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Here's what film noir is to me.
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It's a righteous, generically American
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film movement
that went from 1945 to 1958
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and exposited one great theme.
And that theme is, you're...
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You have just met a woman,
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you are inches away
from the greatest sex of your life,
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but within six weeks
of meeting the woman,
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you will be framed
for a crime you did not commit,
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and you will end up in the gas chamber.
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And as they strap you in and you're
about to breathe the cyanide fumes,
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you'll be grateful for the few weeks
you had with her,
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and grateful for your own death.
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I didn't know what I was doing.
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I didn't know anything
except how much I hated.
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But I didn't take anything.
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I didn't, Jack.
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Won't you believe me?
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Baby, I don't care.
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In noir, people go to jail.
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Good men die. Criminals win.
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Evil triumphs over good.
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You could almost say that film noir
is the son of
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German expressionism
and American tough guy.
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It's a pure genre.
It was very, very gut-wrenching,
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appealing to your own, kind of,
doubts and uncertainties. Late-night stuff.
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I can't figure it.
What do you see in a guy like me?
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I see a guy who's swell.
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Who's kind and strong. That's what I see.
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There's a certain naiveté.
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The characters are very clear
what they want.
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And we always know
that most of them will fail.
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Oh, it's gonna be all right, Bill.
You wait and see.
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Julie.
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I won tonight.
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I won.
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Down these mean streets lurks...
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And so on. That's noir.
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I'm gonna go home and go to bed
where I can't get into trouble.
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You think not?
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I'll see you all of a sudden, Sammy.
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People confuse
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crime stories and noir.
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But the biggest difference I see
is crime fiction tends to be realistic.
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It tends to be in the here and now,
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and it tends to strive to shock you
with just how gritty and real it is.
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I find crime stories tend to be very literal,
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often quite boring,
generally rather ugly to look at.
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Whereas noir is gorgeous, it's all style,
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but it's the emotional realism
is what you're after.
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It's not that you're divorcing yourself
from reality,
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it's just you're saying, "'Reality is my clay. "'
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Don't come in.
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These are crime films.
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You know, they fall
under the large umbrella of crime films.
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But certainly, the type of subject matter
that distinguishes film noir
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is this idea of total moral ambiguity
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that is inaugurated in The Maltese Falcon.
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It's this sense that the hero
is not necessarily grounded
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in any sense of right or wrong.
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And a large part of that has to do
with the sense that the whole world
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is also one of radical instability.
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We didn't exactly believe your story,
Miss O'Shaughnessy.
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We believed your $200.
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You mean that...
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I mean you paid us more
than if you'd been telling us the truth,
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and enough more to make it all right.
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There is a real political streak
in these movies,
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because in the 1930s
when Warner Brothers
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was cranking out gangster pictures,
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they were lessons to the public,
like, "'Crime does not pay. "'
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Then noir came along after the War
and complicated things,
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because you were asked to empathize
and identify with those criminals
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in a way that wasn't really allowed
in the 1930s.
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Because of the situation
at the end of World War ll,
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the themes of these movies
tend to be dark, cynical,
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and pessimistic about human nature.
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Film noir, unlike other film,
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feels no responsibility to reflect
some sort of cinematic morality.
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Film noir just is.
It doesn't talk down to you,
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it doesn't condescend to you.
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It says to you,
"'This is the way the world is,
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"'and this is the way the world
is going to come out,
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"'and we're not going to pretend
that cinema has all of the answers. "'
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Aren't you in this deep enough?
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If you help them,
won't it make it worse for you?
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That's the way it's got to be.
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I can tell you I know it when I see it.
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But I don't know how to define it.
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Almost every element that you name
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as the definition of a noir film
would apply to Casablanca,
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but you would not call Casablanca
a noir film.
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Go ahead and shoot,
you'll be doing me a favor.
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Film noir is a very elusive thing to define.
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It's trench coats, it's intrigue,
it's cigarettes,
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it's the lying between men
about a woman,
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it's hidden motives,
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it's the psychological turning over
of characters.
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I think it's a very elusive genre.
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You take some horrible sort of satisfaction
in seeing people torn apart!
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They're headed for it, anyway.
You're headed for it.
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You're hanging onto something
that's gonna smack you.
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If I fold now, it smacks you later.
If I stick, it smacks you sooner.
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But cleaner.
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Maybe that's why I'm sticking.
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Film noir is not a genre, it's a style.
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It crosses many genres.
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I know there are people that think
that you can have a Western that's a noir.
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Or a war picture that's a noir.
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Generally, I tend to think
that it's a crime thriller.
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What designates a film as noir
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is when the writer and the director tell
the story from the criminal's point of view.
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The audience is made to identify
with the criminals.
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The way I figure, my luck's just gotta turn.
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One of these days I'll make a real killing,
then I'm gonna head for home.
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First thing I do when I get there,
I take a bath in the creek,
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and get the city dirt off me.
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That, to me, is a major distinction.
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A picture like On Dangerous Ground
is a noir,
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because Robert Ryan plays this cop
who really has a psychotic streak in him,
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and it's told through his eyes.
And that's a noir.
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For me, film noir is
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a historical movement
in the history of film.
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It began in earnest after World War ll,
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it started to decline
with the advent of television,
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and by the end of the '50s it was over.
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You're stubborn, but you're not afraid.
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You're an ex-con
with a new beef around your neck,
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and I could hang you with it.
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Hang me, then.
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One job like that
and I'm your pet rat for the rest of my life.
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Film noir is not a genre, but it is in fact
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a kind of tone poem for film.
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The visual tone
as well as the psychology of the film.
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If you look at a film noir
that's more or less typical,
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we could even use The Maltese Falcon.
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It has a certain world
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that has been established and created
by the filmmakers,
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where the style and the content
are very close together.
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In a sense, it represents a world
of extremes,
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of shadows, of extremes in emotion,
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working in the, sort of, the seamy
underbelly of San Francisco life,
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and the world is his world.
He inhabits it, we inhabit it,
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and everything about it has to do
with the tone and the style of the film
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being completely meshed into one.
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A genre, like a Western, a gangster,
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a space exploration kind of sci-fi film,
a zombie film...
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These genres will exist in perpetuity
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and they will always be reformulated.
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Now, at one point they were being made
in the film noir way.
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Film noir is a language,
which is deep shadows,
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strong angles, behavior over dialogue,
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and as a language,
that vocabulary can be used in a film
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in which its whole world is
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made up of those stylistic elements.
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But it can also be used as tools to create
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film noir of science fiction,
like Blade Runner,
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which to me is very much a film noir
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piece.
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Endless debate about the first film noir.
What is it?
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Fritz Lang's M, made in 1931,
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not made in America but made in Germany
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gets a lot of votes. I won't argue the point.
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But in the United States
there are several films.
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There's a small film made at RKO in 1940
called The Stranger on the Third Floor
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that really has all the hallmarks of noir,
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the visual look, the art direction, the
cinematography, what the story is about.
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It's complete, self-contained noir.
There it is.
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He said himself he'd kill Nick
if he only had a gun.
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When you look at the narrative elements
that really define the genre,
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I think Detour is possibly not the earliest,
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but it's the most stripped-down
B- movie film noir I'm aware of,
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which I think is actually
in a lot of ways more interesting
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than the big, polished studio version of it
that Citizen Kane was,
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however, you know, brilliant that was,
and it's a great favorite of mine.
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There are some films even in the '30s
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that people have said are film noir,
because they're very dark gangster films.
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A lot of people think Double Indemnity
is the first film noir,
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and many people think that it didn't
happen until Murder, My Sweet.
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The papers didn't say much
except that he wasn't shot.
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- How?
- With a sap, only good.
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If an elephant had stepped on his head,
same effect.
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For me, it's a style of the '40s,
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a most interesting style
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because it introduces more complexity,
more ambiguity
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into American cinema.
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It introduces characters
who are not all good or bad.
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People who use pretty faces like you
use yours don't live very long anyway.
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How do you think I should use my face?
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You're rolling your own dice, kid.
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It had a lot to do with
things held over from the Depression
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because so many of the stories
were based on the works of writers
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who were writing
at the peak of their powers
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during the Great Depression.
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And that's when you had Hammett
and James M. Cain
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and W.R. Burnett started writing
these crime pictures,
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and Raymond Chandler started writing,
and Cornell Woolrich.
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And there was a huge wave
of these movies.
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I call it the "black tide"
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that washed over Hollywood
in the post-World War ll years.
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And it was indicative, I think,
of America's loss of innocence.
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What do you really think of me?
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You impress me as a man
who needs a new suit of clothes
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or a new love affair,
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but he doesn't know which.
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Screenwriters were determined
to paint almost an anti-myth.
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If Hollywood in the Depression
was selling the idea of
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"Don't worry about it," you know,
"We'll get out of it,"
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and, "We're eternally optimistic,"
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now that World War ll had passed,
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and we'd all seen
just how bad it could really get,
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they were saying, "'Hey, you know,
it's time to grow up, "'
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00:11:37,096 --> 00:11:40,827
and, "'That happily-ever-after thing
is an abomination, in a way. "'
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And so they created
what essentially was an anti-myth
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in these crime dramas.
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You know, that the world is, at heart,
a really nasty, dark, ugly place.
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00:11:51,944 --> 00:11:55,744
And finally, I guess, American audiences
were ready to accept that.
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Sounds like a soul in hell.
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I think World War ll changed
how we saw movies in many ways.
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Bogart could not have been a hero
before World War ll.
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The country was really more sophisticated
and willing to accept
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a different kind of reality
than they had before the War.
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Everyone grew up in World War ll.
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And it was everything from existentialism
to film noir that would really say,
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"'There is a dark side out there. "'
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Now we start looking at each other again.
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We don't know
what we're supposed to do.
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We don't know
what's supposed to happen.
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We're too used to fighting.
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00:12:30,282 --> 00:12:32,182
But we just don't know what to fight.
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Between the end of World War ll
and the atomic age
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and the threat of annihilation,
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suddenly you're looking at a world
that is not comfortable in any way.
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00:12:39,558 --> 00:12:42,652
You've fought the great battle
for democracy and you've won,
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00:12:42,728 --> 00:12:44,389
and yet death is hanging over you.
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Keeley, what's happened?
Has everything suddenly gone crazy?
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I don't mean just this, I mean everything,
or is it just me?
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Oh, it's not just you.
238
00:12:55,074 --> 00:12:57,634
The snakes are loose.
Anybody can get them.
239
00:12:58,344 --> 00:13:01,313
I get them myself,
but they're friends of mine.
240
00:13:02,381 --> 00:13:05,942
We, culturally, pop-culturally,
we always look for a metaphor.
241
00:13:06,585 --> 00:13:10,681
The same way that the Soviet threat
was turned into aliens and spaceships,
242
00:13:11,056 --> 00:13:12,546
and flying saucers.
243
00:13:12,892 --> 00:13:15,417
The frustration of returning soldiers,
244
00:13:15,494 --> 00:13:17,621
coming back thinking
they'd created a utopia
245
00:13:17,997 --> 00:13:20,192
and finding out it was still
the same crappy old world,
246
00:13:20,299 --> 00:13:24,235
translated into this entire genre
of a chaotic world
247
00:13:24,303 --> 00:13:29,206
that had to be redressed by these
lonely men who would sort things out.
248
00:13:29,742 --> 00:13:33,234
With World War ll, the country was
very reluctant to get into the war,
249
00:13:33,746 --> 00:13:36,078
as are most of the heroes in film noir.
250
00:13:36,182 --> 00:13:38,446
They know that they're getting involved
in something bad,
251
00:13:38,784 --> 00:13:41,116
but they have to do it for whatever reason.
252
00:13:41,187 --> 00:13:45,453
They're compelled into it,
and once there, they learn
253
00:13:45,524 --> 00:13:49,119
that no matter how much they thought
they had control over the situation,
254
00:13:49,395 --> 00:13:53,195
they don't. And that everything
ended badly, even if you won.
255
00:13:53,966 --> 00:13:55,092
He's just a kid.
256
00:13:55,301 --> 00:13:58,168
Yeah, that's what I said once.
257
00:13:58,604 --> 00:14:00,094
Maybe you'll be lucky.
258
00:14:00,472 --> 00:14:02,440
Maybe they won't send him
back to prison.
259
00:14:03,209 --> 00:14:05,040
Maybe he'll get himself killed first.
260
00:14:05,477 --> 00:14:08,071
There is a definite ratcheting up
of screen violence
261
00:14:08,147 --> 00:14:10,377
in the American cinema of the '40s.
262
00:14:10,449 --> 00:14:13,441
Filmmakers and writers and cameramen
263
00:14:13,519 --> 00:14:16,317
learning how to negotiate
the production code.
264
00:14:16,388 --> 00:14:19,789
At this point,
it's been refined to a sort of fine art.
265
00:14:19,892 --> 00:14:23,953
So we do have scenes
of strange sadism and cruelty
266
00:14:24,063 --> 00:14:26,327
which are really quite extraordinary.
