sunset heat ( film )
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the director’s “sunset song, ” starring agyness deyn, explores a single soul’s ecstatic devotion to the scottish landscape .
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with a title like sunset heat (and apparently midnight heat), i found it pretty difficult to not think of body heat. it doesn' t help that the film conjures it' s sexualised spirit in it' s introduction, presenting (neo) noir themes and cheap dated late 80s soft - rock. it' s soundtrack is one of the more surprising elements, providing for better or for worse a snapshot of it' s era, in' style'. it' s not a flashy film, presumably limited in budget and forming a b movie impression. acting' s a little off, lighting' s cheap and the dialogue' s doused in both artificiality and exposition .
sorry, conspiracy theorists: al pacino and robert de niro actually did act opposite one another in their iconic diner conversation scene in michael mann ’s 1995 magnum opus heat .
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to the increasingly narrow circles of her activity that, as they contract, raise the repressive force on her repressed emotional life and raise the heat on the emotions that she presses into her brief, curt, only seemingly cool verses .
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and rutger hauer, as well as some of the most emotionally intense action set pieces ever put to film. moreover, a good portion of the film’s appeal lies in its incorporation of film noir aesthetics—shadow - filled, rainy metropolitan exteriors, a brooding yet resourceful investigator hero, retro ’40s fashion—into its dreary, dystopian setting. at one point, the film even boasted a philip marlowe - esque voiceover narration that was thankfully excised from future cuts. once regarded as a failed experiment ,
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
lizzie borden’s 1983 film is a sort of political science fiction, in which new york women plot a revolution within a revolution .
in both quality of filmmaking and cynicism of spirit. this film not only announced hanson as a filmmaker well beyond his previous work (
like a fast - paced burner. it’s not fincher’s most famous film, but it’s absolutely one of the most underrated thrillers since 2000. —
lawrence kasdan’s directorial debut remains, to this day, one of the sexiest movies ever to grace the big screen—not to mention, the rare occasion where the phrase “erotic thriller” can be appropriately uttered without the slightest hint of a snicker. boasting a star - making performance by kathleen turner, the film takes the standard double indemnity / the postman always rings twice premise (femme fatale hires lover to kill husband) and grafts it onto the humid nightmare that is florida in the midst of a heat wave. memorable sex scenes aside, however, the film is also a master class in how to build suspense and escalate tension. — m. r .
aestheticizes violence without fetishizing it. bullet holes and knife wounds help color the film in dark brushstrokes—such is the coens’ wont—and careful attention to shot composition ratchets the film’s morbid elements to almost intoxicating heights. you’ll want to look away, but the coens keep your eyes glued to their somber fatalism. —
treats redemption as a cruel joke, a spell of relief that lasts only long enough for us to view its obsolescence. the film takes jabs at
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
pellington' s approach can best be described as correct, and the glossy movie looks tidy, if undistinguished. there' s also nathan matthew david' s pretty score to underline every mood shift, along with songs, song, songs of every vintage. though it' s hard to complain about over - reliance on music in a movie that pays homage to the undersung greatness of the kinks and then unleashes
waterloo sunset
at a moment of maximum poignancy .
rather than kill danny, nick merely roughs him up, paving the way for holly to exact a humiliating, though non - lethal vengeance on danny’s most prized possession. for his troubles, nick is paid $ 50, 000 in hush money from danny’s stash. as holly rides off into an avenged sunset, nick heads for the nearest blackjack table to attempt the final big score that will hasten his exit from sin city. the movie is about 40 minutes old .
that’s been confirmed many times over the years of course. but thanks to the fact that in the film’s final cut, all their scenes are composed of interspersed close up shots, a curious urban legend has persisted holding that the two never actually met on set. tonight however, during a special screening of heat ‘s new 4k remaster at the samuel goldwyn theatre followed by an entertaining q & a with pacino, de niro, and mann themselves, once again the record was set straight about the duo’s interactions in the classic film. make a note, skeptics, that a photo of them sitting together hung for years on the wall of kate mantilini in beverly hills where the scene was shot .
with “wild card, ” screenwriter william goldman takes a third crack at the story of nick the “vegas chaperone. ” goldman wrote the source novel and a 1986 film adaptation starring burt reynolds, both of which were called “heat. ” had the 1986 version starred bruce willis instead of reynolds, “wild card” would be redundant: statham’s take on nick evokes willis in his prime. he’s as quick to cut a villain down with a quip as he is with a sharp object, and a gloomy raincloud of vulnerability seems to perpetually hang over his head .
