Out of the Past
After „Angel Face“, Gorp said that we should watch „Out of the Past“. How right he was; it was only after seeing the film that I got to know that „Out of the Past“ is a highly acclaimed example of a film noir. It got quite a prominent mention both on the 250 film noirs list on They’re shooting pictures, aren’t they? and on the Wikipedia article for film noir. I can perfectly see why: „Out of the Past“ has nearly every single film noir cliché element in it: A femme fatale, a nice woman, a detective in a beige trench coat, death and revolvers, plus it’s shot in black and white (well, Wikipedia says that this is a requisite to qualify as noir).
By the way, I have never watched „The Maltese Falcon“, I just happen to have read the book, because it was a gift. In contrast to „Angel Face“, „The Maltese Falcon“ seems to be another rather generic example of a film noir.
Recently, when I have been talking about how I tend to dislike western movies, I realized that there also is no good reason why I like film noirs. They are not much more suspenseful, smart, sexy or enjoyable by default, the only good reason that comes to mind is that I like the visual style of film noirs. Apart from that, the genre is just as good as the other, it seems. I am definitely willing to give western movies another chance, although I have no idea what I should start with.
Now, enough genre talking, back to the film itself: Ultimately, the story carries a little less depth than „Angel Face“ in my opinion. But it’s not the story, it’s more the style and the suspense that makes this movie so outstanding and maybe also deserved more acclaimed than „Angel Face“. Our protagonist here is quite capable and rather witty („You don’t get a vaccination for Florida, but you do for Mexico“) and thus much more likeable and manly than the one in „Angel Face“ who actually doesn’t do much, the femme fatale is even more evil since she kills people purely for her own financial profit and finally the story is told in such a suspenseful, complex way that I have found it thrilling throughout the whole film. I also liked the ending shot and the mute boy was probably my favorite character, heh.
Perhaps I must admit that I have found the female protagonist of „Angel Face“ more attractive. She was even more of a center figure in the film and you could sense her charm and evilness in the air; it was a little less so for this film, which had less atmosphere but much more action. Finally, I suppose that „Out of the Past“ is the perfect beginner’s film noir; if you don’t like this one, you probably won’t like any of them.
” I am definitely willing to give western movies another chance, although I have no idea what I should start with.”
omg I never thought you’d say that! :tassilo:
I think the best would be to start with “Rio Bravo”, because that would be the most likely pick to undermine the understandable scepticism regarding the Western as an off-puttingly macho genre (and one devoid of humor). IMO it’s also one of the great films about friendship. Red River is wonderful, especially the performances.
the thing is, they are actually extremely diverse films that often build an entire storyline around a particular characteristic trait of the protagonist – with a sharp director like Howard Hawks or Anthony Mann, these westerns can be astonishingly subtle and psychologically intense. Jacques Tourneur has made some really intriguing ones…with someone like John Ford I find it harder to recommend anything in particular (he has made so damn many!) so perhaps you want to start with his most famous one, The Searchers, and just go from there if you enjoyed it.
From what I can see in „Out of the Past“, Jacques Tourneur definitely is a great director, and perhaps it really would be a great idea to start with him. I have noted in my overly long watchlist (did you know that my watchlist has always been double as long as my
Haha, but why did you think I would never say that? Although my only encounters with Western are „Tampopo“ and the stories from the Lustige Taschenbücher I have read in my childhood, I think that from a very objective standpoint, Western have quite a high potential to please me: They are character-driven and suspenseful, and they are not overly artistic but mostly movies that their viewers find enjoyable. Furthermore, they are supposed to be less mindless than your average action flick. So yeah, I would most likely dislike the macho-ness (I can only accept it when it’s so exaggerated that it’s ironic), but then again, it’s not like film noirs are all that exempt from a somewhat problematic depiction of women. Very objective, femme fatales are the one concept you cannot fight against as a woman at all: You are absolutely going to lose to them in the world of film noir and gender inequality, but on the other hand, you would not want to be a femme fatale or any type of wild woman if your aim is to bind a man to yourself by making him a happy person. Hmm…