267
00:14:28,834 --> 00:14:30,825
I've never spoken to anybody
who was involved
268
00:14:30,903 --> 00:14:32,666
in the production of one of these films
269
00:14:32,805 --> 00:14:34,898
in the original noir era,
270
00:14:35,007 --> 00:14:37,373
who knew that what they were doing
was film noir.
271
00:14:37,443 --> 00:14:39,536
They laugh
when you tell that to them now.
272
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:41,039
We didn't know it was film noir.
273
00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,408
I was just shooting a picture
with a mood that I thought it needed,
274
00:14:44,483 --> 00:14:47,884
and also would give me time
to work with the actors
275
00:14:47,953 --> 00:14:50,717
and less time for lighting
and more time for working with the people
276
00:14:50,789 --> 00:14:52,757
so that I could get better work
out of them.
277
00:14:52,825 --> 00:14:55,157
And it worked beautifully,
and thank God it caught on.
278
00:14:55,661 --> 00:14:58,391
- Sorry, I've already got a fare.
- You sure have, two of them.
279
00:14:58,497 --> 00:14:59,486
Yes, sir.
280
00:14:59,565 --> 00:15:03,023
During World War ll,
all of the Hollywood studio films
281
00:15:03,102 --> 00:15:06,538
that sort of defined this new style
of filmmaking were embargoed
282
00:15:06,605 --> 00:15:07,697
and they didn't see them in France.
283
00:15:07,806 --> 00:15:12,869
So there was a big retrospective
of American movies in Paris in 1946.
284
00:15:13,112 --> 00:15:15,103
And they sort of noticed a shift,
285
00:15:15,180 --> 00:15:18,274
a sort of seismic shift in American movies
286
00:15:18,350 --> 00:15:21,183
where they suddenly became much darker.
287
00:15:21,253 --> 00:15:24,916
Where the themes were darker,
where the look of the film was darker.
288
00:15:24,990 --> 00:15:27,458
There was shadowy lighting,
chiaroscuro lighting.
289
00:15:27,526 --> 00:15:31,189
There was violence. Much more violence
than there had ever been.
290
00:15:31,497 --> 00:15:35,866
Psychology, Freudianism, existentialism,
all these things
291
00:15:36,001 --> 00:15:38,526
were in these movies
and they were shocked to see all this,
292
00:15:38,604 --> 00:15:40,128
and so they began to write about it.
293
00:15:40,205 --> 00:15:43,868
And they described it as film noir,
literally "'black film. "'
294
00:15:43,976 --> 00:15:48,504
But the French were actually
very amenable to this stuff before then
295
00:15:48,580 --> 00:15:50,172
because they were doing it themselves.
296
00:15:50,249 --> 00:15:53,741
French poetic realism,
the films that Jean Gabin made
297
00:15:53,819 --> 00:15:55,252
and Marcel Carné
298
00:15:55,321 --> 00:15:58,017
were all very much leading up to this
299
00:15:58,090 --> 00:16:01,617
and there was a whole series of novels
released in France
300
00:16:01,694 --> 00:16:04,162
from the late 1930s, the Serie Noir
301
00:16:04,229 --> 00:16:08,097
which speaks to that idea
that there is a noir content,
302
00:16:08,167 --> 00:16:10,067
the type of story you're telling,
303
00:16:10,135 --> 00:16:13,434
and a noir style,
the way you're telling the story.
304
00:16:13,539 --> 00:16:15,439
I'll take those for you.
305
00:16:23,148 --> 00:16:24,911
Great themes of film noir.
306
00:16:24,984 --> 00:16:29,978
Institutional corruption, sexual obsession,
and lives in great psychological duress.
307
00:16:30,155 --> 00:16:33,886
You take those three elements, man,
you can turn out a good crime story.
308
00:16:33,959 --> 00:16:35,824
Lieutenant! Lieutenant!
309
00:16:36,762 --> 00:16:39,253
That guy you saw in my office,
he's just passing through.
310
00:16:39,331 --> 00:16:42,698
Shut up. I didn't see anybody.
How could I? I wasn't here.
311
00:16:42,868 --> 00:16:46,770
What often drives a film noir is a crime.
312
00:16:46,839 --> 00:16:48,704
And I think, more importantly,
313
00:16:48,774 --> 00:16:51,334
a lot of times
it's the aftermath of the crime.
314
00:16:51,410 --> 00:16:54,072
It's the perfect heist that goes wrong.
315
00:16:54,146 --> 00:16:56,546
A gun fires of its own accord
and a man is shot
316
00:16:56,782 --> 00:16:59,910
and broken-down old harlots who are
no good for anything but chasing kids
317
00:16:59,985 --> 00:17:01,213
has to trip over us.
318
00:17:01,286 --> 00:17:04,153
Blind accident.
What can you do against blind accidents?
319
00:17:04,223 --> 00:17:06,851
It's seeing how people unravel
under pressure.
320
00:17:06,925 --> 00:17:11,055
And a lot of what film noir is
arises out of the aftermath of that crime.
321
00:17:11,563 --> 00:17:15,124
Hey, Dix. Dix.
Isn't he the one with the reward on him?
322
00:17:15,267 --> 00:17:16,894
Mind your own business.
323
00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:19,504
It's usually involved
with some kind of crime,
324
00:17:19,571 --> 00:17:21,630
or some kind of disorder.
325
00:17:21,707 --> 00:17:25,336
And usually film noir doesn't say
there's any solution to these problems
326
00:17:25,411 --> 00:17:28,312
and treats these forms of corruption
as traps
327
00:17:28,380 --> 00:17:31,781
that the heroes or the protagonists
get caught up in.
328
00:17:31,950 --> 00:17:34,350
You know, paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock,
329
00:17:34,420 --> 00:17:36,012
when he was talking about melodrama,
330
00:17:36,088 --> 00:17:39,057
he said that it was reality
with all the boring parts taken out.
331
00:17:39,124 --> 00:17:43,652
Film noir is us, our basic, sexual, greedy,
332
00:17:43,729 --> 00:17:46,197
honorable, and evil natures.
333
00:17:46,331 --> 00:17:48,299
All right, Lacey. Get up.
334
00:17:51,303 --> 00:17:52,600
You slob, you.
335
00:17:52,805 --> 00:17:55,638
I think, for me,
film noir is best defined, really,
336
00:17:55,707 --> 00:17:59,871
by the idea of character being defined
through action.
337
00:17:59,945 --> 00:18:02,743
You have a set of characters
engaged in a complex story
338
00:18:02,815 --> 00:18:07,650
and you are not able to judge
these characters until the end.
339
00:18:07,719 --> 00:18:09,687
And then you have to assess them
through their actions,
340
00:18:09,755 --> 00:18:11,450
through the "who did what to whom. "
341
00:18:11,523 --> 00:18:13,582
'Cause that's the tension in noir.
342
00:18:13,659 --> 00:18:17,254
We're not always sure
who is the bad guy or the bad lady.
343
00:18:17,362 --> 00:18:20,889
- No, I'm going to pick up a cab.
- Swell, we'll share one.
344
00:18:21,366 --> 00:18:24,358
I'm afraid not.
We go in different directions.
345
00:18:24,937 --> 00:18:26,962
That's where you're wrong.
346
00:18:27,039 --> 00:18:29,633
We're going in the same direction,
you and I.
347
00:18:29,708 --> 00:18:32,404
What could be more noir
than the anticipation
348
00:18:32,578 --> 00:18:36,742
of the ultimate denouement,
which is death?
349
00:18:36,815 --> 00:18:39,579
The traditional noir ending
is often grim, isn't it?
350
00:18:39,651 --> 00:18:43,951
It's the bleeding to death in the gutter
which is inherited from the gangster film.
351
00:18:44,490 --> 00:18:48,449
Fred MacMurray dropping dead in
the office at the end of Double Indemnity.
352
00:18:48,527 --> 00:18:51,087
That's how a proper noir ending is.
353
00:18:51,163 --> 00:18:54,496
Or even just the trap closing in,
the police arriving
354
00:18:54,566 --> 00:18:58,434
and taking away the regular guy
who's been tempted into crime.
355
00:18:58,504 --> 00:19:01,496
You take him in. I'll book this guy myself.
356
00:19:01,673 --> 00:19:05,040
One of the rules of film noir,
one of the unspoken rules,
357
00:19:05,110 --> 00:19:07,840
is the last line of the film.
358
00:19:07,913 --> 00:19:11,906
That the film really is playing
until its very last line.
359
00:19:12,184 --> 00:19:15,745
The Killing defines film noir
in its last two lines.
360
00:19:16,555 --> 00:19:19,820
The woman turns to Sterling Hayden, the
police are coming, he knows he's screwed,
361
00:19:19,892 --> 00:19:22,019
and she says, "Johnny, you've got to run. "
362
00:19:22,094 --> 00:19:23,789
And he just says,
363
00:19:25,364 --> 00:19:27,161
"What's the difference?"
364
00:19:27,399 --> 00:19:30,163
And his delivery,
the way in which he delivers it,
365
00:19:30,235 --> 00:19:34,103
and then walks into the arms
of the policemen is so fantastic.
366
00:19:34,173 --> 00:19:36,403
It's probably the most brutal vision of noir.
367
00:19:36,475 --> 00:19:40,775
It's the idea of,
"Yeah, life is nasty, brutish and short,
368
00:19:40,846 --> 00:19:42,609
"'but also cheap. "'
369
00:19:49,254 --> 00:19:52,121
The biggest challenge
facing the writers of these scripts
370
00:19:52,191 --> 00:19:55,319
was that they had to work within
the limits of the production code.
371
00:19:55,394 --> 00:19:58,488
So they had to figure out very subtle ways
372
00:19:58,564 --> 00:20:02,660
of conveying all this sexuality and greed
373
00:20:02,734 --> 00:20:05,567
and lust and all this illicit stuff.
374
00:20:05,637 --> 00:20:08,435
We ought to get along fine,
I'm a gambler myself.
375
00:20:10,609 --> 00:20:12,839
How high do you like to play?
376
00:20:13,612 --> 00:20:16,172
If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.
377
00:20:17,416 --> 00:20:21,216
You will find in these films,
tremendous sexual symbolism.
378
00:20:21,386 --> 00:20:23,684
Cigarettes are used in
379
00:20:24,056 --> 00:20:26,490
many ways that you
didn't really understand.
380
00:20:26,558 --> 00:20:29,959
"'Oh, yeah. That's what the cigarette
actually represents. "'
381
00:20:30,262 --> 00:20:33,959
You know, trains into tunnels
and all those kind of things.
382
00:20:34,733 --> 00:20:36,598
Sexuality in film noir,
383
00:20:37,736 --> 00:20:41,729
it permeates the whole movie
from start to finish.
384
00:20:42,107 --> 00:20:43,665
Either through the music,
385
00:20:43,742 --> 00:20:47,178
but certainly through the innuendo
and the dialogue.
386
00:20:47,279 --> 00:20:49,839
I need a drink.
What do you need, Miss Doyle?
387
00:20:49,915 --> 00:20:51,746
Well, let's say a drink.
388
00:20:51,817 --> 00:20:54,650
Film noir movies are often very sexual.
389
00:20:55,053 --> 00:20:59,615
But they're sexual in a much more dark,
390
00:21:00,192 --> 00:21:03,059
violent, animalistic way
391
00:21:03,128 --> 00:21:06,029
rather than anything
that might be called love.
392
00:21:06,098 --> 00:21:08,726
He's kind of exciting and attractive.
393
00:21:09,534 --> 00:21:11,832
- Who's attractive? Who's exciting?
- Earl!
394
00:21:11,903 --> 00:21:14,098
The thing that's great about noir is
395
00:21:14,172 --> 00:21:18,040
that this collaboration
between the writers
396
00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:20,442
and the directors and the actors
397
00:21:20,512 --> 00:21:23,276
really created a tone for these pictures
398
00:21:23,348 --> 00:21:26,647
and there was no way
the production code could fight that.
399
00:21:27,352 --> 00:21:30,583
There's those ways of creating
a sexual tension
400
00:21:31,323 --> 00:21:33,985
that has actually nothing to do
with a kiss, a hug, an embrace,
401
00:21:34,059 --> 00:21:38,496
but more between what could be
and is not quite going to happen.
402
00:21:38,964 --> 00:21:40,363
For another nickel we can have a rumba.
403
00:21:40,432 --> 00:21:43,765
No thanks. Save your money.
Hard times are coming.
404
00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:46,395
It's 1945 to 1958.
405
00:21:46,638 --> 00:21:50,540
Sexuality has not been bandied about,
dissected, discarded,
406
00:21:50,742 --> 00:21:52,937
re-invented, de-mythologized,
407
00:21:53,011 --> 00:21:55,809
re-re-mythologized and deconstructed
408
00:21:55,881 --> 00:21:59,248
the way it has 50 and 60 years later.
409
00:21:59,318 --> 00:22:00,979
It still had some panache.