moderated by intersteller and the dark knight trilogy director christopher nolan (who himself made several nods to heat in the opening sequence of 2008’s the dark knight), the discussion was joined later co - stars amy brenneman, val kilmer, diane venora, and mykelti williamson, along with producers art linson and peter jan brugge, editor william goldenberg, sound mixer andy nelson, and cinematographer dante spinotti .
forty years before the blair witch project popularized the idea of a film being told from the camera’s perspective, actor / director robert montgomery gave this radical idea a spin with lady in the lake, his adaptation of one of raymond chandler’s philip marlowe detective stories. ultimately, the case proves to be minor marlowe and the first - person gimmick does eventually wear thin over the course of the film’s runtime. putting aside these reservations, however, the film is most certainly worth a watch if just to witness montgomery’s sheer audacity and inventiveness. it’s the textbook example of a film being ahead of its time. — m. r .
and los angeles, thus necessitating some creative uses of lighting. this commitment to realism would help perfect the film noir style we all know and love. —
was a rarity in its heyday, though if you didn’t know lupino held the reins, you might not guess the film was directed with a feminine touch .
plays with noir tropes more than he plays to them, deflating film noir’s inherent machismo by revealing the chief heavies of his cast as scrabbling cowards. depending on your mood ,
prior to reinventing filmic language with their playful genre experiments, the members of france’s new wave movement got their start as film critics. in fact, it was through their writings and discussions that the term “film noir” was first christened as a means of describing a certain breed of brooding postwar films. it’s not surprising then that louis malle—though not an official new wave member—would settle on a film noir - influenced project as his first feature film. acting both as an homage to noir as well as a subversion of its structure, elevator to the gallows stars jeanne moreau and maurice ronet as a pair of criminals whose plan to kill moreau’s husband quickly falls apart when the ronet character gets stuck in an elevator. this already absurd concept becomes all the more confounding when paired with the film’s unorthodox, experimental editing and somber, miles davis - performed jazz score. — m. r .
frequently cited as an example of when film noir, to appropriate a tv idiom, “jumped the shark, ” kiss me deadly long ago overcame its initial bad press to become one of the most beloved and influential examples of the subgenre and its ability to tell dark, controversial stories. in that regard, director robert aldrich’s kiss me deadly wears its insanity like a badge. ralph meeker stars as a hard - boiled private eye who ends up bearing witness to the brutal torture and murder of a young hitchhiker (cloris leachman in one her first film appearances). he decides to pursue her case, which results in the discovery of one of film’s all - time great macguffins—a mysterious piece of luggage that emits intense heat and a bright light when opened. (this visual went on to inspire the glowing briefcase in pulp fiction .) this all leads to one of the craziest, most jaw - dropping final sequences you’re likely to see in any american movie made during the hays code era. —m. r .
is the coolest melville film of them all; odds are, it’ll land upright, because that’s an impossible distinction to make. melville films pulse with ineffable cool. in the case of
for example, in the scene in which de niro’s mccauley and brenneman’s eady talk on a balcony overlooking sunset plaza, spinotti explained how the l. a. landscape seen in the shot was filmed on a very low framerate to increase exposure. meanwhile, de niro and brenneman were filmed on location in front of a green screen blocking the actual view, which was added to the background of the shot in post. it’s unnoticeable in previous home video releases but in the new print, it makes l. a. ’s nighttime view look like a surreal dream, or perhaps a nightmare. it adds to the sense, as it was said more than once tonight, of how all the film’s characters are in their own way imprisoned in los angeles .
