At 12:26 PM 15/05/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>A press release from the Cannes Film
Festival:
> Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer have turned gumshoe
with ``Kiss
>Kiss, Bang Bang,'' a murder mystery that could have
been called
>``Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink'' for its relentless yet
loving tweaks at
>Hollywood film-noir conventions.
>
>The film, which debuted Saturday at the Cannes Film
Festival, both
>mocks and embraces the cliches of the hard-boiled
private eyes of
>years past - taking to nearly outlandish levels the
genre's
>improbable coincidences, impossible action, and
detectives who take
>endless lickings yet keep on ticking.
These themes seem to run in packs. I had the same sense from
Sin City, though I didn't see much about this in press
reviews or even on RARA AVIS. Maybe my memory is selective.
Anyway, I thought the movie was a post-feminist lampoon of
hardboil, even as it hammered all the notes. I'm referring
specifically to the romantic notion of the tough-guy white
knight who, by implication, must rescue the fair damsels. The
women in Old Town seemed quite capable of looking after
themselves. But the pic was noirish in that it was sometimes
the efforts of the morally righteous tough guys who screwed
up the women's working arrangements to begin with. I am
curious, I've not read the comics on which the movie is
based, but is this true to the theme of the books?
And miker said:
"Noir oftentimes is associated with a pessimistic
determinism, a lack of power to exert any meaningful control
over life."
I don't think this goes quite far enough. I think noir deals
with the attempt to exercise power, and its ineffectiveness
to produce substantive change. The powerful ARE effective,
but corrupt because that is the nature of power. Those who
would fight the corruptions of the powerful must gain or use
some form of power themselves in order to do so, and so are
either unsuccessful and/or become corrupt themselves. This is
what dooms them. This is the human condition, and so noir is
existential. I agree that hardboil does not worry so much
about this, but noir doesn't stop at a lack of power to deal
with corruption, it suggests that the use of power to deal
with corruption only makes the situation worse.
Admittedly I'm thinking mostly of a movie rather than a book,
though Chinatown is one of the best written Hollywood
screenplays in my estimation. Not that I'm an expert. Okay,
how's this: Spade used his experience and ability to act in
the world to jail the woman who loved him, and whom he may
have loved back, but the corruption that motivated Brigid
carried on in the obsessions of the fat man and his
entourage. Nothing really changed. But if Spade had acted out
of love instead, might Brigid have given up her obsession
with the black bird? That kind speculation is a mug's game,
and Spade was no mug.
As an aside, I'm not suggesting noir asserts morality has no
value, only that attempts to impose morality on others will
probably result in failure and certainly compromise the
original morality. I suppose that's like saying the meek
shall inherit the earth, but nobody said it will be in good
shape when they get it.
Best, Kerry
------------------------------------------------------
Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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