Neo-noir

It's been way overdone. The thing that made noir great was its stylish realism. Try making films about now instead of movies about other movies.

Chinatown is not really a neo-noir. It’s a retro-noir. A neo-noir is among other things, self-consciously postmodern.

You say tom-may-to and I say tom-mah-to....

If you've ever been to LA in winter (I know there's a thread for that), you get a sense of where noir came from. LA has days w/o sun, early sunset (it's winter, afterall) and the cheapness of the built environment and the drabness of the physical environment (aside from the palm trees) is more obvious, along with the sadness who thought a warm climate would make them happy (it didn't).

Actually noir comes from Germany. It was inspired by German Expressionism of the 1920s. Many of the filmmakers and technicians who made film noir were refugees from Hitler’s Europe.

Some excellent examples of the genre:

Against All Odds

American Gigolo

Blade Runner

Blue Velvet

The Conversation

The Deep End

Dressed to Kill

Eyes of Laura Mars

House of Games

Inherent Vice

Jagged Edge

The Long Goodbye

Memento

Mississippi Mermaid

Night Moves

Nightcrawler

The Parallax View

Shallow Grave

The Talented Mr Ripley

To Live and Die in LA

The Last Seduction and Two Days in the Valley and LA Confidential are the last great Ametican noir films, otherwise the French still churn out many great noirs year after year.

R6 The Deep end was superb. I wish that movie was discussed more.

Blood Simple and Pillow Talk are my favorites of the genre.

Pillow Talk?

R9 I’m quite partial to Mulholland Drive and It Happened One Night, myself.

[R6], I love the film, but Eyes of Laura Mars is more of an American take on the giallo, which was rooted in Noir but turned up the lurid colors, stylized violence and camp sensibilities considerably.

[R5] Although Noir references German Expressionism it is closer to Italian Neo-Realist sensibility in overall tone and used the narrator and the deadpan in purely American ways that were derived from US pulp and related surrealist literature, such as Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust".

Film noir was a product of the thirties and forties and Italian neorealism was postwar.

Visconti's Ossessione (the first film adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice) lies at the intersection of film noir and Italian neorealism.

Noir is not just one thing. The expats may have been a big part but they found a setting in Los Angeles (where they wound up) which is a pretty depressing place part of the year.

I just came in here to say blade runner and to live and did in la

Great thread! Thanks, OP!

Please keep them coming guys!

Was “Blade Runner 2049” a Neo-Noir too? And what about “Dark City” (I think that was from the late 1990’s). I know they both incorporate sci-fi, but they also really have that strong Noir mood/tone to them, so I’m not sure how to categorize...

They are both neo noirs, dummy. Didn't you learn anything from the Netflix video which explained exactly what a neo-noir is, or do you have to be told everything?

The French film, “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” (In French: De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté) from 2005 is an excellent Neo-Noir and was very well reviewed. I highly recommend it. The acting and directing, etc., are all top notch and well worth your time.

The star of the movie, Romain Duris, is also a personal favorite of mine and his performance here is perfection and a career highlight...

Bump!

Let's not forget Bound, which features fantastic performances by Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly.

Brick (2005) was a neo-noir set in high school. Worked remarkably well.

I love Bound!

[quote] A neo-noir is among other things, self-consciously postmodern.

I think that's too narrow. And that Netflix video is rather glib.

Then again, I used to rile people up on imdb by saying only American films could be noir, so maybe I shouldn't talk about gatekeeping.

[quote]I'm always surprised they don't make adaptations of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels anymore

I love Chandler but I think he's hard to adapt because the best thing about his work is his writing style. So you either end up with too much voiceover or you cut out some of the best stuff.

IHMO the most popular Neo-Noir of the last fifty years is "The Big Lebowski".

Which is a combination of genuine Neo-Noir and subtle parody of Noir, but it's a good film and still widely beloved. Even by people who never heard of "Film Noir".