, alex proyas’ 1998 magnum opus serves up a cerebral sci - fi extravaganza as filtered through the visual tropes of film noir and german expressionism. the result is a staggering achievement in imagination that, like
is a masterpiece. funny to think that american critics looked down their noses at the film at the time of its release. maybe they took offense at the inescapable scent of welles’ passion for rita hayworth, his wife at the time and his ex shortly after production wrapped. he captures her in close - up with a hungry, enraptured eye, the most coherent image in a film that’s built on logical incoherence .
has enormous ambitions that belie its tight running time, the end result of odious studio interference that nonetheless fails to impede the viewing experience. come for hayworth and welles, stay for the film’s dizzying hall of mirrors shootout. —
leave it to the master of suspense to meld docudrama realism with the melodrama of film noir. “ alfred hitchcock ’s powerful portrait of a man … drawn from life! ” the wrong man ’s original trailer proclaims. it’s to the film’s credit that hitch doesn’t screw around here, telling in full the story of a man falsely convicted for robberies he never committed. unsurprisingly, hitch is every bit as interested in the effects of the outrageous miscarriage of justice that befalls manny balestrero as he is in the lasting trauma his detention inflicts on him and his family. the wrong man puts a high premium on claustrophobic camerawork—we feel like we’re as confined as poor old manny—but the film’s greatest impression is left in its aftermath. — a. c .
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, however, lynch took his fascination with the subgenre to a whole other level, depicting a world where a character’s interior life influences not only the film’s visual style but its narrative structure as well. in the first great performance of her illustrious career ,
also under discussion, the detailed backstories mann devised for all of his characters – “michael is the king of backstory” said williamson tonight – as well as the intense work that went into creating the film’s intense realism. for instance, to prepare for the film’s climactic bank heist, de niro and co - stars val kimer and tom sizemore cased a bank in century city (with, it was made clear, permission of bank security), then were made to recount from memory the layout once they left .
“a beautiful femme fatale saunters into an unsuspecting man’s life and entices him into committing murder for her. ” this logline could be used to describe any number of classic film noirs. most of this can be traced back to author james m. cain, who wrote two books—
film noir or horror—which category does charles laughton’s night of the hunter belong in? frankly, all such quibbles are needless. the film fits snugly beneath either appellation, for one thing: it’s a hybridized version of both. (let’s call it “film noirror. ”) for another, it’s a masterwork, so fie upon labels. night of the hunter lurks in shadows and revels in misogyny. whether you’ve seen it or not, you probably have the image of robert mitchum’s tattooed knuckles imprinted upon your brain thanks to pop culture osmosis. reverend harry powell is quite the villain, a man as quick to distort the truth with honey - coated lies as laughton is to distort reality through oblique perspective, unnerving use of shadows and light, and a dizzying array of camera compositions that make small - town west virginia feel altogether otherworldly. — a. c .
, which centers on two treasury agents who must go undercover to infiltrate a notorious counterfeiting ring. while not boasting any big - name actors or even a particularly novel story, the film is noted for its inventive cinematography, with mann and cinematographer john alton deciding to shoot several scenes on location in
the goldwyn theater might not be the best equipped to demonstrate the full beauty of a 4k presentation (no shade intended – it was great but i had no basis to compare), but the new print looked fantastic, with eye popping detail that shines a bright light on the work of cinematographer spinotti. a particular stand out is how the new print makes clear some of the technical achievements mann and spinotti employed to make the city of los angeles itself as much a character as the actors moving inside it. “l. a. is a weigh station on the way to somewhere else, ” said mann tonight about the way the city looks throughout heat. one way that was achieved was to combine then - new computer effects to heighten the city’s iconic cityscape .
park chan - wook’s oldboy makes the smart choice most genre homages don’t: the film relegates reference to the soundtrack titles, some of which crop up elsewhere on this very list. it takes more than a few hat tips to tourneur, hawks and ray to make a noir, but oldboy boasts the lion’s share of noir’s best trappings in its story of long - term revenge and dirty family secrets. the film is probably best revered for a single fight scene, one of only a handful to occur throughout its two - hour running time. admittedly, that hallway scrap is pretty glorious, but park boils his protagonist hard, and spoken from beneath star choi min - sik’s grizzled mane, the film’s dialogue crackles with beefy, unhinged ennui. years from now when the next big international neo - noir import arrives stateside, don’t be surprised if you see oldboy ’s moniker on its ost. — a. c .