410
00:22:01,053 --> 00:22:04,113
It was something that people
didn't talk about openly
411
00:22:04,189 --> 00:22:07,090
but did fervently behind closed doors.
412
00:22:07,159 --> 00:22:09,992
But in somewhat less volume than today.
413
00:22:10,062 --> 00:22:13,862
So, it had the odd power of the illicit.
414
00:22:14,366 --> 00:22:19,030
And I will only close with this about sex,
the great joke of the 1950s,
415
00:22:19,104 --> 00:22:23,871
"I want to find the guy who invented sex
and ask him what he's working on now. "
416
00:22:28,914 --> 00:22:31,644
I think the film noir filmmakers
417
00:22:32,351 --> 00:22:34,842
were really filmmakers for B-films.
418
00:22:35,020 --> 00:22:37,488
And if you look back
at the history of Hollywood
419
00:22:37,556 --> 00:22:41,185
in the '40s and '50s,
huge numbers of films were being made.
420
00:22:41,259 --> 00:22:44,717
And they were made either with
large budgets, A-category films,
421
00:22:44,796 --> 00:22:47,128
or small budgets,
and those were the B-films.
422
00:22:47,199 --> 00:22:50,293
I think young filmmakers then,
that's how they learned to make movies.
423
00:22:50,369 --> 00:22:52,234
They were shuttled
into the low-budget films
424
00:22:52,304 --> 00:22:53,896
and they were given
pretty much free reign
425
00:22:53,972 --> 00:22:56,099
because they were made
under the radar completely.
426
00:22:56,174 --> 00:23:00,508
But these films were largely made
to fill the lower part of a double bill
427
00:23:00,579 --> 00:23:03,047
in order to have a long evening's
entertainment at the theater.
428
00:23:03,115 --> 00:23:08,018
So they were, in a strange way, a creation
of the distribution system in America.
429
00:23:08,086 --> 00:23:12,147
A lot of these films were made by émigrés
who came from Europe.
430
00:23:12,758 --> 00:23:14,555
And I'm thinking of people like Fritz Lang
431
00:23:14,626 --> 00:23:16,821
who, at the height of Ufa, in Germany,
432
00:23:16,895 --> 00:23:19,557
pioneered a lot of the techniques
of film noir.
433
00:23:19,998 --> 00:23:24,697
Also, Billy Wilder came from this same,
sort of, cooking school of Ufa, so to speak,
434
00:23:24,870 --> 00:23:29,830
and brought all the ingredients to America
and used them freely.
435
00:23:30,075 --> 00:23:32,100
Things like the American horror film...
436
00:23:32,177 --> 00:23:34,407
I think, was a big influence on film noir.
437
00:23:34,479 --> 00:23:36,037
I think, for instance, it's a shame
438
00:23:36,114 --> 00:23:39,277
that Val Lewton's movies
are never considered as noir,
439
00:23:39,351 --> 00:23:43,219
because basically they get very early
in the cycle and do things...
440
00:23:43,288 --> 00:23:46,451
I mean, something like
The Seventh Victim, even Cat People
441
00:23:46,525 --> 00:23:49,358
is a very film noir look movie.
442
00:23:49,428 --> 00:23:52,591
And, you know, Jacques Tourneur
goes from the Lewton films
443
00:23:52,664 --> 00:23:54,063
to making Out of the Past,
444
00:23:54,132 --> 00:23:56,396
which, if you have to pick one film noir,
that's it.
445
00:23:56,468 --> 00:24:00,632
That's got... Every possible aspect
of noir is in that picture.
446
00:24:00,906 --> 00:24:04,398
It was a very complex phenomenon,
noir, the style.
447
00:24:04,876 --> 00:24:07,436
It had antecedents
in German expressionistic film
448
00:24:07,512 --> 00:24:10,140
between 1919 and 1938.
449
00:24:10,615 --> 00:24:14,881
That laid out the formal systems
for film noir.
450
00:24:15,220 --> 00:24:18,519
Lighting schemes, staging,
as well as subject matter
451
00:24:18,590 --> 00:24:21,491
because German expressionistic film
was dealing with
452
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:23,791
men who were coming apart.
453
00:24:23,862 --> 00:24:26,228
Human beings who were coming apart.
454
00:24:30,469 --> 00:24:33,199
A lot of the people who were
the technicians of film noir,
455
00:24:33,271 --> 00:24:36,729
directors, cinematographers,
were out of Germany.
456
00:24:37,075 --> 00:24:40,806
And so, they were very influenced
by that movement in the 1920s.
457
00:24:41,413 --> 00:24:44,814
The house style that was devised
at Warner Brothers,
458
00:24:45,250 --> 00:24:48,651
from the entrance of Michael Curtiz
in the late '20s,
459
00:24:49,054 --> 00:24:50,885
a Hungarian Jew
460
00:24:51,189 --> 00:24:54,317
who was trained
in the Norway film industry,
461
00:24:54,392 --> 00:24:58,226
and Norway film industry really was
the forerunner of German expressionism,
462
00:24:58,296 --> 00:25:00,856
so he knew German expressionism
through and through.
463
00:25:00,932 --> 00:25:03,025
He brought this style to Warner Brothers
464
00:25:03,101 --> 00:25:06,901
and it was complemented by
the visual designer there, Anton Grot,
465
00:25:06,972 --> 00:25:09,065
again, an Eastern European
466
00:25:09,140 --> 00:25:11,335
who knew German expressionism
through and through.
467
00:25:11,409 --> 00:25:13,900
And so you take a look
at these classic gangster films
468
00:25:13,979 --> 00:25:16,004
and classic G-men films
at Warner Brothers.
469
00:25:16,081 --> 00:25:17,810
It's a dry run for noir.
470
00:25:17,883 --> 00:25:19,441
No, no, it's all right.
471
00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:22,214
What's the difference?
I've seen everything.
472
00:25:26,625 --> 00:25:30,561
Film noir is a wonderful genre
for cinematographers,
473
00:25:30,729 --> 00:25:35,496
simply because we can create a light
that behaves like its own character.
474
00:25:36,101 --> 00:25:37,227
When I think of noir,
475
00:25:37,502 --> 00:25:40,130
I always think of diagonals,
476
00:25:40,205 --> 00:25:43,003
things not being level, not being straight,
477
00:25:43,308 --> 00:25:45,674
because nothing is quite on the level.
478
00:25:45,744 --> 00:25:47,268
Nothing is what it seems.
479
00:25:47,345 --> 00:25:51,907
There's just a very menacing mood.
The camera angles are askew.
480
00:25:51,983 --> 00:25:56,386
You're never quite sure
of where you're at in this world.
481
00:25:56,621 --> 00:25:58,555
Shoot up, shoot down.
482
00:25:58,723 --> 00:26:03,558
It's a way of attacking space,
because harmonic space is your enemy,
483
00:26:03,795 --> 00:26:07,390
because harmonic space
represents a secure world
484
00:26:07,599 --> 00:26:10,193
and you are in an insecure world.
485
00:26:10,835 --> 00:26:14,896
In your classic noir movie,
the camera's used in two different ways.
486
00:26:14,973 --> 00:26:18,136
It has to express not just
what's happening in the scene,
487
00:26:18,243 --> 00:26:20,768
but it has to express
the psychological depth
488
00:26:20,845 --> 00:26:23,780
or problems of the characters
in the scene itself.
489
00:26:23,848 --> 00:26:27,875
It's telling the story, but it's also
presenting a stylized viewpoint
490
00:26:27,953 --> 00:26:30,114
of abstract concepts.
491
00:26:30,255 --> 00:26:32,746
So a lot of the great moments in film noir,
492
00:26:32,824 --> 00:26:35,725
are not looking straight at somebody
but from a weird position
493
00:26:35,794 --> 00:26:38,854
that, as an audience, makes you feel
a little uncomfortable, a little nervous
494
00:26:38,930 --> 00:26:40,454
a little tension.
495
00:26:41,299 --> 00:26:43,096
Is that the patrol?
496
00:26:44,469 --> 00:26:47,267
It's the wind in the telephone wires
over on the highway.
497
00:26:47,339 --> 00:26:51,139
Relativity is important to me.
Going from light to dark, dark to light.
498
00:26:51,276 --> 00:26:55,975
And film noir is...
I find it fascinating when I watch it.
499
00:26:56,047 --> 00:26:59,949
I've always considered it
this kind of stark, graphic lighting.
500
00:27:00,018 --> 00:27:02,179
There are a lot of graphics in the lighting.
501
00:27:02,253 --> 00:27:04,778
I've always felt it's what you don't see
502
00:27:05,090 --> 00:27:07,615
that's kind of disturbing.
503
00:27:07,692 --> 00:27:10,627
So you don't quite know what's going on.
504
00:27:11,129 --> 00:27:13,563
Not seeing the face is fascinating, too.
505
00:27:13,632 --> 00:27:18,660
Seeing that little bit of shimmer on skin
or the way the hat is against the blinds.
506
00:27:19,504 --> 00:27:22,564
You know? It's a more mythic way
507
00:27:22,641 --> 00:27:26,008
of dealing with light and dark,
good and evil.
508
00:27:28,146 --> 00:27:30,444
You have to have rain.
You have to have smoke.
509
00:27:30,515 --> 00:27:32,244
You have to have dark shadows.
510
00:27:32,317 --> 00:27:34,376
You have to have, maybe, moving light.
511
00:27:34,452 --> 00:27:38,047
You have to have some kind of a light
pattern that the characters walk through.
512
00:27:38,123 --> 00:27:41,286
So, maybe it's a fence,
maybe it's a window pattern,
513
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,988
maybe it's a shadow of a tree,
maybe it's tree branches.
514
00:27:45,063 --> 00:27:48,863
So that's the visual language
that we work with when we do film noir.
515
00:27:48,933 --> 00:27:53,131
And I still feel that
the black and white noirs are the best.
516
00:27:53,204 --> 00:27:54,831
In color film,
517
00:27:54,906 --> 00:27:58,239
the lighting has never been able
to achieve the degree of precision
518
00:27:58,309 --> 00:28:00,334
that you see even in Hollywood B-movies.
519
00:28:00,412 --> 00:28:02,380
- One more job?
- No.
520
00:28:03,281 --> 00:28:05,613
- One more job? A big one.
- No, I'm afraid.
521
00:28:05,684 --> 00:28:09,916
The originality of film noir is
you had these technicians from Germany
522
00:28:09,988 --> 00:28:13,116
who loved to split everything
into shadows and fractured light.
523
00:28:13,191 --> 00:28:14,886
The Letter with Bette Davis,
524
00:28:14,959 --> 00:28:17,826
is a beautiful example of a film
with the German kind of lighting in it.
525
00:28:22,367 --> 00:28:24,198
Then you had the post-war movement
526
00:28:24,269 --> 00:28:26,499
of getting out of the studio
and shooting in the streets.
527
00:28:26,571 --> 00:28:29,938
A lot of the technology
which freed the film noir
528
00:28:30,175 --> 00:28:33,076
was actually pioneered during the war.
529
00:28:33,144 --> 00:28:35,510
High speed lenses, fast film,
530
00:28:36,081 --> 00:28:38,345
the mag stock for sound
531
00:28:38,416 --> 00:28:41,908
which liberated the cameras so that
you could actually take it on the street.
532
00:28:41,986 --> 00:28:45,422
Lightweight cameras came into existence,
hence the hand-held camera.
533
00:28:45,490 --> 00:28:47,117
And so, they were out in the streets
534
00:28:47,192 --> 00:28:49,717
shooting films that were
being shot in 10 days,
535
00:28:49,794 --> 00:28:51,762
and still trying to use that kind of lighting.
536
00:28:51,830 --> 00:28:54,765
And it made for a very original
and fresh world.
537
00:28:58,536 --> 00:29:00,367
In Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night
538
00:29:00,438 --> 00:29:02,463
it's famous because it was actually
the first film
539
00:29:02,540 --> 00:29:05,634
to actually use a helicopter shot
to open the picture.
540
00:29:05,710 --> 00:29:08,907
And that sort of innovative
camera technique
541
00:29:08,980 --> 00:29:12,040
Nicholas Ray continued
to use throughout the film.
542
00:29:12,117 --> 00:29:15,678
Very daring stuff, putting the camera
in the back of the car,
543
00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:18,018
things from Farley Granger's perspective.
544
00:29:18,089 --> 00:29:19,420
It's brilliant.
545
00:29:19,491 --> 00:29:21,721
I mean, Nicholas Ray
directed that picture like it was
546
00:29:21,793 --> 00:29:23,420
not only the first movie
he was going to direct,
547
00:29:23,495 --> 00:29:25,827
but the last movie he was going to direct.
548
00:29:25,897 --> 00:29:27,421
We move fast.
549
00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:29,032
- Can you take it?
- Me?
550
00:29:29,501 --> 00:29:32,834
- You.
- Sure. I can rip myself up to anything.
