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Film Noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema historians and critics defined the category ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Combo
''The Big Combo'' is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan and photographed by cinematographer John Alton, with music by David Raksin. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Brian Donlevy, as well as Jean Wallace, who was Wilde's wife at the time. The supporting cast features Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman and the final screen appearance of actress Helen Walker. Plot Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down the sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. He is also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, the suicidal Susan Lowell. His main objective as a detective is to uncover what happened to a woman called "Alicia" from the crime boss's past. Mr. Brown, his second-in-command McClure, and thugs Fante and Mingo kidnap and torture the lieutenant, then pour a bottle of alcohol-based hair tonic down his throat before letting him go. Diamond eventually learns through one of Brown's past accomplices, Bettini, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nino Frank
Nino Frank (born 27 June 1904 in Barletta, Italy − Paris, 17 August 1988) was an Italian-born French film critic and writer who was most active in the 1930s and 1940s. Frank is best known for being the first film critic to use the term "film noir" to refer to 1940s US crime drama films such as '' The Maltese Falcon.'' Career Nino Frank was born in Barletta, in the southern region of Apulia, a busy port town on Italy's Adriatic coast. In the late 1920s, Frank was a supporter of the Irish writer James Joyce, along with a circle that also included Moune Gilbert, Stuart Gilbert (who helped to make the French translation of ''Ulysses'' in 1929), Paul and Lucie Léon, Louis Gillet, and Samuel Beckett. In 1937, Frank conferred a great deal with Joyce about the Italian translation of Joyce's ''Anna Livia Plurabelle''. During the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of France, Frank wrote for the collaborationist weekly ''Les Nouveaux Temps'', but he was known as a critic of the col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Stranger (1946)
The Stranger or Stranger may refer to: Film * ''The Stranger'' (1910 film), a short drama film * ''The Stranger'' (1918 film), a film starring Oliver Hardy * ''The Stranger'' (1920 film), a film starring Hoot Gibson * ''The Stranger'' (1924 film), a film starring Richard Dix * ''The Stranger'' (1931 film), a French-German film directed by Fred Sauer * ''The Stranger'' (1946 film), a film by Orson Welles * ''The Stranger'' (1962 film) or ''The Intruder'', an American film by Roger Corman, starring William Shatner * ''The Stranger'' (1967 film), a film based on Camus's novel and directed by Luchino Visconti * ''The Stranger'' (1973 film) or ''Stranded in Space'', a science-fiction TV pilot starring Glenn Corbett * ''The Stranger'' (1984 film), a South Korean film * ''The Stranger'' (1987 film), an Argentine-American film directed by Adolfo Aristarain * ''The Stranger'' (1991 film) or ''Agantuk'', a film by Satyajit Ray * ''The Stranger'' (1995 film), a martial arts-act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating sinister stories often presented in a shadowy cinematographic style. Neo-noir has a similar style but with updated themes, content, style, and visual elements. Definition The neologism neo-noir, using the Greek prefix for the word ''new'', is defined by Mark Conard as "any film coming after the classic noir period that contains noir themes and noir sensibility". Another definition describes it as later noir that often synthesizes diverse genres while foregrounding the scaffolding of ''film noir''. History " Film noir" was coined by critic Nino Frank in 1946 and popularized by French critics Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton in 1955. The term revived in general use beginning in the 1980s, with a revival of the style. The classic ''fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to speak of or refer to itself, that is, to have the kind of thought expressed by the first person nominative singular pronoun "I" in English. Self-reference is studied and has applications in mathematics, philosophy, computer programming, second-order cybernetics, and linguistics, as well as in humor. Self-referential statements are sometimes paradoxical, and can also be considered recursive. In logic, mathematics and computing In classical philosophy, paradoxes were created by self-referential concepts such as the omnipotence paradox of asking if it was possible for a being to exist so powerful that it could create a stone that it could not lift. The Epimenides paradox, 'All Cretans are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Crazy
''Gun Crazy'' (also known as ''Deadly Is the Female'') is a 1950 American crime film noir starring Peggy Cummins and John Dall in a story about the crime-spree of a gun-toting husband and wife. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, and produced by Frank and Maurice King. The screenplay by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo—credited to Millard Kaufman because of the blacklist—and by MacKinlay Kantor was based upon a short story by Kantor published in 1940 in ''The Saturday Evening Post''. In 1998, ''Gun Crazy'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Plot Teenager Barton "Bart" Tare gets caught breaking a hardware store window to steal a gun. He is sent to reform school for four years despite the supportive testimony of his friends Dave and Clyde, his older sister Ruby and others. They claim he would never kill any living creature, even though he has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night And The City
''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the Night and the City (novel), novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitious charlatan, hustler who meets continuous failures. Dassin later confessed that he had never read the novel upon which the film is based. In an interview appearing on The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that the casting of Tierney was in response to a request by Darryl Zanuck, who was concerned that personal problems had rendered the actress "suicidal" and hoped that work would improve her state of mind. The film's British version was five minutes longer, with a more upbeat ending and featuring a completely different film score. Dassin endorsed the American version as closer to his vision. The film contains a very tough and prolonged fight scene between Stan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confidence Trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ..intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". Terminology Synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a "grifter". The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece. Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Set-Up (1949 Film)
''The Set-Up'' is a 1949 American film noir boxing drama directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert RyanJoseph Moncure March: Poem Noir Becomes Prizefight Film from '''' and . The screenplay was adapted by Art Cohn from a 1928 narrative poem of the same name by |
The Big Heat
''The Big Heat'' is a 1953 American film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Jocelyn Brando about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city. William P. McGivern's serial in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', published as a novel in 1953, was the basis for the screenplay, written by former crime reporter Sydney Boehm. The film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011. Plot Homicide detective Sergeant Dave Bannion, of the Kenport Police Department, is called to investigate the suicide of a rogue fellow officer, Tom Duncan. His wife, Bertha Duncan, says her husband had recently been in ill health. He left behind an envelope addressed to the district attorney, which she keeps under wraps and locks away in her safe-deposit box at the bank. The mistress of the late cop, Lucy Chapman, contradicts Mrs. Duncan, telling Sgt. Bannion that Tom Duncan had not been in ill health, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plainclothes Law Enforcement
To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization in order to learn or confirm confidential information, or to gain the trust of targeted individuals to gather information or evidence. Undercover operations are traditionally employed by law enforcement agencies and private investigators; those in such roles are commonly referred to as undercover agents History Law enforcement has carried out undercover work in a variety of ways throughout the course of history, but Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857) developed the first organized (though informal) undercover program in France in the early 19th century, from the late First Empire through most of the Bourbon Restoration period of 1814 to 1830. At the end of 1811 Vidocq set up an informal plainclothes unit, the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Sleep (1946 Film)
''The Big Sleep'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of the 1939 novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results". William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay. Initially produced in late 1944, the film's release was delayed by over a year due to the studio wanting to release war films in anticipation of the end of World War II. A cut was released to servicemen overseas in 1945 shortly after its completion. During its delay, Bogart and Bacall married and Bacall was cast in '' Confidential Agent''. When the movie failed, reshoots were done in early 1946 meant to take advantage of the public's fascination with "Bogie and Bacall". The film was finally released by Warner Bros. on August 31, 1946. The film was a critical and commercial su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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