Just watched Sweet Smell of Success and I liked it. Great
Elmer Bernstein score, dimly-lit sets, rainy streets, doomed
characters. I also recently watched Clash by Night. Great
noir title, right? But you know what--not noir by my
definition. Directed by Fritz Lang, starring Barbara
Stanwyck, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe, but like Sweet
Smell of Success--no crime--no noir. To me crime is an
essential part of film noir. I disagree with the critics that
say noir is not a genre but a style. It's a certain style
within a genre. This almost seems self-evident to me but I
know there will be a lot of you disagreeing with me.
Jeff
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Jul 2007 EDT