🎥 Retro Post Alert! Check out this electrifying article about the classic film "City Streets" (1931) directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It's a crime melodrama filled with experimental shots and great performances. Always an intriguing watch! #ClassicFilm #CityStreets #FilmNoir https://thestopbutton.com/2020/04/29/city-streets-1931/

The Desperate Hours (1955)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Desperate_Hours_(1955_film)

There's something weirdly clown-like about this. The colours are too bright and their expressions are weird. I don't know why that woman looks so affronted to be offered a drink by that nice Sling Blade looking guy.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

My new picture book in #FilmNoir in the public domain is out now in hardback, paperback, and eBook.
Here is the pitch
Noir Dirt Cheap takes the reader to a literary cinema where the committed and the curious will discover marvelous and eccentric insights into film noir.

Noir Dirt Cheap is a series of picture essays on noir films in the public domain. That means the films have no copyright owner.

In six pictorial essays, Bernie Dowling explores the rise of Hollywood film noir from the ashes of war and the glorious pessimism of European theatrical and cinematic art.

Noir shone a light on greed, lust, power, injustice, and fighting back.

Its craftspeople endured personal tragedies, censorship, and blacklisting.

Noir Dirt Cheap explores Poverty-Row studios, what makes film noir, its art and craft, sexism, homophobia, class division, censorship, copyright, human foibles, and the love of classic film noir.

Crossfire (1947)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire_(film)

This one is weird. The foreshortening make it look like she's about three feet tall, or he's a giant. Why is everything in that weird speech-bubble shape? What's the point of all that wasted space? Does the cinema paste a strip of paper across that part with showtimes?

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

This Gun for Hire (1942)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Gun_for_Hire

Another movie named after a Springsteen lyric, did these 1940s guys have no originality?

I used to love Bruce Springsteen, but then I read his autobiography. Never meet your heroes, even if it's just in autobiography form.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Reactions to Corridor of Mirrors (1948), which I watched at the end of last week.

I wonder if this film could be read as about the tension between… I don’t know, Romanticism and formalism, neo-classicism. An ex-painter in an empty mansion, desperate to recapture the past (and a mythical love from another age).

And lots of mirrors, bodies, malingering, beautiful spaces with hidden layers.

#cinema #cineMastodon #film #filmNoir #classicMovies #filmCriticism

Reactions to Corridor of Mirrors (1948), which I watched at the end of last week.

Creating a love interest who is such a puzzle box, such a nexus of confused psychology and moral status — fascinating. Still sticking in my mind.

#cineMastodon #cinema #filmNoir #movieScenes #classicMovies

Scarlet Street (1945)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_Street

Not a lot of scarlet in this image. The colours are not only ugly but clash with each other as well. Good film though, put it on your list.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

San Quentin (1946)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Quentin_(1946_film)

Weird situation going on there, if that guy has just shot his gun, who has he shot, or shot at? Everyone seems fine.

Perhaps Lewis E Lawes [crazy name, crazy guy!] former warden of Sing Sing, will explain it to me.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Night and the City (1950)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_and_the_City

Each of these images is fine by itself but somehow the weird out-of-proportion way they're superimposed is comical.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Breakdown (1952)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakdown_(1952_film)

Ugh, this again, I feel like there are more posters for this than anything else.

Incidentally, does anyone know where I got these images? I downloaded them years ago and have completely forgotten. Maybe it was via Reddit, /r/datahoarders or /r/opendirectories maybe. Are they scans of a book? Am I violating copyright?

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Shadows in the Night (1944)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_in_the_Night_(1944_film)

“The fatal chandelier”? OK, I guess. This is terrible in almost every way. What's going on with that guy middle left, has his hat fallen down, is he wearing a mask or what? Is that one window and its reflection, or two windows?

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Tonight: watching the 1948 film “Corridor of Mirrors.” Really enjoying the nocturnal vibe so far, but especially this moment here. Some real dark magic.

#filmNoir #cinemastodon #cinema #amWatching #movie #movieScenes

This is a slinky, slippery film! By the end, it seemed to be winking at you, saying, "Look, an antagonist! And a happy ending! You don't need to think too hard about how we got here."

Like it's coyly veiling the strange developments, the off-kilter character behavior, the little narrative indiscretions we were just subject to.

In that way, it did a deceptively complex dance of layers and motivations. I like it a lot.

#cinemastodon #filmNoir

This is a slinky, slippery film if I've ever seen one. By the end, it felt like the film was winking at you, saying, "Look, an antagonist after all! And a happy ending! You don't need to think too hard about how we got here."

Like it's coyly veiling the strange developments, the off-kilter character behavior, the little narrative indiscretions we were just subject to.

In that way, it did a deceptively complex dance of layers and motivations. I like it a lot.

#cinemastodon #filmNoir

Gaslight (1944)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1944_film)

“Strange drama of a captive sweetheart!” is not how I'd describe this movie. I'm not sure it's even a noir. It has a kind of Monty Python cut-and-paste-out-of-context vibe, randomly placed images everywhere.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film)
poster language: French
I don't think this is contemporary, it's a reissue? It's got "A selection of great classics" at the bottom. Interesting how the writer of the original novel has his name the same size as John Huston.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

Chinatown (1974), Polanski's best film, Jack Nicholson's best performance. Easily Faye Dunaway's best performance. Looks great. Terrific production design. Packs a punch. Everything in this film works perfectly. Neo-noir at its best.

My review: https://dfordoom-movieramblings.blogspot.com/2023/09/chinatown-1974.html

#classicmovie #classicmovies #70smovie #70smovies #1970smovie #1970smovies #RomanPolanski #filmnoir #neonoir #JackNicholson #FayeDunaway #JohnHuston #RobertTowne

Fallen Angel (1945)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Angel_(1945_film)

This movie seems to be about a disappointed woman who has bought a new pair of shoes and they've given her blisters.

#film #cinema #movies #MoviePosters #cinemastodon #filmastodon #FilmNoir

#Bales2023FilmChallenge September 5: a jury for #JuryRightsDay

“Just you wait, it won't be long, The man in black will soon be here, With his cleaver's blade so true, He'll make mincemeat out of you!”

The jury's out for Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) in Fritz Lang's M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)

#film #cinema #CineMastodon @film #FritzLang #TheaVonHarbou #EgonJacobsohn #PeterLorre #FilmNoir #SerialKillers #crime #drama #thriller #Germany #1930s