we’ll start with the following 100 titles. some 70 years after the term “film noir” was first uttered, take a trip through the screwed - up terrain of the mid - century psyche, with all its sex, lies, and crime scene tape. let’s get going—don’t say we didn’t warn you. — amanda schurr
, an adaptation of novelist / screenwriter scott b. smith’s 1993 thriller about three working - class men who end up stumbling upon a crashed plane filled with millions of dollars in cash. seeing this as the answer to their financial woes, the men divvy up the money only to quickly find their close - knit group torn apart by greed and paranoia. while not ostensibly film noir in its construction, the story nevertheless touches upon classic noir themes—namely, the corruptive power of greed and the folly of man in attempting to control life’s chaos. whatever its designation, the film presents an absorbing, if unmistakably devastating, modern - day morality tale. —
carl franklin’s excellent early ’90s neo - noir walks a razor - thin tightrope of suspense: you get the sense from one minute to the next that any step out of place could send the entire narrative into violent anarchy. franklin’s film has great aspirations, delving into the complexities of modern american race relations just a few years after
, flopped at the box office only to be revived later as a beloved cult classic. the film casts rufus swell as an amnesiac who wakes up one night to discover that his city is (quite literally) being manipulated by a band of mysteriously pale men in jet - black trench coats and fedoras. along for the ride is
to brilliantly deconstruct traditional cinematic storytelling, toggling between chronological black - and - white vignettes and full - color five - minute segments that unfold in reverse order while shelby frantically searches for his wife’s killer. the film is jarring, inventive and adventurous, and the payoff is every bit worth the mind - bending descent into madness. —
plays a wide - eyed actress newly arrived in hollywood who stumbles upon a beautiful young woman who can’t remember who she is. that pithy logline only touches the tip of the iceberg, as the film delights in throwing numerous other subplots and mysteries at its audience only to violently pull the rug out from under them in its latter half .
a favorite of martin scorsese, force of evil centers on a lawyer who finds himself involved with an influential gangster looking to take over all smaller rackets in town. the problem? one of those desirable rackets is run by the lawyer’s older brother. like t - men, the film makes great use of shooting on location. moreover, at times, the film’s familial themes and stylized writing help elevate the conflict to near shakespearean levels (or biblical levels, considering how frequently it alludes to the story of cain and abel). though relatively small in scale, force of evil finds greatness in its aim to convey grandiose, large - scale ideas. — m. r .
.) kubrick’s work here is no - frills and elegantly straightforward: sterling hayden plans one final holdup before retiring and settling down with coleen gray. no twists and turns, just good old - fashioned theft at the racetrack. the film revels in the gray morality of hayden’s good intentions. crime pays, at least until it doesn’t. —
does any psychopath in film noir’s rogues gallery strike quite as much immediate, stomach - churning terror as tommy udo? the man’s got a leering, sunken visage only a mother could love, provided she keeps her eyes closed tightly and doesn’t give him reason to shove her down the stairs. richard widmark’s wolf grin might be the only thing about kiss of death that matters. bereft of him, of course, henry hathaway’s film remains solid, but widmark’s oscar - nominated performance makes the entire enterprise feel vital. he’s a villain for the ages, perhaps robbed of his due by hathaway’s need to architect a happy ending. such is life working with production codes. — a. c .
: at first confused, then maybe a little angry, but then ultimately delighted by how fooled they’d just been. perfectly paced, brilliantly scored by director bryan singer and editor / composer john ottman—the film never lets the marks know they’re being conned by the irresistible ensemble or christopher mcquarrie’s dark, mischievous script. and then like that … it’s gone… —
get carter director mike hodges’s last great film was budding star clive owen’s first. in fact, even now more than 15 years after its release, croupier may be the best thing owen has ever done, playing a struggling novelist who takes a job at a casino, looking for inspiration but finding mostly trouble. watch this film now to be reminded where the actor first prompted speculation that he’d make a great james bond: his character jack manfred isn’t a super - spy, but he’s got the jet - black suaveness, lady - killing panache and dry wit we associate with 007. croupier is a movie attracted to the sleazier side of life, and owen’s antihero was the perfect tour guide. — tim grierson
now, if you’ve been on imdb, watched the home video special edition or caught the stray interview with pacino, de niro, or mann, chances are you’ve already heard most of what was discussed tonight. but who cares, because for the first time in two decades, the three shared a stage to talk about the beloved film, shed some light on how it was made, and laugh together about the experience. the packed theater – beforehand, bent around a nearby parking lot, there was a long line of people hoping to get in – laughed right along with them. when, that is, they weren’t breaking out into spontaneous applause and more than one standing ovation for the film and its cast and crew .
since its coining in 1946 by french critic nino frank, who observed from afar something dark, quite literally, going on at the american cinema, the term “film noir” has been debated and debated and debated some more. is it a genre? a subgenre? a movement? a trend? a commentary? a style? for the purposes of this introduction, let’s call it a response .
