--- JIM DOHERTY <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "I don't think it can be credibly denied that
'noir'
> has connotations beyond 'dark and sinister'
when
> applied to books."
>
I'll go back to my original definition and it works across
books and films and that is a protagonist who is usually
destroyed in a corrupt world by his own greed, stupidity,
lust or whatever and usually lead there by some amoral dame.
It began in books with Cornell Woolrich and then was followed
by James M Cain. All of their noir work follows this outline.
But it also includes Patricia Highsmith's Strangers On A
Train. The book is noir, the movie is not. Why is the movie
not noir? Because Hitchcock gutted the book to make another
innocent man on the run movie. Sunset Blvd and Mildred Pierce
are examples of the cusp of the end of noir. But classic
movies in these genre are Gun Crazy, Detour, the others
mentioned. The problem isn't want is noir -- we know what
that is and it's of a certain time and place -- the problem
is what do you call all this derivative bullshit shilled by
marketers who don't have a clue.
That's my take.
William
>
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
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