noir binge.

As part of a questionnaire somewhere, I was just recently forced to acknowledge that my favorite film genre is the noir, which the barely recognizable these days Roger Ebert calls "the most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic."

Seeing Gone Baby Gone on Thursday reminded me that I should probably catch up on the classic noirs that I haven't seen yet (or rewatch the ones I haven't seen in a while, like Touch of Evil) before watching another single new movie that rehashes one of the classic plots (private detective gets involved in something that's not what it seems). Some research on the Google wires turned up several hundred opinions on what the "essential" original noirs are. From that buffet of information I have placed the following tiny nibbles on my plate:

1. A Touch of Evil, Directed by Orson Welles (1958)
   Starring Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh
   
2. Out of the Past, Directed by Jacques Tourneur (1947)
   Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
   
3. Sweet Smell of Success, Directed by Alexander Mackendrick (1957)
   Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison
4. The Killers, Directed by Robert Siodmak (1946)
   Starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien
5. The Killing, Directed by Stanley Kubrick (1956)
   Starring Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray
6. The Asphalt Jungle, Directed by John Huston (1950)
   Starring Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern
7. In a Lonely Place, Directed by Nicholas Ray (1950)
   Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame
8. The Lost Weekend, Directed by Billy Wilder (1945)
   Starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry

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UPDATE: so I bought #1, 2, 7, and 8 today, 10 euros each. I also bought a half kilo of okra. What is I gwine to do with it: okra fritters? gumbo? And why does the rest of the text after a numbered list lose its correct line spacing? Oh, right, 'cause Blogger is still a piece of shit.

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Also, I watched In a Lonely Place yesterday, and I must say that I would like to know what Gloria Grahame would've thought of the ol' double headphones. If. You. Know. What. I'm. Sayin':




























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