551
00:29:33,071 --> 00:29:35,301
You see it in a lot of noir films
552
00:29:35,373 --> 00:29:38,274
where all of a sudden
the camera assumes the perspective
553
00:29:38,343 --> 00:29:41,335
of the protagonist
and it's a wonderful little gimmick
554
00:29:41,412 --> 00:29:43,676
for making the audience empathize.
555
00:29:43,748 --> 00:29:47,206
The most extreme example
being Robert Montgomery's decision
556
00:29:47,285 --> 00:29:50,277
to shoot all of the Lady in the Lake
from Philip Marlowe's perspective.
557
00:29:50,355 --> 00:29:54,951
Not that Marlowe is a heavy in that film
or a true noir protagonist,
558
00:29:55,226 --> 00:29:58,821
but, I mean,
that is a pretty daring thing to do.
559
00:29:58,897 --> 00:30:01,365
Please don't be so difficult
to get along with.
560
00:30:01,432 --> 00:30:04,094
- I need help.
- Like I need four thumbs.
561
00:30:04,402 --> 00:30:07,667
You never saw the actor
who played the lead,
562
00:30:07,806 --> 00:30:10,798
except in the mirror.
You only saw what he saw.
563
00:30:10,875 --> 00:30:13,844
Which was me.
That was what was so unusual about it.
564
00:30:13,912 --> 00:30:15,971
The setting of where they happen
is very important.
565
00:30:16,047 --> 00:30:18,345
Usually urban settings.
566
00:30:18,416 --> 00:30:21,681
That world has to become
part of the film noir world.
567
00:30:21,886 --> 00:30:24,946
The tenderloin district
or the police precinct district
568
00:30:25,023 --> 00:30:29,551
or the seedy, strange places
that you go to, to investigate a crime.
569
00:30:29,627 --> 00:30:34,564
It becomes this very precise
and contained film noir world.
570
00:30:34,632 --> 00:30:36,691
You know, you don't see kids
in film noir movies,
571
00:30:36,768 --> 00:30:39,032
you don't see a lot of normal things.
572
00:30:42,707 --> 00:30:46,268
There is that whole sense of the whirlpool.
573
00:30:46,344 --> 00:30:49,541
A kind of a Freudian sense
of being sucked down
574
00:30:49,614 --> 00:30:52,549
and being lost in the primal mystery.
575
00:30:52,617 --> 00:30:53,948
What's the big idea?
576
00:30:54,018 --> 00:30:56,953
Being trapped is essential
577
00:30:57,255 --> 00:30:58,882
to the whole noir ethos.
578
00:30:58,957 --> 00:31:02,188
You've done something
and now you can't get out of it.
579
00:31:02,260 --> 00:31:04,694
Even if it's something that takes place
in the great outdoors,
580
00:31:04,762 --> 00:31:08,926
invariably the film will be photographed
and edited in such a way
581
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,992
that the protagonist feels
completely trapped.
582
00:31:12,070 --> 00:31:14,095
I wanted her to smile, but she wouldn't.
583
00:31:15,173 --> 00:31:17,038
I tried to make her smile.
584
00:31:17,108 --> 00:31:19,702
A lot of the locations
and the types of environments
585
00:31:19,777 --> 00:31:21,540
that you're shooting film noirs in
586
00:31:21,613 --> 00:31:24,275
tend to be those which are closing in
on the character
587
00:31:24,349 --> 00:31:26,078
as opposed to opening up.
588
00:31:26,150 --> 00:31:28,618
You don't find a lot of film noirs
in the desert.
589
00:31:28,686 --> 00:31:30,551
These films didn't cost
a great deal of money,
590
00:31:30,622 --> 00:31:32,954
there wasn't
a great deal of time to shoot them,
591
00:31:33,024 --> 00:31:35,356
and as a result
you tended to minimize set-ups,
592
00:31:35,426 --> 00:31:38,918
and that's why you have a character
in the extreme foreground
593
00:31:38,997 --> 00:31:41,727
and a character in the extreme background
both facing the camera.
594
00:31:41,799 --> 00:31:45,530
That way you could fit them both in the
frame in a stylized and interesting manner
595
00:31:45,603 --> 00:31:48,538
and shoot the entire scene in one set-up.
596
00:31:48,673 --> 00:31:51,836
I think it might come as a surprise
to a lot of people to realize
597
00:31:51,910 --> 00:31:54,242
that the producers and directors
of these films
598
00:31:54,312 --> 00:31:56,974
were being so creative, visually,
599
00:31:57,115 --> 00:31:59,879
to hide the fact that they had
no budgets at all
600
00:31:59,951 --> 00:32:02,215
and the production values were terrible.
601
00:32:02,287 --> 00:32:04,915
So, it's like,
"'Yeah. Let's cast a shadow over there
602
00:32:04,989 --> 00:32:08,220
"'because otherwise there's just an
empty hole, there's nothing to look at. "'
603
00:32:08,293 --> 00:32:10,727
What could we do
to get the attention of the executives,
604
00:32:10,795 --> 00:32:12,319
to show them that we had the talent?
605
00:32:12,397 --> 00:32:14,558
The only thing we could do
was work in set-ups
606
00:32:14,632 --> 00:32:18,193
and in camera techniques and camera
lighting, 'cause that didn't take any time.
607
00:32:18,269 --> 00:32:21,864
Actually, the lighting we developed, which
became later known as film noir lighting
608
00:32:21,940 --> 00:32:24,636
took far less time than classical lighting.
609
00:32:24,776 --> 00:32:27,870
So, you know, you work fast like that
you kind of make things up,
610
00:32:27,946 --> 00:32:30,278
and you use techniques
like the things that were created
611
00:32:30,348 --> 00:32:34,148
by a cameraman like John Alton
were done through necessity.
612
00:32:34,218 --> 00:32:36,049
I think sometimes darkness
613
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:39,112
is more beautiful than light.
614
00:32:39,190 --> 00:32:42,990
I think everybody has a certain sense,
although they're not conscious of it,
615
00:32:43,061 --> 00:32:46,497
of how things change in the dark
616
00:32:46,564 --> 00:32:49,294
and the greatest things in the world
happened at night.
617
00:32:49,367 --> 00:32:52,029
The good and the bad happens at night.
618
00:32:52,203 --> 00:32:54,797
The murders and the marriages
619
00:32:55,006 --> 00:32:57,167
and the love scenes, all at night.
620
00:32:57,508 --> 00:32:59,100
I don't know
where the influence came from.
621
00:32:59,177 --> 00:33:01,975
I sometimes think it came
from the street photographers
622
00:33:02,180 --> 00:33:06,947
that were starting to capture, sort of,
life on the streets in the big cities,
623
00:33:07,018 --> 00:33:09,782
and that the filmmakers then sort of used.
624
00:33:09,854 --> 00:33:14,052
They were influenced by that
to go out and film on location
625
00:33:14,125 --> 00:33:17,458
and film at night on streets, in rain,
and in cars.
626
00:33:17,762 --> 00:33:20,230
All those elements make the viewers
627
00:33:20,298 --> 00:33:25,031
respond to the story on an instinctual
level rather than intellectual level.
628
00:33:25,103 --> 00:33:27,731
The visual style is
a little bit more instinctual.
629
00:33:31,209 --> 00:33:35,441
Well, the environment of film noir
is the urban world
630
00:33:36,914 --> 00:33:39,109
in mid-20th century America.
631
00:33:39,350 --> 00:33:42,319
It is the depiction of this dark,
632
00:33:42,687 --> 00:33:44,712
seductive fantasy world
633
00:33:44,789 --> 00:33:48,418
that draws people to these movies
above and beyond everything else.
634
00:33:48,493 --> 00:33:51,690
It's almost like a fevered dream
of that world.
635
00:33:57,935 --> 00:33:59,835
The editing in a film noir,
636
00:33:59,904 --> 00:34:03,169
doesn't have to edit as fast
as a lot of other genres.
637
00:34:03,241 --> 00:34:05,402
And that's good, because it gives you time
638
00:34:05,476 --> 00:34:09,207
to sit in this mood
and to be a little unsettled
639
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,374
by all the elements,
editing being a big one of them.
640
00:34:12,450 --> 00:34:14,975
Editing in noir is amazing
641
00:34:15,053 --> 00:34:19,012
because the stories
are so complex sometimes,
642
00:34:19,090 --> 00:34:22,321
that just keeping track of things
can be a challenge.
643
00:34:22,393 --> 00:34:25,726
So, in addition to the standard
editing devices,
644
00:34:25,797 --> 00:34:28,095
you know, you'll see in noir
645
00:34:28,399 --> 00:34:31,766
a kind of jumpy editing,
646
00:34:31,836 --> 00:34:34,634
sometimes used as a substitute
for violence.
647
00:34:34,705 --> 00:34:37,469
Because there really isn't a lot of violence
shown in these movies.
648
00:34:37,542 --> 00:34:39,908
People get the mistaken impression
that somehow
649
00:34:39,977 --> 00:34:42,537
these are films with a lot of action
and a lot of gunplay,
650
00:34:42,613 --> 00:34:45,207
and they really aren't.
They're psychological dramas.
651
00:34:45,283 --> 00:34:49,049
And the editing sometimes
plays a large part in that,
652
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:53,784
establishing a violence that they couldn't
actually show on the screen at this time.
653
00:34:55,293 --> 00:34:56,988
I think the non-linear aspect
654
00:34:58,196 --> 00:35:01,324
of story-telling in film noir
is one of the reasons that I love the genre.
655
00:35:01,399 --> 00:35:03,731
Greater narrative freedoms
were allowed the filmmakers.
656
00:35:03,801 --> 00:35:06,531
There was an expectation
of peculiar points of view.
657
00:35:06,604 --> 00:35:10,973
Whether it's a dead man
narrating the film as in Sunset Blvd.
658
00:35:11,442 --> 00:35:14,104
Or even if you look at some
of the Val Lewton films.
659
00:35:14,178 --> 00:35:17,272
These films have always been
free to adopt
660
00:35:17,348 --> 00:35:21,842
very peculiar narrative devices
in order to play with audience expectation.
661
00:35:21,919 --> 00:35:23,750
Frankie was kidding himself.
662
00:35:24,188 --> 00:35:25,587
He was through.
663
00:35:25,957 --> 00:35:29,017
And when he went,
the money would go with him.
664
00:35:29,627 --> 00:35:33,859
Voice-over is an editorial tool
that comes from writing, essentially,
665
00:35:33,931 --> 00:35:37,025
where the first person
starts to tell his story,
666
00:35:37,735 --> 00:35:40,260
telling you what fate has brought him.
667
00:35:40,505 --> 00:35:43,497
You've got to watch them.
You've got to watch them all the time.
668
00:35:43,574 --> 00:35:46,134
Because things happen
when you least expect them.
669
00:35:50,148 --> 00:35:52,582
The characters are so hard-bitten.
670
00:35:52,683 --> 00:35:55,481
So, I think sometimes filmmakers
add a voice-over
671
00:35:55,553 --> 00:35:59,114
to try to give the audience
an in into the character
672
00:35:59,190 --> 00:36:01,988
and the voice-over is always
the character in the movie
673
00:36:02,059 --> 00:36:03,993
speaking directly to the audience.
674
00:36:04,061 --> 00:36:07,656
My feet hurt and my mind felt
like a plumber's handkerchief.
675
00:36:08,432 --> 00:36:11,458
The office bottle hadn't sparked me up
so I'd taken out my little black book
676
00:36:11,536 --> 00:36:13,094
and decided to go grouse-hunting.
677
00:36:13,171 --> 00:36:15,901
The style of that voice-over, I think,
678
00:36:15,973 --> 00:36:19,670
is one of the things that's really
characterized the attitude of the films.
679
00:36:19,744 --> 00:36:22,144
The way in which
the voice-over is delivered,
680
00:36:22,213 --> 00:36:24,272
the sort of laconic quality to it.
681
00:36:24,348 --> 00:36:27,317
The sort of Raymond Chandler
feel of things, I think,
682
00:36:27,385 --> 00:36:30,377
is one of the key defining elements
of the genre.
683
00:36:31,088 --> 00:36:33,488
That old black pit opened up again.
684
00:36:33,558 --> 00:36:35,219
Right on schedule.
685
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:37,460
I didn't expect to hit bottom.
686
00:36:37,528 --> 00:36:39,223
That's all I know.
687
00:36:39,664 --> 00:36:42,531
On account I don't see so well
with my eyeballs scorched.
688
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,899
Then there's another more subtle thing
about the editing in these films
689
00:36:45,970 --> 00:36:48,404
that I don't think gets discussed enough.
690
00:36:48,472 --> 00:36:51,669
Which is that the films
are really very seductive as well,
691
00:36:51,742 --> 00:36:56,736
and they kind of draw you in through
this flashback structure, very often,
692
00:36:57,081 --> 00:36:59,948
where it's a more spellbinding way
693
00:37:00,017 --> 00:37:02,315
of cutting a film
and it almost gets dreamy.
694
00:37:02,386 --> 00:37:05,878
...but I remember looking up
and seeing this girl, Jenny.
