Re : RARA-AVIS: Motel Noir

From: Steve Novak (Cinefrog@comcast.net)
Date: 14 Jul 2009

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    Hmmmmmmmmm....no many people or critics...at least accross this vast pond...would ever qualify Psycho (or any Hitchcock for that matter) of being
    Œnoir¹...in between Œcrime film¹ and Œhorror¹ maybe but not noir...it¹s a witty mecanism, not a murky descent into inferno...

    This might start another definition battle/controversy...but it had to be brought up...I would be very curious to find quotes from non-North American critics giving the Œnoir¹ label to Psycho and/or Hitchcockian films...There may be, here and there noir elements. shots, lighting set-ups, blabla blah...but that does allow the leap into qualifying the whole celluloid as
    Œnoir¹...because if he¹s noir, than Hammer films are noir...and some péplums are too...and then it all becomes absurd, irrelevant, untenable...because
    ³You see....most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of... anything!²

    ...now, I never read the Bloch book...so (this maybe far fetched): the book could be Œnoir¹ but the film would not...highly possible in fact...our own DTW writers from Estleman to Leonard would gladly attest to that...

    e-nough for now

    Montois de DTW

    PS: ³grand guignol and noir²...what a subject really... Anybody?

    On 7/13/09 10:57 AM, "E. Borgers" <webeurop@yahoo.fr> wrote:

    >
    > And what about PSYCHO  by Robert Bloch? Motel Bates, do you remeber?  Noir it
    > is, even if it leans to grand guignol from time to time.
    >
    > E. Borgers
    > Polar Noir
    > http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir/
    >
    >

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