unlike so many of its peers on this listing, edward dmytryk’s obsession doesn’t lean on violence in its plotting and scheming. but the film isn’t gentle by any stretch. in fact, obsession is one of the more gruesome classic noirs, a slow - burning bit of nastiness that could give breaking bad a run for its money in the body disposal department. dmytryk rides on the strength of great work by robert newton, here playing a psychiatrist who determines to kill his wife’s lover, an american diplomat played by phil brown. (obviously, because everybody knows that all psychiatrists secretly harbor homicidal urges .) newton’s a creepy hoot, and dmytryk has such a good handle on his suspense that even the tonal dissonance of unwelcome comedy doesn’t break the film’s insidious spell. — a. c .
maybe falling in love with dead people is just an occupational hazard of being an investigative detective in new york city. then again, maybe a shotgun blast to the face couldn’t keep anybody from developing a crush on gene tierney, which is pretty much how the plot of otto preminger’s laura goes. the film tracks the trajectory of nypd detective mark mcpherson’s growing obsession with the eponymous young lady as he cobbles together the bits and pieces of her life and death. poring over her diary and her letters, he comes to moon over her, and why not? she’s every bit as delightful as preminger’s movie. laura doesn’t waste time and stacks contrivance on top of unlikelihood, but such is the strength of preminger’s craft and the performances of his cast that the film’s convolution doesn’t matter. — a. c .
puts male toughness on trial and makes it look ridiculous, but the study of manliness might be a smokescreen for kurosawa’s veiled jabs at the board of censors installed by the u. s. government in post - world war ii japan. note the western clothing. observe the recurring image of the bubbling muck that serves as one of the film’s central locations. the american occupation whitewashes and corrupts japanese culture in equal measure, and
and guy pearce to american audiences by giving them their first signature roles. this tabloid version of the city of angels celebrates all the sex, corruption and other seedy circumstances the superficial city can provide. it offers a string of unforgettable sequences, from bud white’s yuletide raid to exley’s interrogations to the final shootout where the film’s utterly ellroy perspective on police morality is (quite literally) executed with masterful precision. at the time of its release ,
some noirs get their hooks into you within their first few minutes and don’t let go even after the credits roll. angel face isn’t one of those. it’s a deliberate, considerate film, one that has a destination in mind and makes no bones about taking its time getting there. whether you ride with it is up to you, but come on: this is otto preminger—lesser otto preminger, perhaps, certainly not one of his better celebrated films. even lesser preminger is worth your time, though, particularly when he’s as laser - focused as he is here. angel face builds. it’s a movie that constantly sets itself up and points toward its shocker of a climax. preminger’s direction renders this story of crazy love, shared between robert mitchum and jean simmons, unpredictable if slow. don’t let the apparent languidness get in your way. the unhurried pace adds to the film’s grimmer pleasures. — andy crump
like double indemnity, michael curtiz’ mildred pierce succeeds on the strength of its leading lady; in this case that’s the immortal joan crawford, who plays the film’s central character, not to mention all of its heart and soul. (arguably, it’s the most definitive crawford performance of all time, at least next to what ever happened to baby jane? .) mildred pierce is a strong woman driven by an inexhaustible love for her children, veda (ann blyth) and kay (jo ann marlowe), but she’s also stymied by the restricting grasp of a patriarchal society. even veda is contemptuous of mildred for daring to have the moxie to have it all. the film is about more than prickly mother - daughter relationships, of course, specifically the murder of mildred’s second husband. but sandwiched in between curtiz’ probing whodunit lies one of noir’s most sympathetic and purely humanist tales. — a. c .
social consciousness, a recurring theme throughout noir’s history, meets with the grisly side of mob politics in cy endfield’s lesser - known yarn, ripped straight from the headlines. like the wrong man, the sound of fury purports to be based on actual events. how well the film plays that out depends on your knowledge of the case that inspired it. in endfield’s hands, the story becomes a discomfiting exploration of american inclinations toward taking matters into one’s own hands. unlike so many legit bad guys on this list, frank lovejoy’s howard tyler does bad things for good reasons. he’s a family man fallen on hard times. endfield makes the case for his guilt, but through the complex worldview of noir he’s able to critique the lack of cultural empathy (alongside socially irresponsible journalism) that ushers him toward a downfall disproportionate to his crime. what the film lacks in stylishness, it makes up for in raw emotion. — a. c .