695
00:37:05,957 --> 00:37:10,291
Noir didn't invent flashbacks,
but noir perfected flashbacks,
696
00:37:10,361 --> 00:37:14,127
as complex and intricate
as they could possibly be.
697
00:37:14,398 --> 00:37:17,458
In Out of the Past it's used when
698
00:37:17,568 --> 00:37:21,561
Robert Mitchum is trying to explain
his past life to his girlfriend.
699
00:37:21,906 --> 00:37:25,933
It was the bottom of the barrel
and I scraped it, but I didn't care.
700
00:37:27,144 --> 00:37:28,270
I had her.
701
00:37:28,346 --> 00:37:31,975
You'll actually see the character speaking.
His voice continues
702
00:37:32,316 --> 00:37:36,446
and we go back in time
and essentially illustrate what he's saying.
703
00:37:36,954 --> 00:37:38,546
That technique is used a lot.
704
00:37:38,623 --> 00:37:40,955
$400,000.
705
00:37:42,326 --> 00:37:43,520
Only
706
00:37:44,528 --> 00:37:46,621
before he could take it
707
00:37:47,598 --> 00:37:49,532
he had to kill the driver.
708
00:37:50,768 --> 00:37:52,827
Frankie was in jail now.
709
00:37:58,175 --> 00:38:01,702
I think that music in noir
plays a much more important role
710
00:38:02,446 --> 00:38:04,539
than in other genres.
711
00:38:04,615 --> 00:38:07,243
In noir, the music has to be
another character.
712
00:38:07,318 --> 00:38:10,014
It's sort of this unseen presence that,
I think,
713
00:38:10,087 --> 00:38:13,147
can create a mood or remind the audience
714
00:38:13,224 --> 00:38:15,215
that we may be seeing
something onscreen,
715
00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:17,488
but there's something else going on.
716
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,735
Film noir has a very special relationship
with music.
717
00:38:25,803 --> 00:38:29,364
There are as many different ways
of scoring a film noir
718
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:30,998
almost as there are film noir movies.
719
00:38:31,075 --> 00:38:33,407
There's a lot of interesting layers
in film noir scoring,
720
00:38:33,477 --> 00:38:36,105
which is the rain, the darkness,
the loneliness,
721
00:38:36,180 --> 00:38:38,944
the fear of something unspecified.
722
00:38:42,620 --> 00:38:45,680
There's always a ticking clock aspect
to these films.
723
00:38:45,756 --> 00:38:49,988
And there's sort of a 24-hour period
or a week at the most, probably,
724
00:38:50,061 --> 00:38:51,892
and then, you know,
these events have to happen.
725
00:38:51,962 --> 00:38:56,365
So the music has to highlight
the ticking clock aspect of it.
726
00:38:56,434 --> 00:38:59,403
That's what's interesting,
is that you're always trying to throw
727
00:38:59,470 --> 00:39:02,667
an audience's expectations
in different directions,
728
00:39:02,740 --> 00:39:06,506
to play those ambiguities. You're never
quite sure what anybody's motivation is.
729
00:39:06,577 --> 00:39:09,045
You're never quite sure
where the evidence is leading.
730
00:39:09,113 --> 00:39:10,978
I want to go back to Mexico.
731
00:39:11,048 --> 00:39:14,279
I want to walk out of the sun again
and find you waiting.
732
00:39:14,352 --> 00:39:18,254
I want to sit in the same moonlight
and tell you all the things I never told you
733
00:39:18,322 --> 00:39:20,222
until you don't hate me.
734
00:39:20,691 --> 00:39:24,422
If it's a love story,
the love theme also has to have
735
00:39:24,595 --> 00:39:27,257
a sadness and an unresolved quality to it.
736
00:39:27,331 --> 00:39:29,629
The heroine or the hero might die.
737
00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:33,659
So we're never quite sure, you know,
what is going to be the end result.
738
00:39:38,008 --> 00:39:40,135
We have to be very careful that
739
00:39:40,211 --> 00:39:43,180
you know, there's nothing sentimental
about a film noir score.
740
00:39:43,247 --> 00:39:46,876
I think film noir, in the way it was stylized,
741
00:39:48,152 --> 00:39:50,814
only could help accentuate
the sexuality in film.
742
00:39:50,888 --> 00:39:52,617
The music could be very seductive,
743
00:39:52,690 --> 00:39:56,786
and seductive, at this time,
in more of a manipulative way
744
00:39:56,861 --> 00:40:00,422
as opposed to just pretty woman
walking through the scene.
745
00:40:00,498 --> 00:40:03,058
There's something dark going on,
but seductive.
746
00:40:03,134 --> 00:40:06,262
And I think that's
the delicious part of film noir
747
00:40:06,337 --> 00:40:09,898
is that they could go a little further
with something like music.
748
00:40:10,574 --> 00:40:13,042
There are some fabulous composers.
749
00:40:13,177 --> 00:40:16,374
But as much as noir endeavored to create
750
00:40:16,447 --> 00:40:19,848
this whole new style of storytelling
and this new look,
751
00:40:20,551 --> 00:40:23,247
a lot of times,
the scores were kind of stuck
752
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,051
in a very traditional,
string-heavy arrangement.
753
00:40:27,124 --> 00:40:31,788
Which is really bizarre, because most
people, when they think of film noir,
754
00:40:31,862 --> 00:40:35,025
they will say, "Oh, yeah,
all those jazz soundtracks
755
00:40:35,099 --> 00:40:38,466
"and the saxophone and all that. "
But it's really not there.
756
00:40:38,536 --> 00:40:40,163
I mean, it's really strings.
757
00:40:40,237 --> 00:40:42,933
But it's really fascinating
in the public consciousness
758
00:40:43,007 --> 00:40:45,475
that they imagine that they hear brass.
759
00:40:45,543 --> 00:40:47,943
They hear trumpets and saxophones
760
00:40:48,012 --> 00:40:50,981
when it's a very, very rare film
that actually has them.
761
00:40:51,048 --> 00:40:53,243
Like, On Dangerous Ground,
Bernard Herrmann
762
00:40:53,317 --> 00:40:56,844
did a whole percussive score for that,
that's all brass.
763
00:40:56,987 --> 00:41:00,787
And it's fantastic. It's one of
the best scores ever for a noir film.
764
00:41:07,198 --> 00:41:10,361
If you just listen to a Miklós Rózsa score
765
00:41:10,434 --> 00:41:13,130
you have an immediate sense
766
00:41:13,204 --> 00:41:16,640
of the sexuality,
the sensuality of the film noir
767
00:41:16,707 --> 00:41:19,335
translated into music.
It's very, very exciting.
768
00:41:23,514 --> 00:41:25,948
In Decoy, made in 1946,
769
00:41:26,016 --> 00:41:28,712
the music is a very attractive element.
770
00:41:28,786 --> 00:41:32,278
In fact, it is to me
one of the key elements in the film.
771
00:41:32,356 --> 00:41:35,814
It immediately tells the audience
what's going on.
772
00:41:35,893 --> 00:41:37,690
Very clever.
773
00:41:39,096 --> 00:41:40,825
I'm alive.
774
00:41:46,604 --> 00:41:49,300
Border Incident was, I think,
the third movie I ever did.
775
00:41:49,373 --> 00:41:52,774
It was a nice, tough film
that Anthony Mann directed
776
00:41:52,843 --> 00:41:54,902
and John Alton photographed and it was...
777
00:41:54,979 --> 00:41:57,243
It really was a pretty relentless film.
778
00:41:57,314 --> 00:41:59,578
And so I was allowed to write a,
779
00:41:59,650 --> 00:42:03,450
by the standards of those years,
a fairly modern-sounding score,
780
00:42:03,521 --> 00:42:05,011
which I liked doing,
781
00:42:05,089 --> 00:42:08,923
and it was the first time
that I had written anything
782
00:42:08,993 --> 00:42:12,156
that I could more or less approve of
when I heard it.
783
00:42:14,331 --> 00:42:16,925
One of the things I really like
about film noir scoring
784
00:42:17,001 --> 00:42:20,459
is the amount of silence
that one is allowed to leave in the score.
785
00:42:20,538 --> 00:42:24,167
I personally think there's
way too much music in modern film.
786
00:42:24,241 --> 00:42:25,833
We try very much with our craft
787
00:42:25,910 --> 00:42:28,071
to make those what we call
"'negative space moments "'
788
00:42:28,145 --> 00:42:31,672
where suddenly everything drops out
and there's a big question asked.
789
00:42:31,749 --> 00:42:33,307
Why? Why is it silent?
790
00:42:33,384 --> 00:42:35,716
I think it can make it even more powerful
791
00:42:35,786 --> 00:42:38,619
and more scary
and much more suspenseful.
792
00:42:40,357 --> 00:42:44,418
I think from my own experience,
having edited a film like Body Heat,
793
00:42:44,495 --> 00:42:48,397
I was an admirer of film noir,
but really didn't understand
794
00:42:48,465 --> 00:42:51,025
how to use the language
until I started working in it.
795
00:42:51,101 --> 00:42:54,036
And I think one of the things
that we can exploit tremendously
796
00:42:54,104 --> 00:42:57,540
in modern-day film,
is the range of sound that we have
797
00:42:57,608 --> 00:43:00,406
to create a third dimension on the film.
798
00:43:00,477 --> 00:43:02,468
They were used very sparingly in film noir,
799
00:43:02,546 --> 00:43:04,741
and primarily because
they didn't have budgets for sound.
800
00:43:04,815 --> 00:43:08,182
So the placement of sound
within the dialogue
801
00:43:08,252 --> 00:43:11,915
became a way of evoking
the solitude of a character,
802
00:43:11,989 --> 00:43:14,219
or his physical state of mind.
803
00:43:14,291 --> 00:43:16,452
For instance, in Out of the Past,
804
00:43:16,527 --> 00:43:18,722
in the first scenes of this little town,
805
00:43:18,796 --> 00:43:21,594
you have a lot of sounds,
the distant rails...
806
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:26,236
Once in a while,
a siren going by of a police car.
807
00:43:26,303 --> 00:43:30,433
A lot of indicators of the life
that he left behind in the city.
808
00:43:30,641 --> 00:43:34,771
The idea of the urban environment
being somewhat evil
809
00:43:35,312 --> 00:43:38,042
and the salutary effects
of the rural quiet life.
810
00:43:41,518 --> 00:43:44,316
And a lot of these meshings of ideas
811
00:43:44,388 --> 00:43:47,016
were actually done in shorthand
by use of sound.
812
00:43:47,091 --> 00:43:49,423
And you'll see this in film noir all the time.
813
00:43:49,493 --> 00:43:52,929
The sound effects,
that filigree of soundtrack in noir,
814
00:43:52,997 --> 00:43:55,966
the brakes of cars, phones going.
815
00:43:56,033 --> 00:43:59,366
It was a revolution
in American filmmaking, this style.
816
00:43:59,436 --> 00:44:02,030
Both in what it said and how it said it.
817
00:44:06,910 --> 00:44:08,377
This is noir.
818
00:44:08,646 --> 00:44:11,012
Men acting bad, women acting bad,
819
00:44:11,081 --> 00:44:13,413
people breaking out
of the Hollywood stereotype
820
00:44:13,484 --> 00:44:16,282
and I do think the fun of noir is
821
00:44:16,353 --> 00:44:18,913
the bad guy you root for.
822
00:44:18,989 --> 00:44:20,013
Chiquita?
823
00:44:20,524 --> 00:44:23,015
- What are you doing here?
- Get out.
824
00:44:23,093 --> 00:44:25,584
You army men might be accustomed
to group showers.
825
00:44:25,663 --> 00:44:27,153
I like mine alone.
826
00:44:27,231 --> 00:44:30,257
What you really need
to make something film noir
827
00:44:30,334 --> 00:44:32,461
is the character in the first place,
828
00:44:32,569 --> 00:44:35,732
and the film noir character
is a gray character.
829
00:44:35,806 --> 00:44:38,036
That's what's so much fun about film noir,
830
00:44:38,108 --> 00:44:41,908
is that you have flawed characters
and sometimes deeply flawed characters,
831
00:44:41,979 --> 00:44:45,642
but as long as they have a code
and as long as they're true to themselves,
832
00:44:45,716 --> 00:44:47,843
they can really get away
with a lot of behavior
833
00:44:47,918 --> 00:44:51,410
that in a normal film
would immediately peg them as a villain.
834
00:44:51,555 --> 00:44:53,352
You make me do it.
835
00:44:53,757 --> 00:44:55,486
Why do you make me do it?
836
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,157
You know you're gonna talk.
837
00:44:58,796 --> 00:45:00,388
I'm gonna make you talk.
838
00:45:00,464 --> 00:45:02,489
Chandler defined it best.
839
00:45:02,566 --> 00:45:06,434
He described the film noir hero
as "'a knight in dirty armor. "'
840
00:45:06,537 --> 00:45:08,732
In my own career I've tried to redefine him
841
00:45:08,806 --> 00:45:11,673
as a knight in blood-caked armor.
