At the Criterion blog, Farran Nehme Smith writes about noir, defining noir, and curating Criterion’s “Noir by Gaslight” series. “Recently on the Criterion Channel, I’ve been given the chance to program a collection of films that challenge and complicate the idea of what classic noir is. All are period […]
At Vulture, Matt Zoller Seitz interviews Carl Franklin “on how blues and noir shaped One Final Move, and the story behind that final shot. ” Read it here.
At the Criterion blog, Imogen Sara Smith writes about Noir Westerns. “Westerns cover a lot of territory. Dramatizing the most romantic of American myths, they also give form to the darkest inversions of those myths. The genre that celebrated rugged pioneer values and civilization’s conquest of the wilderness […]
The Library of America shares Dashiell Hammett’s short story, “The Main Death,” and adds some context. “On its surface, “The Main Death” seems to be a straightforward puzzle mystery: an abundance of seemingly contradictory clues perplex the cops and detectives (and the reader), the Continental Op hunts down […]
For this year’s Switcheroo Month, I decided to write about a lesser known film by one of the most reputable directors around—Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Set in then contemporary mid-Twentieth Century Japan, The Bad Sleep Well is the story of Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) seeking […]
The Gutter’s own Carol has some thoughts on Li Xiaofeng’s neo-noir, Back To The Wharf! She has additional thoughts on censorship and Chinese crime films. “Back To The Wharf is one of a wave of Chinese crime dramas in recent years. These films make up for the bloated, […]
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