"THE LETTER" FROM A LONG LOST AGE...

Aah Film noir. One of the oldest genres around. To be sure it has changed a lot since it’s heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s so much so that it has spurned a new genre called “neo-noir” that differentiates the modern versions from those good old Hollywood classics. It’s like a roast dinner, fish and chips, your favourite drink (please note that I am writing this post just before dinner LOL), in short something you know like the back of your hand and come back to knowing what to expect. If it is an American Classic like The Letter, you will get a beautiful woman, seductive but dangerous (Bette Davis), a man of the law (often a private eye or a police officer but in this particular case the family lawyer, played by James Stephenson), a crime, a cover-up and the impending sense of doom despite the best efforts of the characters, be they sympathetic or not… Adapted from W. Somerset Maugham’s best-seller, The Letter is cited as an example for “classic American noir” – and there’s a good reason for it…

Leslie (Bette Davis) and Robert ( Herbert Marshall) lead a charmed life, living on plantation in Singapore. Servants to tend to their every need and enough money to make %100 sure these needs are tended to mean that Leslie has little to do apart from relaxing and enjoying life while her adoring husband makes sure the plantation is ticking over. She is adored by one and all in the area and part of the very cream of high society, so everyone is shocked when she admits to killing one of her neighbours, a man both her and her husband had known for some time, in her own home in the middle of the night. However, as she is a trusted and well-loved member of society people are also more than ready to believe her word on what happened. The man was drunk, had showed up unannounced, was making unwanted advances and she was alone in the house. She defended herself. She is of course put on trial – but it really seems to be little more than a formality – everyone fully expects life to return to normal very, very shortly. Except… There is talk of this letter… A letter written in Lesley’s own hand and that could turn this idyllic world upside down… Her lawyer seems to be the only one who can help her… Stuck between his loyalty to his client and his loyalty to his vocation, Howard is in a very tight spot indeed… But he must choose carefully, for no matter which way he turns, his actions will have grave consequences…

It’s an interesting combo, the film noir. Becoming popular, and holding a lot of its roots in the Depression era the genre takes a step away from “classic” Hollywood. You can definitely sense the general disillusionment with the establishment and the “system” (whatever that may be) as criminals who get away with murder (among other crimes), officers of the law who fully believe that “everyone has their price” but who have lost all faith in justice they are meant to uphold are prominent along with the dark and striking photography that owes a not a little to German Expressionism but doubtless also contributes to the atmosphere of the film and the constant sense of “something bad being about to happen”.

The Letter is a textbook example of all of the above, but don’t think for a minute it is a hard tale of doom and gloom that you will find difficult to “get into”. In fact this film, as do a lot of its genre, relies a lot on emotions and feelings. In fact I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Bette Davis; as an actress she is as brilliant as always, however there are times when you note a gesture or a pose that is so exaggerated you can very clearly see the lingering effects of the pre-sound era of cinema. It is literally the kind of stuff I do today when I’m clowning around and want to give a sense of an “overly exaggerated” whatever it is… Oh you’ll recognise it. You really, really will. But you have to remember that cinema is an art form like any other, and it grows, changes and develops. Find it funny or not, The Letter is one of the great-grandparents of the crime dramas we watch today. And visiting your grandparents (or indeed your great grandparents) can be both fascinating and great fun… If you can find time in your “modern existence” to actually do it that is… ;) 

AND SOMETIMES IT'S JUST THAT SIMPLE... WELCOME TO "SIN CITY"

Ooh, ooh ooh! Look, another historic moment. I HAVE FINALLY WATCHED SIN CITY. I have been banging on about this for years. How I  didn’t get round to it before is virtually incomprehensible – even to me, and I’m usually quite good at figuring out why I haven’t done things. This was the last film remaining that Quentin Tarantino (yes him again, if you’re not a fan, deal with it) is vaguely associated with from a directoral (is this a word? Mom?) stance that I hadn’t seen yet. Now I have. The world can rest in peace – as it were. The film is of course technically a film by Robert Rodriguez who is apparently a great friend of Quentin Tarantino’s. Quentin Tarantino is a guest director here along with Frank Miller (the writer of the comics the film was adapted from) who is cited as director. Now, fair warning. You know Rodriguez. You know Tarantino. Yes there is violence. Yes there are classic “old school” movie genres running through a very, very strange terrain. Yes, the films are very much “boys toys” as it were, what with the imagery and that. Now, as you also know, I lap this stuff up by the bucketful and ask for seconds. Incomprehensibly to me, some people do not. If you are one of those people I fail to comprehend, you can easily pass on Sin City. I won’t blame you. I’ll just be sad you’re missing a brilliant film.