842
00:45:11,942 --> 00:45:13,603
But he is still a knight,
843
00:45:13,677 --> 00:45:17,909
he just doesn't look like one
and he's never rewarded for what he does.
844
00:45:17,981 --> 00:45:22,645
He's this lonely character who's out there
and he's just bugged by stuff.
845
00:45:22,720 --> 00:45:26,554
Most Raymond Chandler-derived stories
aren't film noir
846
00:45:26,623 --> 00:45:30,320
because Philip Marlowe is untouched
by the mystery.
847
00:45:30,461 --> 00:45:32,258
You will help me, won't you?
848
00:45:32,329 --> 00:45:35,821
Is this for love, or are you paying me
something in money?
849
00:45:36,366 --> 00:45:39,460
When the femme fatale,
the slut, moves in on him,
850
00:45:39,536 --> 00:45:40,628
he turns her down.
851
00:45:40,704 --> 00:45:43,832
Yeah, he won't be a part
of the emotional tangle.
852
00:45:43,907 --> 00:45:47,308
It's almost like his case is a film noir,
but he isn't.
853
00:45:47,377 --> 00:45:50,175
I don't think you even know
which side you're on.
854
00:45:50,380 --> 00:45:54,009
I don't know which side anybody's on.
I don't even know who's playing today.
855
00:45:54,084 --> 00:45:58,453
Whereas a true film noir protagonist
is drawn into all that.
856
00:45:58,522 --> 00:46:01,514
Look at Out of the Past,
which is also a private eye story,
857
00:46:01,592 --> 00:46:04,857
but Robert Mitchum's character in that
isn't Philip Marlowe.
858
00:46:04,928 --> 00:46:08,091
He doesn't stay out.
Yeah, he succumbs to the temptation
859
00:46:08,165 --> 00:46:10,258
and gets involved with Jane Greer...
860
00:46:10,701 --> 00:46:13,295
- Did you miss me?
- No more than I would my eyes.
861
00:46:13,537 --> 00:46:15,664
Where shall we go tonight?
862
00:46:15,806 --> 00:46:17,637
Let's go to my place.
863
00:46:17,708 --> 00:46:22,168
...and therefore is dragged into
committing morally appalling acts.
864
00:46:22,346 --> 00:46:24,314
Philip Marlowe doesn't,
he's always irreproachable.
865
00:46:24,381 --> 00:46:28,215
The detective figure. The Hercule Poirot,
Sherlock Holmes, or whatever.
866
00:46:28,285 --> 00:46:31,550
They come into a situation,
see what's wrong,
867
00:46:31,622 --> 00:46:34,022
expose the villain,
and sort it out and leave.
868
00:46:34,091 --> 00:46:38,221
The film noir protagonist sort of
never really understands.
869
00:46:38,295 --> 00:46:40,957
Yeah, there's a mystery
taking place around them,
870
00:46:41,031 --> 00:46:43,329
but they are the victim of it,
the subject of it.
871
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:45,231
They don't usually solve it.
872
00:46:45,435 --> 00:46:47,630
Buddy, you look like you're in trouble.
873
00:46:47,704 --> 00:46:50,264
- Why?
- Because you don't act like it.
874
00:46:51,241 --> 00:46:53,072
I think I'm in a frame.
875
00:46:53,877 --> 00:46:55,401
Don't sound like you.
876
00:46:55,846 --> 00:46:58,007
I don't know, all I can see is the frame.
877
00:46:58,081 --> 00:47:01,073
If you've seen enough noir,
you start to identify
878
00:47:01,151 --> 00:47:03,483
all the traditional characters
that are represented.
879
00:47:03,554 --> 00:47:07,149
There's always the hard-luck loser,
there's the schemer,
880
00:47:07,224 --> 00:47:10,591
there is the femme fatale,
there is the upstanding good girl.
881
00:47:10,661 --> 00:47:13,789
There is the sleazy nightclub owner
882
00:47:13,864 --> 00:47:16,094
who's always the slickest guy in the story,
883
00:47:16,166 --> 00:47:19,658
and may or may not be shady,
you're not always sure.
884
00:47:20,037 --> 00:47:23,404
There's the big capitalist banker,
businessman type.
885
00:47:23,473 --> 00:47:25,338
I call them the "'noir apostles. "'
886
00:47:25,409 --> 00:47:28,970
Just politics, baby. Good old dirty politics.
887
00:47:29,046 --> 00:47:31,105
The kind of dialogue
that popped through film noir,
888
00:47:31,181 --> 00:47:33,945
it had nuance and it had cleverness
and a lot of humor.
889
00:47:34,017 --> 00:47:36,349
If you look at how Chandler was adapted.
890
00:47:36,420 --> 00:47:39,514
The joint looked like trouble,
but that didn't bother me.
891
00:47:39,590 --> 00:47:40,579
Nothing bothered me.
892
00:47:40,657 --> 00:47:43,683
The two.20s fell nice and snug
against my appendix.
893
00:47:43,894 --> 00:47:46,192
Dick Powell, for instance,
in Murder, My Sweet,
894
00:47:46,263 --> 00:47:49,061
was a very nuanced, hilarious fellow,
like, you know,
895
00:47:49,132 --> 00:47:51,965
"Come on, you're a big, tough guy.
Do something amazing.
896
00:47:52,035 --> 00:47:53,127
"Pull on your pants. "
897
00:47:53,203 --> 00:47:57,162
"Okay, Marlowe," I said to myself,
"You're a tough guy.
898
00:47:57,241 --> 00:48:01,302
"You've been sapped twice, choked,
beaten silly with a gun,
899
00:48:01,378 --> 00:48:05,041
"shot in the arm until you were as crazy
as a couple of waltzing mice.
900
00:48:05,582 --> 00:48:08,346
"Now let's see you
do something really tough,
901
00:48:08,418 --> 00:48:10,477
"like putting your pants on. "
902
00:48:10,554 --> 00:48:12,249
It was released as Farewell, My Lovely
903
00:48:12,322 --> 00:48:14,586
in one theater, I think, in Boston.
I'm not sure.
904
00:48:14,658 --> 00:48:18,617
And because it had Dick Powell in it,
who was known as a singing star
905
00:48:18,695 --> 00:48:21,357
and they thought Farewell, My Lovely
with Dick Powell was a musical.
906
00:48:21,431 --> 00:48:24,298
Musicals were out at that time.
Nobody wanted to see it.
907
00:48:24,368 --> 00:48:26,336
So we changed the title
to Murder, My Sweet
908
00:48:26,403 --> 00:48:28,166
and they knew that
that couldn't be a musical.
909
00:48:28,238 --> 00:48:31,537
- You still think Amthor killed him, then?
- Who else?
910
00:48:33,710 --> 00:48:34,734
You.
911
00:48:35,412 --> 00:48:39,781
And I tend to think that the acting
is a perfect corollary
912
00:48:39,850 --> 00:48:42,045
for the writing style.
913
00:48:42,119 --> 00:48:46,180
I mean, the writers weren't
really writing very realistic dialogue.
914
00:48:46,256 --> 00:48:49,282
It's not stuff that you're gonna
hear people utter on the street.
915
00:48:49,359 --> 00:48:52,157
You should've told me, Wood.
Maybe I would've played it differently.
916
00:48:52,229 --> 00:48:54,925
Maybe she wouldn't have heard
my shoes squeaking.
917
00:48:54,998 --> 00:48:57,193
Always a hop, skip and a jump
ahead of me.
918
00:48:57,267 --> 00:49:01,829
And the way the dialogue is delivered
is perfectly appropriate to that.
919
00:49:01,905 --> 00:49:04,203
You know, like Robert Mitchum
is just like...
920
00:49:04,274 --> 00:49:05,832
He's such a natural.
921
00:49:05,909 --> 00:49:09,367
And he can take
the most flamboyant line of dialogue
922
00:49:09,446 --> 00:49:12,347
and just toss it off like nobody's business.
923
00:49:12,416 --> 00:49:13,781
I'll give you a ring in about an hour.
924
00:49:13,850 --> 00:49:16,478
That'll give you time to find her
and get there.
925
00:49:16,553 --> 00:49:19,920
Give you a little extra time to figure out
how you're gonna cross me,
926
00:49:19,990 --> 00:49:21,480
but you won't.
927
00:49:21,692 --> 00:49:24,320
My very first film was called
The Last Tycoon.
928
00:49:24,394 --> 00:49:26,123
I got to play Robert Mitchum's daughter.
929
00:49:26,196 --> 00:49:30,929
And I was in the film
with Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson
930
00:49:31,001 --> 00:49:33,868
and there was all these
wonderful, famous people in it.
931
00:49:33,937 --> 00:49:36,098
But who was I wanting to be?
932
00:49:36,173 --> 00:49:38,334
I said, "Dang, I wish I was older. "
933
00:49:38,408 --> 00:49:41,900
I wanted to be a notch on
Robert Mitchum's belt, you know, so...
934
00:49:42,479 --> 00:49:44,538
I mean, that guy was cool.
935
00:49:44,614 --> 00:49:48,744
He was just one of the coolest actors
I'd ever seen.
936
00:49:53,657 --> 00:49:56,626
I absolutely love the acting in these films
937
00:49:56,693 --> 00:50:00,185
because many times
there's not a lot of dialogue in these films.
938
00:50:00,530 --> 00:50:03,658
There are more sort of
brooding characters
939
00:50:03,734 --> 00:50:05,429
that are very angst-ridden.
940
00:50:05,502 --> 00:50:08,767
More is said by an actor glancing
941
00:50:08,839 --> 00:50:12,104
or lighting a cigarette
or walking down a street
942
00:50:12,175 --> 00:50:14,837
and contemplating
the predicament they're in.
943
00:50:14,911 --> 00:50:17,038
You just sit and stay inside yourself.
944
00:50:17,114 --> 00:50:18,741
You wait for me to talk.
945
00:50:18,815 --> 00:50:20,373
I like that.
946
00:50:20,450 --> 00:50:23,510
I never found out much listening to myself.
947
00:50:23,587 --> 00:50:26,420
Acting in a film noir,
something that I notice, perhaps,
948
00:50:26,490 --> 00:50:30,017
is that it's slightly over the top
in modern standards,
949
00:50:30,093 --> 00:50:33,153
but is perfectly suitable
for that particular style.
950
00:50:33,230 --> 00:50:37,428
You actually need it to be over the top.
It's a little pushed at you.
951
00:50:37,701 --> 00:50:40,169
You're not talking about a sack
of gum drops that's gonna be smashed.
952
00:50:40,237 --> 00:50:41,670
You're talking about a dame's life.
953
00:50:41,738 --> 00:50:43,706
Well, I think, first of all,
I think it was invented
954
00:50:43,774 --> 00:50:47,175
by people like Robert Mitchum
and Kirk Douglas.
955
00:50:47,477 --> 00:50:50,173
I don't think
there was such a thing as film noir
956
00:50:50,247 --> 00:50:53,410
until those guys
actually showed up onscreen
957
00:50:53,483 --> 00:50:56,748
and had the personas that they had
and the movies that they made.
958
00:50:56,820 --> 00:51:00,312
- Well, the last guy in the world.
- I hate surprises, myself.
959
00:51:00,390 --> 00:51:02,051
You want to just shut the door
and forget it?
960
00:51:02,125 --> 00:51:03,387
No, no. Come on in.
961
00:51:03,460 --> 00:51:05,587
When I'd see him onscreen
962
00:51:05,796 --> 00:51:08,390
I kind of could see
that they weren't acting so much
963
00:51:08,465 --> 00:51:09,727
as they were being themselves,
964
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:13,702
they were presenting the character
through their own personality.
965
00:51:13,770 --> 00:51:16,136
They were them in the situation.
966
00:51:16,606 --> 00:51:19,234
And that's what clicked in my head,
967
00:51:19,309 --> 00:51:20,936
and I realized how simple it really was
968
00:51:21,011 --> 00:51:23,377
and so I tried to approach it
from that way.
969
00:51:23,447 --> 00:51:25,506
I was just getting ready to take my tie off,
970
00:51:25,582 --> 00:51:28,676
wondering whether I should
hang myself with it.
971
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:31,820
We'd not only be rolling in dough
972
00:51:31,888 --> 00:51:35,221
but marrying into this crowd
will fix it so as I can...
973
00:51:35,325 --> 00:51:37,259
So as I can spit in anybody's eye.
974
00:51:37,327 --> 00:51:40,524
In Born to Kill, Lawrence Tierney had
a look about him that was really tough
975
00:51:40,597 --> 00:51:42,690
and there was some kind
of power that he exuded.
976
00:51:42,766 --> 00:51:44,393
It was clearly a negative power,
977
00:51:44,468 --> 00:51:46,936
but there was something
that came across on the screen
978
00:51:47,003 --> 00:51:49,938
that clearly was seductive to women.
979
00:51:50,006 --> 00:51:52,406
And in the way that it was written,
you could understand
980
00:51:52,476 --> 00:51:54,876
that someone would fall
for this bad guy, for this outlaw,
981
00:51:54,945 --> 00:51:56,310
for this somebody
who kind of knows what he wants
982
00:51:56,379 --> 00:51:57,710
and will do anything to get it.
