>A colleague and I are trying to develop a college
honors course based upon
>hard boiled fiction, film noir, and, we hope, some
forms of American painting
>and music.
Weird. Which university is this, how can this program be
defunded, and
how can the monies be returned to the taxpayers? Could the
two of you
together get this done?
>We think we have the first two areas covered, but we
need some guidance
>concerning art and music. Are there any particular
artists whose work seems
>to fit in with the hard boiled mode? Hopper comes to
my mind, but I've not
>really looked into his works thoroughly. I'm guessing
some forms of jazz also
>fit in. Doesn't Elroy do a lot with it?
With respect to a couple of recent hardboiled movies, the
Coen brothers'
"Miller's Crossing" and "Fargo," Carter Burwell's soundtracks
are
excellent. Burwell also did the soundtrack for "Barton Fink"
and, I
think, "Blood Simple."
The "Miller's Crossing" soundtrack has a couple of 1920s-type
jazz
numbers, as well as an ultimate anti-hardboiled, maudlin
version of
"Danny Boy." The "Fargo" soundtrack is fantastic, a pinnacle
of
soundtracks, which forms a kind of double helix with the
movie itself --
with the one simultaneously feeding and being nourished by
the other.
Also, Ken Millar (Ross Macdonald) was a jazz freak, but I
can't recall
jazz working its way into his writing as an integral
motif.
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