as for the small number of scenes shared by the film’s two stars, mann explained how the two playing off one another increased the subtlety of their performances. “if bob is shifting his weight, ” mann said, “al is doing something to counter, ” almost, he explained, as if afraid de niro might go for a gun. the diner scene in particular was also fairly raw, done at de niro’s suggestion without any rehearsal before they set about filming it .
as it was a change of pace for lupino, who, after directing four features that each revolved around the struggles and victimization of women, decided to try her hand with decidedly more masculine fare. decades later, her film is still generally considered the first noir directed by a woman, but it should really be thought of first as a slim, unsparing, suspenseful slice of true crime. she puts her foot on the gas and doesn’t let up until the very end. —
one of film noir’s more under - loved minor works, tension showcases great work by audrey totter while fiddling with gender roles and postwar disenchantment. there are few saps as sappy as richard basehart’s cuckolded warren quimby, and even in the realm of femme fatales, few are even half as downright mean as claire quimby (phyllis dietrichson, lily carver and brigid o’shaughnessy notwithstanding). forget the fact she habitually cheats on poor borin’ warren: check the scene where he drives her to the house he scrimped and saved for, a gesture she can only respond to with contempt. totter is such a hoot you almost forget to feel bad for basehart, but even his gentle male ego can only endure so much abuse before he decides to remake himself in the image of claire’s “type, ” all the better to get even with her and her lover. tension might not have the iconography of john berry’s peers, but the film makes a worthy study of masculine american identity. — a. c .
last week’s trip to berlin, i had never attended a major international film festival. (new york doesn’t count—it’s a self - described “festival of festivals, ” featuring many movies that have already premièred .) for good reason, these festivals are not part of my regular rounds: i usually write about movies that are available to many readers, because there’s a tease built into festival reviews—let me tell you about some wonderful movies that i’ve seen and that you can’t, or, at least, not yet .
, a movie that hits with quick percussive impact and spares no time from one bout of action to the next. the film strikes a comparison between youthful and experienced viewpoints: james edwards’ boxer on the rise is brimming with self - assurance, while david clarke’s battle - scarred ring veteran speaks aloud to pugilists’ inevitable decline. is robert ryan’s last attempt at glory worth suffering for? is it worth the mental trauma it inflicts on his wife (audrey totter, showing off a different side of herself ahead of 1950’s
it’s kind of a shame that the film feels compelled to interrupt this feeling with violence. there’s less than you might be expecting, and i’d be remiss if i didn’t say those scenes are fun in the most gratuitously brutal ways (one guy gets gruesomely slashed with a credit card). but you’ve seen statham do all that before, and it clashes with the novel - like vibe goldman successfully creates. perhaps that’s why movies give statham little to say: his gift of gab overshadows his penchant for mayhem .
after the tautly spirited dialectic of dickinson’s creative days, the scenes of her illness have a terrifying emotional splendor. nixon plays dickinson’s death like a childbirth scene in which the body is wrenched apart to yield up the soul, which then doesn’t ascend to heaven but remains on earth to inhabit the world more fully after death than dickinson ever managed to do in life—the wicked metaphysical irony of posthumous renown. davies does more than film dickinson’s life; he creates a world that is, above all, her inner world, confined
a criminally underrated gem of ’70s cinema, night moves stars gene hackman as a retired football player - turned - private investigator who is hired by an aging starlet to track down her wayward daughter. naturally, this seemingly simple assignment leads our hero down a convoluted path littered with illicit relationships and rampant corruption. released a year after francis ford coppola’s much celebrated the conversation, night moves very much serves as that film’s spiritual sibling—a complex, somewhat opaque treatise on american cynicism in a post - watergate world. — m. r .
mann also recounted his inspiration for the film, the real life experiences of his friend, chicago police detective charlie adamson, who in 1963 ended up killing criminal neal mccauley (for whom de niro’s character was named). mccauley and adamson actually met before their later fatal encounter, having dinner together with a conversation that was reportedly very similar to the one pacino and de niro have in the famous scene. as mann put it, “they had the kind of intimacy only strangers can have, ” and just as easily were torn apart .