983
00:51:57,781 --> 00:52:01,046
You're strength, excitement
984
00:52:01,118 --> 00:52:02,642
and depravity.
985
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:04,880
There's a kind of corruptness
inside of you, Sam.
986
00:52:04,955 --> 00:52:07,321
That'd drive most women off
if they understood like you do.
987
00:52:07,390 --> 00:52:10,257
- Yes.
- But not you. You have guts.
988
00:52:10,327 --> 00:52:11,726
Elisha Cook Jr.
989
00:52:13,096 --> 00:52:14,529
He was a very good...
990
00:52:14,598 --> 00:52:16,930
You know, he was a terrific film noir actor.
991
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:18,524
Honest, Sam.
992
00:52:18,835 --> 00:52:23,272
You go nuts about nothing. Nothing at all.
You gotta watch that.
993
00:52:23,607 --> 00:52:26,132
You can't just go around killing people
whenever the notion strikes you.
994
00:52:26,209 --> 00:52:27,642
- It's not feasible.
- Why isn't it?
995
00:52:27,711 --> 00:52:29,872
All right, Sam. All right, it is.
996
00:52:30,580 --> 00:52:32,673
- He was cutting in on me.
- With her?
997
00:52:32,749 --> 00:52:34,546
That was a big worry, I'll bet.
998
00:52:34,618 --> 00:52:37,485
He was like the kind of guy
people would pick on.
999
00:52:45,962 --> 00:52:48,760
Come on, this will put you in solid
with your boss.
1000
00:52:53,270 --> 00:52:55,135
How's about one for me?
1001
00:52:57,107 --> 00:53:00,941
There's a very imaginative and clever
use of sexuality in the films.
1002
00:53:01,011 --> 00:53:03,536
Nothing ever gets too explicit
or too outrageous,
1003
00:53:03,613 --> 00:53:07,310
but the morality of the films
is extraordinarily questionable
1004
00:53:07,384 --> 00:53:08,681
and daring.
1005
00:53:08,752 --> 00:53:10,913
I won't let Bernie break your neck.
1006
00:53:11,321 --> 00:53:12,948
And if I don't?
1007
00:53:13,123 --> 00:53:14,920
You'll make me talk.
1008
00:53:15,392 --> 00:53:18,850
You'll squeeze it out of me
with those big strong arms.
1009
00:53:23,366 --> 00:53:24,731
Won't you?
1010
00:53:31,608 --> 00:53:33,166
That's right, sister.
1011
00:53:33,243 --> 00:53:35,643
A lot of times,
there were downtrodden detectives
1012
00:53:35,712 --> 00:53:38,875
trying to make good
on the trail of some poor guy
1013
00:53:38,949 --> 00:53:41,850
who got sucked in
to the femme fatale's web.
1014
00:53:41,918 --> 00:53:44,978
The web of this gorgeous woman
who is, in fact, a criminal.
1015
00:53:45,055 --> 00:53:47,319
Seems to me that since I've known you,
you've become lovelier.
1016
00:53:47,390 --> 00:53:49,119
More mentally assured.
1017
00:53:49,326 --> 00:53:51,521
But it also seems to me
that when I first knew you
1018
00:53:51,595 --> 00:53:52,926
you had a heart.
1019
00:53:52,996 --> 00:53:56,488
The femme fatale was really born
as a result of women
1020
00:53:56,566 --> 00:53:59,535
taking over so many of the roles of men
during World War ll.
1021
00:53:59,603 --> 00:54:01,195
And when the men came back,
1022
00:54:01,271 --> 00:54:04,035
among all the other dislocations
that they experienced,
1023
00:54:04,107 --> 00:54:06,337
one was, all of a sudden
women with this whole new role.
1024
00:54:06,409 --> 00:54:08,775
Women working,
women being outside the house.
1025
00:54:08,845 --> 00:54:12,508
In a lot of ways, film noir
was sort of male filmmakers'revenge
1026
00:54:12,582 --> 00:54:14,015
on women for having done that.
1027
00:54:14,084 --> 00:54:16,348
At the same time,
it really represents a lot of
1028
00:54:16,419 --> 00:54:19,411
mankind's conflicted role with womankind
1029
00:54:19,489 --> 00:54:21,116
which is why the femme fatale
1030
00:54:21,191 --> 00:54:24,251
has her web on the one hand,
but is always sort of beautiful
1031
00:54:24,327 --> 00:54:27,091
and mysterious and sexy and attractive,
on the other hand.
1032
00:54:27,163 --> 00:54:30,223
"If I should die before I live. "
1033
00:54:30,300 --> 00:54:31,961
That's a nice title.
1034
00:54:32,035 --> 00:54:33,263
"By Philip Marlowe. "
1035
00:54:33,336 --> 00:54:36,464
As a result of the war, women were given,
I think, some broader characters to play.
1036
00:54:36,539 --> 00:54:38,507
They didn't have to be quite as cardboard.
1037
00:54:38,575 --> 00:54:42,636
And the opportunities for women
have improved for the characters,
1038
00:54:42,712 --> 00:54:47,012
that you can have women
who are as tough and as difficult
1039
00:54:47,083 --> 00:54:50,575
and as ruinous
as some men have been portrayed.
1040
00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:53,120
And you're not through.
You're in the middle.
1041
00:54:53,189 --> 00:54:55,180
Deep. Over your head.
1042
00:54:55,358 --> 00:54:59,124
No matter what you do now, you're still
part of everything that's happened.
1043
00:54:59,195 --> 00:55:02,358
But it's misleading to think that noir
1044
00:55:02,432 --> 00:55:05,833
has this misogynistic view of women.
1045
00:55:05,902 --> 00:55:08,370
If you look very closely at these films
1046
00:55:08,438 --> 00:55:12,807
they're just chock full
of upstanding, forthright women
1047
00:55:12,876 --> 00:55:15,037
who are gonna rescue the poor chump
1048
00:55:15,111 --> 00:55:18,205
who doesn't know, you know,
the hell he's getting into.
1049
00:55:18,281 --> 00:55:22,342
And I just think that that's
as revolutionary a thing for these films
1050
00:55:22,419 --> 00:55:24,819
as their depiction of the evil woman.
1051
00:55:24,888 --> 00:55:27,550
But maybe it'll teach you
not to overplay a good hand.
1052
00:55:27,624 --> 00:55:30,650
Now, she doesn't like you. She hates men.
1053
00:55:30,760 --> 00:55:34,787
I hate their women, too.
Especially the big-league blondes.
1054
00:55:34,864 --> 00:55:38,197
Beautiful expensive babes
who know what they've got.
1055
00:55:38,668 --> 00:55:41,398
And inside, blue steel. Cold!
1056
00:55:41,805 --> 00:55:44,672
Cold like that, only not that clingy.
1057
00:55:45,241 --> 00:55:47,937
But a femme fatale is somebody
who comes into the office one day
1058
00:55:48,011 --> 00:55:49,273
with a problem
1059
00:55:49,346 --> 00:55:52,338
that must somehow be solved by the hero,
1060
00:55:52,415 --> 00:55:55,441
even though he's not dead sure
what that problem is
1061
00:55:55,518 --> 00:55:57,918
and he's pretty sure he's being lied to.
1062
00:55:57,987 --> 00:56:00,956
But it's fun finding out
what the problem is.
1063
00:56:01,024 --> 00:56:03,458
- What about this dame, Mr. Crystal Ball?
- A dish.
1064
00:56:03,526 --> 00:56:05,016
What kind of a dish?
1065
00:56:05,095 --> 00:56:08,792
Sixty-cent special. Cheap, flashy,
strictly poison under the gravy.
1066
00:56:08,865 --> 00:56:11,265
Amazing, and how do you know all this?
1067
00:56:11,334 --> 00:56:13,359
Well, she was married to a hoodlum,
wasn't she?
1068
00:56:13,436 --> 00:56:16,166
What kind of a dame would marry a hood?
1069
00:56:16,373 --> 00:56:17,704
All kinds.
1070
00:56:17,774 --> 00:56:20,299
Marie Windsor, she was a perfect...
1071
00:56:20,377 --> 00:56:21,571
She was the heroine,
1072
00:56:21,644 --> 00:56:23,475
the villainess, or whatever it was,
of a couple of them,
1073
00:56:23,546 --> 00:56:27,312
because there was a thing about her.
It was a thing about some of those actors.
1074
00:56:27,384 --> 00:56:28,578
They were wonderful.
1075
00:56:28,651 --> 00:56:30,983
My taste doesn't usually run to cops,
1076
00:56:31,054 --> 00:56:34,023
but you might not be
such dull company at that.
1077
00:56:34,090 --> 00:56:35,955
The femme fatale
1078
00:56:36,292 --> 00:56:40,092
is the one-in-a-million kind of woman
1079
00:56:40,397 --> 00:56:43,423
who has a magical power over men
1080
00:56:43,500 --> 00:56:45,934
and is utterly and completely evil.
1081
00:56:46,002 --> 00:56:48,766
- You didn't have to kill him.
- Yes, I did.
1082
00:56:49,005 --> 00:56:50,700
You wouldn't have killed him.
1083
00:56:50,774 --> 00:56:53,538
He'd have been against us. Gone to Whit.
1084
00:56:53,610 --> 00:56:58,104
The part was beautifully written.
It's this terrific role.
1085
00:56:58,581 --> 00:57:00,879
Jacques Tourneur, the director,
1086
00:57:01,117 --> 00:57:03,142
said to me when I first met him,
1087
00:57:03,219 --> 00:57:06,382
"'Do you know the word impassive?"
Impassive.
1088
00:57:07,090 --> 00:57:09,684
That's what I want. Impassive.
1089
00:57:09,759 --> 00:57:11,090
No big eyes.
1090
00:57:11,561 --> 00:57:13,995
"Well, it's gonna be hard.
But, okay, I'll try. "
1091
00:57:14,164 --> 00:57:18,999
He said, "'First half, good girl.
Last half, bad girl. "'
1092
00:57:20,236 --> 00:57:23,672
Simple. That's what he wanted.
That's what I gave him.
1093
00:57:23,740 --> 00:57:25,799
And it was so easy.
1094
00:57:26,109 --> 00:57:28,407
You know, you're a curious man.
1095
00:57:28,478 --> 00:57:31,379
You're gonna make every guy you meet
a little bit curious.
1096
00:57:31,448 --> 00:57:36,317
The femme fatale is where women
get to be completely the equal of men.
1097
00:57:36,453 --> 00:57:40,856
They are equally tempted,
equally compromised, and equally guilty.
1098
00:57:41,491 --> 00:57:45,257
And that's kind of a new thing
for Hollywood at this point.
1099
00:57:45,328 --> 00:57:47,660
I mean, they were
very independent women.
1100
00:57:47,730 --> 00:57:50,756
They knew what they wanted
and they knew how to get it.
1101
00:57:50,834 --> 00:57:54,736
You know, the guy has to pick up a gun,
but the woman doesn't need a gun.
1102
00:57:54,804 --> 00:57:57,864
She knows exactly what weapons
she has to wield.
1103
00:57:58,875 --> 00:58:01,070
You ought to have killed me
for what I did a moment ago.
1104
00:58:01,144 --> 00:58:03,612
- There's time.
- No. You won't.
1105
00:58:04,314 --> 00:58:08,080
So, all these actresses were, of course,
dying to play the femme fatale
1106
00:58:08,151 --> 00:58:11,211
in these movies because they were
the most memorable characters.
1107
00:58:11,287 --> 00:58:13,983
Many of the leading actresses of the era
1108
00:58:14,057 --> 00:58:16,457
in terms of popularity and compensation
1109
00:58:16,726 --> 00:58:20,218
were not the ones you would associate
with beauty contests.
1110
00:58:20,663 --> 00:58:24,030
They were paid to portray
a certain type of woman.
1111
00:58:24,100 --> 00:58:25,897
They were paid to look good,
but also I think
1112
00:58:25,969 --> 00:58:28,335
they had to perform in a way
1113
00:58:28,671 --> 00:58:32,163
that both male and female moviegoers
could relate to.
1114
00:58:32,342 --> 00:58:34,333
It goes from
1115
00:58:34,410 --> 00:58:37,709
actresses as well-known as Ava Gardner
1116
00:58:37,780 --> 00:58:40,772
and Rita Hayworth to
1117
00:58:40,917 --> 00:58:45,149
obscure, wonderful performances
like Jean Gillie
1118
00:58:45,221 --> 00:58:49,123
in a B-film called Decoy,
which is so over the top.
1119
00:58:49,192 --> 00:58:50,523
I mean, it's just astounding.
1120
00:58:50,593 --> 00:58:53,528
I'm really happy to see that film
kind of being resurrected
1121
00:58:53,596 --> 00:58:55,291
'cause it's a jaw-dropper.
1122
00:58:58,701 --> 00:59:01,602
I don't think we have femme fatales
in movies today.
