Hitchcock Breaks the Sound Barrier in Early Films 'Blackmail' and 'Murder!'
Hitchcock's motif of treacherous toying with filmgoers is intriguing to spot in his early silent-to-talkie thrillers, Blackmail and Murder!
11 Sep 2019
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Rivette's 'Paris nous appartient' Nods to McCarthyism, Communist Witch Hunts, and Cold War Paranoia in the USA
Jacques Rivette's first French New Wave film, Paris nous appartient, is infused with the look and feel of Hollywood's more paranoid, conspiratorial and apocalyptic films noir.
01 Mar 2019
Film Noir Comes with a Hint of Hitchcock in 'The Man Who Cheated Himself'
This professional seen-it-all flatfoot believes he can orchestrate his way out of situations where a thousand fools have floundered.
01 Oct 2018
The Erotic Tease in 'Tiger by the Tail' Turns into an Explosion of Fisticuffs
Whenever this movie threatens to get sexy or implies nudity, the story hastily goes back to two-fisted action.
02 Aug 2018
'Le Corbeau' at the Film Forum (trailer) (premiere)
Why was Henri-Georges Clouzot's film noir Le Corbeau banned by the French film industry?
26 Mar 2018
Jean-Pierre Melville’s 'Le Samouraï' Plays with the Perils of the Loner
Under the lens of cultural and historical context, as well as understanding the reflective nature of popular culture, it's hard not to read this film as a cautionary tale about the limitations of isolationism.
13 Dec 2017
Smudge and Jury: The Punk-Noir Pulp of 'I, The Jury'
With all the roughneck charm of a '40s-era pulp novel and much style to spare, I, The Jury is a good, popcorn-filling yarn.
27 Apr 2017
'Tharlo' Is a Slow-moving Allegory About Innocence lost
Pema Tseden's Tharlo presents an allegory of Tibet and China in the guise of a film noir story set in Thailand
14 Mar 2017
Harry Belafonte Fights Racism in 'Odds Against Tomorrow'
By the late '50s, some Hollywood filmmakers were producing films that reflected changes in public attitudes and addressed the concerns of the nascent Civil Rights movement.
06 Nov 2016
'Gilda' Is an Invitation to Look Deeper Into Pop Culture
Beautiful, classic, important, and thoroughly complex, Gilda is a real “aficionado” film, and yet it has an undeniable popular appeal.
20 Jun 2016
Library of America Rethinks Women and the Hard Boiled Tradition in New Set of Women's Crime Writing
This box set represents a nuanced perspective not only of the crime fiction genre, but of women's contributions to mid-century American culture.
03 Dec 2015
'The Killers' DVD Is a Double Whammy
Criterion brings two film versions, one a classic and one a misfire, of Ernest Hemingway's short story, "The Killers".
28 Jul 2015
Moving Pixels Podcast: 'White Night', White Noir
White Night tells the story of a haunted house and a decaying American economy.
22 Jun 2015
Farther Than You Think: Mapping the Noir Terrain
Rope of Sand, Dark City, and Union Station each extend the shadowy reach of film noir.
22 Mar 2015
'Fear in the Night' Speaks the Indecipherable Language of Noir
Noir, as a definitive term, is elusive and always out of reach, as are dreams. So what are we to do with Fear in the Night, a noir that traffics in dreams?
22 Sep 2014
'Cry Danger' Is Simple Noir Elegance
Olive Films' reissue of the 1951 Cry Danger is as no-frills as the old school film itself.
20 Jun 2014
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