and so noir cast its misfits—gun - toting, hard - drinking, lipstick and stiletto - wearing human chimneys of neuroses—into a seductive, violent postwar labyrinth, in which the terror was internal and external. fear of the next world conflict, fear of each other, fear of never getting back to a pure time, the fear in realizing there never really was one. a study in extremes that dealt in innuendo (thanks again, censors !) as it departed from accepted cultural norms and, sometimes, basic humanity—film doesn’t get more perverse, or more unapologetic about it, than the noir environment .
actually marks one of the filmmaker’s more accessible works. indeed, the opening set - up feels akin to the sort of “wrong man” scenarios favored by hitchcock—a new york thief ends up pickpocketing a young woman’s wallet, only to discover it contains top - secret government intel. the man quickly realizes he has become an unwitting player in some serious cold war - era espionage. though undeniably dated in certain places, the film’s take on politics and sex as well as its willingness to position an unrepentant thief in its main character slot represented the kind of daring mentality that would have been celebrated years later in the new
jason statham movies aren’t known for their dialogue. people attend his films for their action sequences, which is why so few filmmakers give statham much to say. that’s a shame, because when given the rare chance to be chatty, statham becomes more than just a lethal weapon. “wild card” gives him more opportunities to converse than to clobber, and as odd as this may sound, i really enjoyed listening to statham talk. his fight scenes have their predictable, violent payoffs, but his rambling monologues are unexpectedly, gloriously entertaining. this film’s tagline should be “come for the stabbing, stay for the gabbing! ”
criss cross marks the screen debut of future movie star tony curtis (here billed as “james curtis”). fortunately, the film—which reunites burt lancaster with killers director / noir auteur robert siodmak—works as much more than merely a footnote in curtis’ career. lancaster stars as an armored truck guard who hatches a plan with his ex - wife to fake a vehicle robbing so they can make off with the loot. per the title, the plotline soon transforms into a tangled web of double - (and triple -) crosses that concludes with an ending that, even by noir standards, is pretty damn bleak. — m. r .
throughout, statham expertly handles goldman’s sometimes absurd dialogue. the film is at its best when nick chats with people. “wild card” wisely casts its supporting characters with actors who leave an impression, including davis’ dealer, anne heche ’s diner waitress, davenia mcfadden ’s information - gathering maid, jason alexander ’s office mate and tucci’s head honcho, baby. the folks in nick’s orbit form a self - contained society with its own set of rules and regulations. “wild card” has a finely tuned sense of the vegas working - class, of people who are off the beaten path, hustling in the harsh light of day that most tourists sleep through .
in one of the most intriguing opening scenes in film history, d. o. a. commences with a lengthy tracking shot of a man as he stumbles into the police office to make an unusual request—he wants to report his own murder. this opening image just about sums up d. o. a. , a brisk yet exhilarating noir thriller with one hell of a high - concept. after being administered a deadly poison, the main character has only a few days to discover who dosed him and why. what follows is a glorious mix of high - stakes melodrama and entertaining sleaze all compacted into a concise hour - and - twenty minute running time. — m. r .
jules dassin’s impact on film noir is widely documented—if you need proof, just consider the fact a handful of his best contributions to the genre have landed on this very list—and among them, thieves’ highway is perhaps the most economical. at the same time, it’s superficially the least noirish: it’s a revenge movie, sure, but that revenge is sought by a good man driven to right wrongs done to his father. this is a movie built on a pure search for retribution, though of course it’s dassin, so nothing is ever that simple, and in point of fact everything that can go wrong for nick garcos does. who knew the world of fruit trucking could be so damn cutthroat? — a. c .
long before the boomers came to know fred macmurray as the kindly father on my three sons, the actor essayed his best performance in double indemnity as the deplorable, hard - boiled walter neff, who falls for a married temptress (barbara stanwyck) who talks him into killing her husband. whether in film or on television, macmurray normally played the nice guy, but for double indemnity he turned his everyman decency into a mask—perfect for a character who can barely conceal what a lustful, conniving bastard he is. one of the great noirs, this early effort from billy wilder revealed the filmmaker’s talent for wonderfully thorny, unapologetically rotten characters—and it doubles as one of the definitive mid - century los angeles movies. — t. g .