Welcome to Sin City. The name alone holds a clue. I said to look out for “old school” ladies and gents, and the “school” we’re in this round is film noir. A world where the dames are beautiful and deadly, the guys are either hardened good guys with one foot in the underworld or dastardly villains. It is night time, it is cold and we roam the even colder streets, trying to get to know the inhabitants of the city. We have a scary giant who is looking to avenge the only woman who ever showed him affection. We have a cop who puts his entire reputation on the line to save a little girl from a paedophile. We have a hit man after his next buck. And of course, we have a vigilante cop. All these characters come together in the “sewage pit” known as Sin City in a tale as dark as the night itself…

Before you say anything, trust me, there are more reasons than one for this film to have become so popular. I am at a tiny bit of a loss as to interpreting them in conjunction with their original “manuscripts” i.e. the comics. Of course I won’t even get started on the actual images themselves as Sin City’s images have become pretty iconic in their own right. Suffice it to say that the mood of the film very much matches the style of the images. It is very, very much like a comic book “come to life” as it were. So there you go. If you like comic books, that alone should spur you on. That and the rather marvellous way all the seemingly disparate stories come together. I promise you, you will NOT see that one coming.

But then of course there is the film noir side of things. Now, I’m not quite sure what the general opinion is of film noir. I have a sneaking suspicion it is regarded as rather passé. And it is true that simple binaries of black and white, good and bad are rather outdated these days. Understandably so, we have come to terms with the fact that the world is more of a “grey” place then black and white and this is reflected in everything, be it our entertainment or our politics. But I don’t know. There is – go on, admit it – a part in all of us which, when left unchecked, paints the world in those two colours. Really “evil” baddies that can be destroyed by the “good guy”. A good guy with some token “black” in him – this is Sin City after all, you can never completely escape the evil in the air – but whose heart is basically set on doing the right thing. Go on. You like it. Admit it to yourself if not to me. And go and watch the darned movie already. You have half a hundred reasons at least by now… 

NOTHING CAN BEAT ITS LURE : "SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS"

The other night, one of my flatmates decided we should see a nostalgic film, film noir more specifically. The film, I have to admit was selected pretty much at random but turned out to be a classic funnily enough. So there you have it, you can trust the internet in your quest for knowledge – sometimes  This blog however, as you may already know, is more about opinions and less about knowledge and my opinion of the film was so high that I reckoned I should share it with the rest of you all. You know, in case any of you guys were in the mood for a good, old-fashioned classic. This is the dark and twisted tale of JJ. Hunsecker (played by veteran actor Burt Lancaster). He is a successful columnist in LA, which makes him a popular man among those of the industry. It also means he has an immense amount of power should he choose to wield it. It is this power specifically that he uses when he finds out that his sister has “got involved” with a jazz musician. Deciding that a penniless musician is no suitable match for his beloved sister, he uses the greed and hunger of unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco(Tony Curtis) to break the couple up once and for all. The plan is dark and convoluted but Sydney doesn’t mind getting his hands a bit dirty as long as he gets his reward at the end. The only problem is, what seems to start off as something relatively simple slowly begins to backfire… Those who try dirty deeds as means to the ends they crave, should in all fairness be ready to suffer the consequences… I loved this film because it was completely and utterly everything you expect and want a film noir to be. It has beautiful innocent dames, handsome beaus trying to overcome circumstances and dastardly bad guys getting up to unthinkable tricks to achieve their dastardly ends. It is, in short, a complete and utter classic. Now, there is always the argument that this has something we have seen before. And as you know I am very, very far from averse to original and artistic work in the cinema. Heck, I’m a Terrance Malik fan. That should say it all. But then again, if cinema is art, it is also entertainment. I think quite frankly that most art forms, if not all, have this dual side to them. They are artistic, creative but must also at some level appeal to the public, entertain or force people to think. This is why being an artist is so tough really, striking a balance between the two – if indeed a balance is what you’re going for - is so difficult. Then again, it ain’t so easy if you’re going for one extreme or the other. If you’re going for entertainment value – as most film noirs tend to – you have to either “perform” exquisitely and fulfil all the conventions of your genre with quality and class or risk looking very cheesy and done a hundred times before. Like I said in my review of Alien3 , there is nothing wrong with doing stuff we’ve seen before. The Sweet Smell of Success is a very classy example of its genre, successfully combining the classic with the original. And it goes very well with pizza. Just saying.