Evolving Versions of Film Noir Explore Today's Uneasy Feelings | Roger Ebert
Often disreputable, the film noir was usually about crime, but it didn't glorify criminals the way 1930s gangster pictures did. Instead, its characters got involved in crime out of desperation, accident, weakness, or sheer bad lust.
If a woman was involved, she was temptress as often as victim. The look of the pictures was distinctive: Their characters lived in shadows and at night, in a world of neon, cigarettes and cars with running boards. The women wore slinky, low-cut dresses and the men wore suits, ties and fedoras. And they liked to crack wise.
Not since its heyday (roughly from 1940 to 1955) has film noir been more popular than it is right now.
"Pulp Fiction" obtained its very title from the literature that spawned the genre. And just this year, Hollywood has released such noir items as "Amateur," "Exotica," "Destiny Turns On the Radio," "Kiss of Death," "Little Odessa," "Devil in a Blue Dress," "Shallow Grave," "Love and Human Remains," "Bulletproof Heart," "Seven," "Swimming With Sharks," "The Underneath" and "Strange Days."
"Leaving Las Vegas" and "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" are opening soon. And of course last summer's biggest hit, "Batman Forever," had a strong dose of noir in its look and atmosphere; of all the comic heroes, "Batman" is the quintessential noir figure.
Not all of those titles fit easily within the classic definition of film noir. That's because noir has evolved in recent years; it's not simply nostalgia any more, it's also a developing style that seems to grow out of these times, rather than simply recalling the 1940s.
Films like "Devil in a Blue Dress," with Denzel Washington as a post-World War II Los Angeles private eye, are obviously trying to evoke earlier times. But "Destiny Turns On the Radio" and "Amateur" are, in their own ways, reacting against noir traditions. And "Strange Days" is part of an apocalyptic noir tradition ranging back to "Blade Runner."
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