1123
00:59:01,671 --> 00:59:04,936
I think it's one of the things
that I think is a big loss.
1124
00:59:05,008 --> 00:59:08,500
Because a femme fatale
is a woman who makes men go bad.
1125
00:59:09,245 --> 00:59:11,941
And that is very interesting.
1126
00:59:12,015 --> 00:59:14,210
It always fascinates an audience.
1127
00:59:14,284 --> 00:59:16,343
It's a unique kind of woman.
1128
00:59:16,419 --> 00:59:18,250
Shoot, do you hear me?
1129
00:59:18,321 --> 00:59:19,913
All right.
1130
00:59:21,190 --> 00:59:24,591
Claire Trevor is
one of my favorite actresses in film noir.
1131
00:59:24,661 --> 00:59:26,492
She's in two of my favorite films.
1132
00:59:26,563 --> 00:59:28,929
She's in Key Largo
and she's in Born to Kill.
1133
00:59:28,998 --> 00:59:31,466
I think you've got a secret of some kind,
haven't you?
1134
00:59:31,534 --> 00:59:35,061
One of the films that people don't think
about very often, that's really underrated
1135
00:59:35,138 --> 00:59:37,538
is Born to Kill, directed by Robert Wise.
1136
00:59:37,707 --> 00:59:41,268
And Claire Trevor is a terrific actress
and she was terrific in this kind of film.
1137
00:59:41,344 --> 00:59:43,505
She really gives
a very believable performance
1138
00:59:43,580 --> 00:59:45,104
of someone who stands and says,
1139
00:59:45,181 --> 00:59:48,309
"'I can have everything that's easy.
I can have everything that's comfortable.
1140
00:59:48,384 --> 00:59:51,353
"'And why is it there's something
about this darkness, about this unknown
1141
00:59:51,421 --> 00:59:53,582
"'that's magnetic, that's pulling me back?"'
1142
00:59:53,656 --> 00:59:57,387
And in the end, believing that she
could toy with this and land on her feet.
1143
00:59:57,460 --> 00:59:58,791
Says as her last words,
1144
00:59:58,861 --> 01:00:00,988
"'You know, this time,
I'm not gonna land on my feet. "'
1145
01:00:01,064 --> 01:00:02,827
And all these lives are destroyed.
1146
01:00:02,899 --> 01:00:04,366
Come on out of there!
1147
01:00:04,434 --> 01:00:06,994
It's me, Sam, remember?
Tonight's our night.
1148
01:00:07,070 --> 01:00:10,130
We still have time for a few kisses
before the police get me.
1149
01:00:10,206 --> 01:00:13,539
The ultimate triumph of the hero
against the femme fatale
1150
01:00:13,610 --> 01:00:17,046
is when she loses her control,
when her lies no longer work.
1151
01:00:17,113 --> 01:00:18,842
Stop, you're killing him!
1152
01:00:18,948 --> 01:00:21,246
Jerry, stop it!
1153
01:00:21,584 --> 01:00:25,076
Barbara Stanwyck, because
she was sort of slightly tomboyish
1154
01:00:25,154 --> 01:00:29,784
and not extremely beautiful.
I mean, I wanted to be like Gilda
1155
01:00:29,859 --> 01:00:32,191
and Rita Hayworth, you know, but I...
1156
01:00:32,261 --> 01:00:34,889
That just seemed so unattainable,
1157
01:00:34,964 --> 01:00:36,625
but Barbara Stanwyck, she just was
1158
01:00:36,699 --> 01:00:39,998
just a tough cookie
and I just always responded to her.
1159
01:00:40,069 --> 01:00:42,537
Confidence.
I want a man to give me confidence.
1160
01:00:42,605 --> 01:00:44,300
Somebody to fight off
the blizzards and the floods,
1161
01:00:44,374 --> 01:00:48,310
somebody to beat off the world
when it tries to swallow you up.
1162
01:00:50,513 --> 01:00:52,242
Me and my ideas.
1163
01:00:56,919 --> 01:00:58,580
Are you?
1164
01:00:59,856 --> 01:01:02,256
- Am I what?
- Glad you're home.
1165
01:01:04,394 --> 01:01:07,295
Home is where you come
when you run out of places.
1166
01:01:07,363 --> 01:01:09,854
The star of film noir is fate.
1167
01:01:10,333 --> 01:01:12,392
Just doesn't get a screen credit.
1168
01:01:12,468 --> 01:01:14,561
Fate isn't just a character in noir.
1169
01:01:14,637 --> 01:01:16,366
It's the way the plot works.
1170
01:01:16,439 --> 01:01:18,805
There's always this idea that in a sense
1171
01:01:18,875 --> 01:01:21,844
the audience is somewhat aware
of where things are heading
1172
01:01:21,911 --> 01:01:24,004
the way the characters aren't necessarily.
1173
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:27,072
But there's always a feeling,
I think, with the best film noir
1174
01:01:27,150 --> 01:01:28,549
that things are going to end badly,
1175
01:01:28,618 --> 01:01:31,519
and I think that fate
does hang heavy over the characters.
1176
01:01:31,587 --> 01:01:33,987
Psychological frailty is fate,
1177
01:01:34,057 --> 01:01:37,549
and film noir is nothing
but psychological frailty.
1178
01:01:39,529 --> 01:01:43,795
The difference between the '30s,
early '40s gangster movie,
1179
01:01:43,900 --> 01:01:47,893
the Jimmy Cagney classic
and the film noir,
1180
01:01:47,970 --> 01:01:48,959
is really generational.
1181
01:01:50,106 --> 01:01:53,371
If you think about the '30s movies
of Edward G. Robinson
1182
01:01:53,443 --> 01:01:55,843
in Little Caesar, he had no decision,
1183
01:01:55,912 --> 01:01:59,678
it was not some great moral question
that came to mind.
1184
01:01:59,749 --> 01:02:04,152
He was either gonna kill that guy
and take over the racket, or get killed.
1185
01:02:04,721 --> 01:02:09,181
Film noir, I know people might not
think this, but they're much subtler.
1186
01:02:09,792 --> 01:02:12,158
There are choices to make.
1187
01:02:12,228 --> 01:02:16,688
And the key is the choice you make
takes you down that road.
1188
01:02:16,766 --> 01:02:20,167
But it was your decision to get in the car.
1189
01:02:20,236 --> 01:02:24,172
It's your decision whether or not
to go with Barbara Stanwyck
1190
01:02:24,240 --> 01:02:26,333
and get involved with killing her husband.
1191
01:02:26,409 --> 01:02:30,209
Your fate is not dictated to you
as it is in the '30s
1192
01:02:30,279 --> 01:02:32,179
and early '40s gangster movie.
1193
01:02:33,015 --> 01:02:36,280
Your fate is in your hands
by your decision,
1194
01:02:36,686 --> 01:02:38,881
and that's what makes it noir.
1195
01:02:38,988 --> 01:02:42,856
All these elements come together
to create this vortex of doom
1196
01:02:42,925 --> 01:02:44,392
that we're drawn into.
1197
01:02:44,460 --> 01:02:47,691
Oh, Dr. Craig,
you've come to see Miss Shelby off.
1198
01:02:49,365 --> 01:02:50,923
No.
1199
01:02:53,102 --> 01:02:55,161
I've come to take her with me.
1200
01:03:04,614 --> 01:03:07,515
The tombstone of film noir was
1201
01:03:07,583 --> 01:03:10,245
and intentionally so, was Touch Of Evil.
1202
01:03:10,386 --> 01:03:12,183
It was like the official end
1203
01:03:12,255 --> 01:03:17,124
where it'd taken all these film noir devices
right to their extreme.
1204
01:03:17,393 --> 01:03:20,760
But the real end of it came with television
1205
01:03:20,830 --> 01:03:25,233
and the '50s family
that television came to glorify.
1206
01:03:25,568 --> 01:03:28,366
And then at the end of the classic noir era,
1207
01:03:28,437 --> 01:03:31,964
law and order came back in
in a very heavy-handed way,
1208
01:03:32,041 --> 01:03:34,805
not coincidently coincides
with the witch-hunt.
1209
01:03:34,877 --> 01:03:36,868
The Communist witch-hunt in Hollywood.
1210
01:03:36,946 --> 01:03:40,575
And they said,
"'Look, you can't depict these characters
1211
01:03:40,650 --> 01:03:44,916
"'having valid sociological reasons
for what they do.
1212
01:03:45,154 --> 01:03:46,951
"They're just crazy. "
1213
01:03:47,123 --> 01:03:50,286
Then Warner Brothers put out
White Heat with Jimmy Cagney
1214
01:03:50,393 --> 01:03:52,122
and it's just, the guy is a psycho.
1215
01:03:52,195 --> 01:03:54,993
- How you doing, partner?
- It's stuffy in here. I need some air.
1216
01:03:55,097 --> 01:03:58,828
Oh, stuffy, huh? I'll give it a little air.
1217
01:04:02,772 --> 01:04:07,436
Any movement in art comes out
of the times in which it's made.
1218
01:04:07,510 --> 01:04:11,276
So it's interesting, I think,
that as it faded off,
1219
01:04:11,347 --> 01:04:13,440
it was in the '70s that it came back.
1220
01:04:13,516 --> 01:04:17,145
Late '60s and '70s, which I think is
sort of because of Vietnam,
1221
01:04:17,220 --> 01:04:21,247
has got the audience in a mindset
where they were into the film noir again.
1222
01:04:21,324 --> 01:04:23,224
What's the matter, Corporal?
1223
01:04:23,292 --> 01:04:24,554
I'm all right.
1224
01:04:24,627 --> 01:04:29,257
Chinatown paid off the promise
of all those detective novels,
1225
01:04:29,332 --> 01:04:32,324
all the detective movies
based on those novels.
1226
01:04:32,401 --> 01:04:35,734
Film noir is still hard to do
and it's particularly hard to do in color.
1227
01:04:35,805 --> 01:04:37,705
A great example of it is Memento,
1228
01:04:37,773 --> 01:04:40,708
which is Chris Nolan's film
that plays backward.
1229
01:04:40,776 --> 01:04:44,940
All the films I've made
have been strongly influenced by
1230
01:04:45,414 --> 01:04:47,848
watching these films and other thrillers.
1231
01:04:47,917 --> 01:04:52,217
And I've tried in my films
to follow that same pattern.
1232
01:04:52,288 --> 01:04:56,315
I think the best noirs are films
that don't try to be.
1233
01:04:56,492 --> 01:04:58,756
They sort of wake up
and find themselves there.
1234
01:04:58,828 --> 01:05:02,355
And now there are many films
that are paying homage
1235
01:05:02,431 --> 01:05:05,525
to these incredibly wonderful films.
1236
01:05:05,601 --> 01:05:08,069
Sin City would be one.
Usual Suspects would be another.
1237
01:05:08,137 --> 01:05:09,434
There are many.
1238
01:05:09,772 --> 01:05:12,070
Doesn't look so good for Mr. Lacy.
1239
01:05:12,141 --> 01:05:14,166
When film noir shows up
1240
01:05:14,410 --> 01:05:16,571
in the popular sense,
1241
01:05:16,646 --> 01:05:20,309
always is associated with a society
1242
01:05:20,383 --> 01:05:24,012
that's a little more cynical
and a little bit more
1243
01:05:24,086 --> 01:05:25,576
paranoid and suspicious.
1244
01:05:25,655 --> 01:05:28,920
If it's making a rebound now,
it might again be
1245
01:05:28,991 --> 01:05:33,052
because that factor makes people
more open to cynicism
1246
01:05:33,129 --> 01:05:37,225
and makes the people making the movies
more interested in exploring
1247
01:05:37,300 --> 01:05:38,927
that part of themselves.
1248
01:05:39,001 --> 01:05:40,468
- Don't just...
- Don't what?
1249
01:05:40,536 --> 01:05:42,504
- I don't wanna die.
- Neither do I, baby.
1250
01:05:42,571 --> 01:05:44,368
But if I have to, I'm gonna die last.
1251
01:05:44,440 --> 01:05:47,273
Young filmmakers,
when they're first starting out.
1252
01:05:48,010 --> 01:05:50,979
Before they become encumbered
1253
01:05:51,047 --> 01:05:54,016
by the things that they think
give them freedom.
1254
01:05:54,083 --> 01:05:57,575
Before they have big budgets
and before they have long schedules,
1255
01:05:57,653 --> 01:06:01,919
what they are left with
is the tools to make a film noir.
1256
01:06:01,991 --> 01:06:05,893
And from that they have the influence
of filmmakers
1257
01:06:05,962 --> 01:06:10,262
like Fritz Lang, John Houston,
Michael Curtiz, Orson Wells
1258
01:06:10,333 --> 01:06:13,131
who all made these great films.
1259
01:06:14,804 --> 01:06:18,296
Come on, Boss,
let's finish it the way we started it.
1260
01:06:18,374 --> 01:06:19,739
On the level.
1261
01:07:32,348 --> 01:07:33,337
English