it’s hard to think of a movie that did more short - term damage to the length of your fingernails in the ’90s than david fincher ’s se7en. the film follows detectives david mills (brad pitt) and almost - retired william somerset (morgan freeman) on the trail of john doe, a murderer who plans his kills around the seven deadly sins. we see somerset teach a still - naive mills valuable life lessons around the case, which has morally charged outcomes aimed at victims that include a gluttonous man and a greedy attorney. but with all the disturbing crime scenes considered, se7en ’s never as unpredictable or emotionally draining as when mills and somerset make the final discovery of “what’s in the box” after capturing their man. — tyler kane
a story of unintended connections and one woman’s spiraling descent into paranoia and terror, sorry, wrong number gets sort of a bum rap next to double indemnity in barbara stanwyck’s catalogue of awesome performances. the film alternates between flashbacks and the present, and so too does stanwyck’s spoiled, shiftless heiress to a drug - store empire go from lethargy to hysteria. turns out she’s the center of a murder plot, though she doesn’t quite realize it at first and must piece together the architecture of her own demise as she lies bedridden and alone in her opulent manhattan digs. stanwyck gives sorry, wrong number a pulse, while anatole litvak’s direction soaks her growing terror in shadows so deep, the intruder sneaking through her house can’t help but bump into the furniture. — a. c .
don siegel’s debut picture, the verdict rests between two axes: peter lorre and sydney greenstreet. siegel could have shot the film and styled his misé en scene any way he wanted, and none of it would have mattered so long as he kept his two leading men on the cast. the verdict is all about them, both from the perspective of narrative and in terms of the viewing experience. lorre has a habit of stealing our attention while hanging out at the edges of the frame, while greenstreet uses his imposing bulk to command from the center of the camera. they make a fun pair as antiheroes trying to redeem greenstreet’s disgraced scotland yard superintendent when an innocent man is sent to the gallows thanks to his botched investigation, while siegel soaks their mission in noir’s dark - washed style and black humor. — a. c .
a pioneering work in the film noir movement, detour was initially conceived as little more than yet another quickie product straight from hollywood ’s poverty row. the story concerns a piano player who, while hitchhiking from new york to hollywood, ends up getting a ride from a pill - popping bookie who later turns up dead. thus begins a series of bad decisions that provides the template for any good noir yarn. filmed in less than a month with a miniscule budget, the eventual theatrical cut barely clocked in over an hour. it was from these severe limitations, however, that the vocabulary of down - and - dirty noir films began to take shape. indeed, detour ’s ragged edges and technical hiccups helped inadvertently create the kind of grimy, hard - boiled atmosphere that served as the perfect reflection of its equally gritty content. — m. r .
françois truffaut’s shoot the piano player feels like the tragicomic reverse of melville’s le doulos (no. 53). instead of adapting french literature through an american lens, truffaut does the reverse, turning david goodis’ crime yarn down there into an altogether unpredictable story about commercialism, artistic purity, and the ways our pasts catch up with us. shoot the piano player keeps its tongue firmly in cheek as truffaut oscillates between absurd slapstick and heartbreak. a man swears to his honesty on his mother’s soul, and the camera cuts away to dear old mom as she falls down dead in her kitchen; truffaut’s protagonist, charlie (charles aznavour), plays a ditty in the dive bar where he works, haunted by the death of his wife as well as his rising career as a concert pianist. the film is a romp until it’s a downer. — a. c .
at the start of jean - pierre melville’s le doulos, a handy dandy intertitle card kindly lets us know that the film’s name refers either to a style of hat or a police informant. once the picture commences, we get plenty of both plus the oozing - cool style of melville, whose tendency to play down everything in his frame makes even his use of shadow and light seem aloof. le doulos is the most - least french contribution to this list; it’s melville’s adaptation of a novel by pierre lesou, but he blends lesou’s words with twists on symbols and staples of american noir. a purist might argue that combining a french novel with american sensibilities is an implicit rejection of the filmmaking model he and his fellow rive gauche comrades established in the 1950s. in truth, that synthesis produces a celluloid slurry that’s uniquely melville, minimalist and slick. — a. c.
sunset heat is a 1992 thriller film starring michael paré , 1980s pop star adam ant , and dennis hopper . it featured original music by jan hammer , who had written the miami vice theme music . 
sunset heat is a 1992 thriller film starring michael paré, 1980s pop star adam ant, and dennis hopper. it featured original music by jan hammer, who had written the miami vice theme music.
sunset heat is a 1992 thriller film starring michael paré, 1980s pop star adam ant, and dennis hopper. it featured original music by jan hammer, who had written the miami vice theme music.