With that said, I really am enjoying this class. Exploring film noir as a genre/style/movement (there's a big debate about which it is, I say a little of all three) has been very interesting. Learning about what was going on in the world to bring about darker, generally more realistic, films and seeing all of the storytelling and visual tropes like femme fatales and heightened shadows. Watching so many films noir (yeah, I thought that was a weird plural but apparently correct) in a row has highlighted some major themes I've seen throughout many of the movies.Visually, mirrors, shadows & fog or rain recur but not merely for the aesthetic look. Symbolically mirrors and shadows represent duality of characters like Brian Donlevy's Paul in The Glass Key claiming not to have been involved in a death that he actually was involved in all whilst getting ready in a mirror or Clifton Webb's Lydecker in Laura pretending to leave Laura's apartment with his shadow high on the stairs' wall as he decides to stay and finish what he started. Fog and rain represent a literal and figurative haziness in the story like the rain storm in The Big Sleep that precedes Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe in his discovery of his employer's daughter in a compromising position. These symbols of duplicity and murkiness fit perfectly with the subject matter of the films such as murder mysteries, gangster films and psychological thrillers. Themes of fate and the dangers of hubris also abound. Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour in particular deals with the idea that some are just fated to a bad end though I would argue that often times the characters who think they are victims of fate actually bring their doomed end upon themselves. Thus bringing us to hubris. Noir seems to have countless characters who in a way seal their fate with their own self destructiveness, blind to their hubris and greed, from the couple on a crime spree in Gun Crazy to the despicable Veda in Mildred Pierce.
Much as I'm enjoying most of the movies I've watched so far for the course including some classics I'd had on my list for a long time (M, The Maltese Falcon, The Killers) and some I hadn't heard of before (Gun Crazy, Deadline at Dawn) I do sometimes find the strictures of the Code frustrating. I enjoy my darkness with a little ambiguity so I'm glad each day of the Summer of Darkness line up on TCM ends with a neo-noir where every misdeed of a character doesn't have to be punished and people cuss and kiss for more than 3 seconds like they do in the real world. One of my favorite movies of 2014 was Nightcrawler which firmly falls into the neo-noir wheel house with it's jaded look at the state of TV news and pitch black portrayal of humanity. The scene where Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom enters the house of the murdered family and we follow his camera light up the steps and throughout the house is a stunning use of light and could go toe to toe with any of the cinematography in a classic noir. Nightcrawler is currently streaming on Netflix and I cannot recommend it enough. A dark but brilliant film.
To take a break from noir in June I went to see a few films in the theatre: Woman in Gold, Jurassic World and Spy. When Woman in Gold showed up at the local dollar theatre I texted my best friend describing the premise of the movie and who starred in it. Her response, "You had me at Helen Mirren." We both have a deep unabiding love for older British actors and actresses (Michael Caine, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith) and I've always been fascinated by stories dealing with WWII so Woman in Gold was completely up my alley. It's not the sort of movie that will win any awards or become a classic but I enjoyed it. I know a movie featuring Nazis may seem like an odd choice to take a break from the darkness of noir but Woman in Gold was hopeful especially with it's based on a true story premise. It's nice to know that in real life a woman was able to fight and get family heirlooms returned to her that were stolen by the Nazis. The theme throughout the film of not letting Austria shy away from it's darker past was also particularly poignant considering the tumult going on in this country right now. We so often try and hide or forget the darker side of our past but it's always better to face it, admit the mistakes and try to ramify the situation.
I went to see Jurassic World with most of my immediate family (of which half were wearing Jurassic Park shirts and dinosaur hats) for the first IMAX showing opening night and I loved it. It's not as good as the original but was much more in the spirit than The Lost World or Jurassic Park III, not to mention better than the previous sequels. Now, Jurassic World is not without faults; there's not a lot of character development, there are made up dinosaurs and the now infamous scene of Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire running from a T-Rex in heels, but WHO CARES? I didn't go into Jurassic World thinking it would be the next Oscar winner or even the best movie in the franchise. I went to see dinosaurs reek havoc and to bear witness to Chris Pratt as the Raptor King. And boy did the movie deliver! Plus there were the added comedic bits featuring Jake Johnson and Lauren Lapkus as control room employees, that I've heard some people complain about, however, I thought their scenes were fun. Overall, the movie gave me the feeling I had as kid when I would see a big action adventure and would get completely lost in it's world for a couple hours.
I've adored Melissa McCarthy since she was Sookie St. James on Gilmore Girls and have loved seeing her career explode after her excellent performance in Bridesmaids. While not all of her post Bridesmaids movies have been stellar (feel free to skip Identity Thief) there have been some gems (The Heat, St. Vincent). Spy, though, highlighted Melissa McCarthy's comedic genius better than any of her previous film ventures and it was so much more than just a vehicle for her. Spy was the best comedy I've seen in the theatre for years. Paul Feig's direction was superb and he's quickly becoming my favorite comedy director. Sometimes "action comedies" get hokey in the action sequences or lose out on the comedy during the action but not with Spy. Feig presented the perfect balance between comedy and action. I can't wait to see his take on Ghostbusters next year. The biggest surprise of the film though, was Jason Statham. I had no idea he could be so funny and my husband and I couldn't stop quoting his lines on the way home.
To close out I'm going to do something a little different. Leave a list of the films noir and others I've watched this summer with a "grade" as requested by Paul (@sdterp on Twitter). So until next time here are some movies (in order that I watched them) and how I'd grade them.
Film Noir
- M (1931) A+
- La Bete Humaine (1938) B-
- The Letter (1940) B
- Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) C
- High Sierra (1941) A-
- The Maltese Falcon (1941) A
- Journey Into Fear (1942) B
- Johnny Eager (1942) C
- Nora Prentiss (1947) B-
- Woman on the Run (1950) B
- Dark Passage (1947) B+
- Born to Kill (1947) B+
- L.A. Confidential (1997) A
- The Glass Key (1942) B-
- Laura (1944) A-
- Ministry of Fear (1944) B
- Murder, My Sweet (1944) A-
- Danger Signal (1945) C+
- Detour (1945) B-
- Mildred Pierce (1945) A
- Deadline at Dawn (1946) B+
- Johnny Angel (1946) C-
- The Gangster (1947) D+
- Gun Crazy (1950) A
- Tomorrow is Another Day (1951) B-
- Nightmare Alley (1947) B-
- Night Moves (1975) B
- Cornered (1945) B-
- Crack-Up (1946) B-
- Gilda (1946) A-
- The Big Sleep (1946) A
- The Killers (1946) A
- Nobody Lives Forever (1946) B-
- Nocturne (1946) C+
- Crossfire (1947) B+
- Hollow Triumph (1948) B
- Mystery Street (1950) B
- Border Incident (1949) B
- The People Against O'Hara (1951) C+
- Get Carter (1971) A-
- The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) B
- They Won't Believe Me (1947) B-
- The Woman on the Beach (1947) B
- The Woman in Gold (2015) B
- Jurassic World (2015) B+
- Spy (2015) A
