“What is your favorite neo-noir film?” That’s a very difficult question. Perhaps, at the top of my list, I would put Jean-Paul Melville’s late 60’s masterpiece, “Le Samourai”. This film is about a contract killer, Jef Costello, who has just killed his “victim” and then realizes that the man who hired him is trying to kill him and that the police are really “on his tail”. It’s a great study in both stress and solitude and it has a great performance from Alan Deloin, as a man who has no soul. More recently, just for its extremely stylish quirkiness, I would have to say Michael Radford’s “B. Monkey”, which boasts two pairs of crazy lovers who get involved in a crime spree, Asia Argento and Jared Harris and Rupert Everett and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. The film feels like it was probably edited down to the bone, but it does give you a once-in-a-lifetime joy ride. It also has a most interesting array of highly-quotable one-liners. And to bring us up-to-date, 2007, I believe, I really enjoyed James Foley’s “Perfect Stranger” about a pair of investigative reporters, Halle Berry and Giovanni Ribisi, who go after a highly successful businessman, Bruce Willis, who, they suspect, actually killed Berry’s girlfriend. This film takes place in the blackest of nights and has a highly-unexpected twist. Maybe a little too unexpected for most moviegoers, but it certainly qualifies as “a whopper”. It also has a great performance from Ribisi as Miles Haley, a computer geek who is, make no mistake about it, “a power player”.

What is name of movie shown Sat (9-26) 11pm to 12:30 Sun
morning on Chan 13. Husband tries to blackmail the man
who slept with husband’s wife and ends up killing him
in self defense. Husband is charged with murder and is
given the electric chair. Husband is a barber?

I’d rather see the old “noirs” rather than the neo-s. “Body Heat” is a nice retread of “Double Indemnity.” I prefer the original, as well as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Murder, My Sweet.” If I had to pick a neo-noir, why not Orson Welles’”Touch Of Evil”? It is already a spoof. The villain (delicious Akim Tamirov)is named Grandee, and even he contemptuously points out that his HQ is “Rancho Grandee”(Old song). Marlene Dietrich as a Mexican whore with an old pianola banging out tunes behind her. Welles is a parody of seedy border sheriff. “He was—some kind of man.” If “neo” means anything, then it’s a recognition that the genre is so well established, that the only thing you can do is play with it.

Joseph, the film you are asking about is Titled “The Man Who Wasnt There” starring Billy Joe Thornton.

rayban - thanks for the heads-up on Doulos. I wasn’t aware that it’s been transferred to DVD. And I see that Le deuxième souffle has also been transferred. I ordered both from Netflix, although I probably should have just bought them outright. One can’t go wrong with Melville.

Le Cercle Rouge is an absolute must! It is absolutely outstanding on so many levels, not the least of which is the acting of Montand, Delon. And the script and direction are superb. In 1955 Jules Dassin made the first film of this robbery, “Riffifi”, based on the novel. Melville said that he always wanted to make the film but it kept getting put off and was ticked that Dassin got to it first. “Riffifi” is excellent, too. One can watch both films of the same robbery and not see any redundancies. They’re unique in their own ways.

“L’Armee” is technically not a noir - it’s a WWII French Resistance thriller. But the atmosphere and mood are tres noir-ish.

I hope you get to see them both - and “Riffifi”. If you like Melville, you’ll be bowled over by these.