Alfred Hitchcock may be the most recognizable name in suspense, but there is one man who certainly gave Hitchcock a run for his money. Henri-Georges Clouzot was a master of suspense in his own right, and as a contemporary of Hitchcock, became a great rival and influence. His most frequent themes dealt with the moral […]
Touch Of Noir
Touch Of Noir: Poetic Realism Finds Film Noir In ‘La Nuit Du Carrefour’
Jean Renoir is often cited as one of the best filmmakers of all time. His most memorable films provided erudite commentary on modern society and influenced generations of filmmakers. His least well-known sound film is quite possibly La Nuit du carrefour, an adaptation of one of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels. Maigret, like Agatha Christie’s […]
Touch Of Noir: Neorealism Meets Noir In ‘The Naked City’
Jules Dassin (Night and the City, Rififi) has the odd distinction of being a director best known for films that were atypical of his particular aesthetic, which tended toward dramatic showmanship rather than gritty realism. While most of his films fall into the noir category, they are all surprisingly different in their approach. The Naked […]
Touch Of Noir: ‘Night And The City’, A Unique Hybrid Of Film Noir’s Cinematic Roots
A title can make a film, and Night and the City is the perfect title for a film noir. It is a distillation of two of the most iconic elements of film noir, a genre that flourishes in the encroaching darkness and the unfeeling industrialism of cityscapes. Those four words conjure the immoral horrors of […]
Touch Of Noir: The Doomed Everyman Of Marcel Carné’s ‘Le Jour Se Lève’
In some regards, film noir was a genre that came full circle, from the darkly brooding French films that inspired American tales of ill-fated, morally corrupt characters and back again to the French who coined the very term “film noir” and celebrated its impact as a genre. Late 1930s French cinema saw an influx of […]
