Classical" Film Noir Period, I do think that Noir has evolved and that the latter "Neo-Noir" films are every bit as worthy of recognition and appreciation as those from the classical period. As to style, I also love the German expressionistic chiaroscuro of the classic Films Noir but I think that the evolution of the style, especially the existential bent that was applied in the late '60's and early '70's is just as powerful. I think that we are also seeing an evolution of the style now. I think that this style evolution is most evident with the look of the TV series "Breaking Bad", which I consider as Film Noir. I have really been impressed by the look of that show, crafted by Michael Slovis ASC and think that it may be ushering in a new style that I have dubbed, "Post Modern Noir". Now Slovis did not invent the characteristic stylized camera angles, the return of hard lighting and the creative use of color (Which I think is comparable to the use of shadow and negative space in Classic Noir), but he did do it in an highly popular TV show and I think will have an impact on the look of like themed content for some time to come. While I have not seen the film yet, I think that the movie "Spring Breakers", out now, may be a continuation of this "Post Modern Noir" style.

 
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