Blog # 10

                 Noir, the word means black. The stories, that consider as noir, is full of the dark characteristics of human nature. In noir stories, there are lots of bloodsheds; corruptions, negative morality or moral corruptions, manipulations, drugs and gamling exist in the main theme of noir stories.
                 In the stories, in "The Gold Coast Section", The best noir story that describes the most of the feel of noir is, "The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones". It is a story of a bartender "Tate" and a waitress "Cherie" she also is a struggling actress; that much we know in the beginning of the story, Tate gets a call from Cherie, that she needs some help. Cherie already killed someone before she murdered that guy. The readers do not know about the murder at that time, but later on the way, the author makes the readers to get in the murder scene, is really wonderfull. Manipullation is another aspect of noir that Cherie used to entrap Tate. Alcoholic Cherie is the one who we can call the femme fatale, which is a very important figure in noir stories. About Cherie Tate has a good description to introduce her clearly; that is-"We get guys all the time with crushes on her, some of them very young; they come in on a daily basis for months sometimes before they accept the fact that she's never going to respond to their devotion, and lots of them keeps coming.."(pg 289). Tate himself has a crush on her too. Cherie knows it very well and that is why, she tries to entrap him by getting the body out of the house where she killed him.
             The story that could be classified as noir to me is "Kinship". This is a story about a half fillipino young man, who gets involved in a gang somehow, yet he has a deep feeling about his cousin and her disable son. The cousin Veronica is like his big sister, friend and mentor. The guy takes revenge on some guy who's son bullied Veronica's son. The bully's dad beats up her husband and that pisses him off the most and he kills him. The story is more like an emotional tragic story rather than a noir.

Blog # 9

               The stories, "The Kidnapper Bell" by Jim Pascoe and "City of Commerce" by Neal Pollack are both interesting in their own ways. Protagonists in noir, are the leading characters, who could be corrupted or honest but manipulated, pessimistic and greedy. The characteristics of protagonists in noir are actually not that impressive to me. In the first story, the main character or the protagonist is Jim. He is basically not a very good person, I would say. He is a married man (at the end I found it out, which was really shocking!). Even though he has a wife, he looks for other women, dates them and looks for an opportunity to have sex. He tries several girlfriends to get intimated; as the author states his thoughts, "all the while he's doing the male math in his head: four dates and still no sex. Tonight makes five"(pg 207, The Kidnapper Bell). The part of the story, where Jim looks for the kidnapped girl is really scary. It seems, I am in the scene and watching the whole thing with my very own eyes. There are lots of confusing parts of Jim's charater.The most confusing part of Jim's charater is, why he gets hooked up with all those women, while he has a wife at home who trusts him. Another thing that grabbed my attention, that is- why he rings the bell, which is belong to the kidnapper? Does that mean, he is going to turn into one? Obviously this man Jim, does not have any optimistic view towards life. He is also a morally corrupted man.
          In the story, "Commerce", by Neal Pollack, the protagonist is a gambler. He does not have any ambition in his life. All he thinks about playing poker, win and make money. Because of his addiction of gambling, he loses a very good opportunity, of stepping forward. The way, the story ends, it seems he does not care about anything in life but gambling, not even his life partner. The author portrayed a perfect picture of a gambler through the character of "Nick", the protagonist of the story "Commerce".

The Method, an experience!

            "The Method", written by Janet Fitch is really a very interesting story. To me, it seems a little surprising and shocking finding out about a simple girl's true character. If, I have to recommend one story to someone, I would choose this story. Holly is the protagonist of the story. The way, she manipulates and then kills the guy named Richard, is kind of femme fatalish. But, as per as rule of film noir, since Holly is the narrator of the story, she seems to be the protagonist.
             The theme and the idea of the story impresses me the most. In the starting of the story, Holly gives a description of her own. Addressing readers, she says "If you met me, you might think you knew me- a small town girl, fresh from state college productions of the Boyfriend and Annie Get Your Gun....I know, you would think lunchmeat. But you don't know me". In this self description of Holly, there is some thing, that drags the reader through the story, with an curiousity to know about her true character. We found out at the end that, the simple looking, tiny girl "Holly" is not that simple at all. She seems pretty evil and psycho type of girl. She is smart enough to deceive police even after committing a crime like murder. We could not find out about any case against Holly, so it remains unknown that, what happens to her eventually. The first thing that came on to my mind, after reading the story is, did she kill the guy because, she is mad at him, because he had a relationship with that old actress? Or, she is just simply a psychopath! Anyway, if it is a question of recommendation, I would prefer "The Method", because of it's startling ending; it is also a little different than other stories and therefore, readers will find this story pretty interesting.




        

Murder, She Wrote!

       In the story, "Dangerous Days" by Emory Holmes II, the first thing that grabbed my attention is, this story is not in a flashback. To me, it seems pretty different than a typical noir mood. The story starts on a holyday and it is also the main character Cravitz's birthday. He seems happy with whatever life offers him. Like a regular noir story, this story is not only about darkness, rainy nights, grimy roads or lonelyness. The characters have friends and family, which is quite different than a classic film noir. In, "Midnight in Silicon Alley" by Denise Hamilton, the story starts with the brutal murder of the main character Russel Chen. This guy is also not a lonely man, like the usual noir film characters. In fact, he has way to much company. He has his wife and two little daughters in his family, he has a mistress and a newborn son with her and he also goes to a brothel where he gets entertained by a teeenager.
     Both of the stories have their own interesting styles and surprises. When I read "Dangerous Days", I got a little shock, finding out about Athena. She is the femme fatale, obviously. She used sex to manipulate and kill men, and eventually gets what she wants to get. But, after reading "Midnight in Silicon Alley" I found out that, actually in both of these stories women rule over men. The genere been updated in the case of drugs and the silicon chips matter; this is definitely a noe-noir element.
    Leila Chen from "Midnight in Silicon Alley", reminds me of Phyllis Nerdlinger in Double Indemnity. Both of these women are treacherous; they betrayed and killed their husbands out of greed.  Both of the story is about murders, greed, money, treachery, femme fatale and the inhumane characteristics of human nature; and those elements connect these stories to noir of the classic period.

The dark past keeps returning: Gender Themes in Neo-Noir, The Article

                "Film noir, an enigmatic and compellimg mode, can and has been ressurected in many movies in recent years. So- called "neo-noirs" evoke the look, style, mood or even just the feel of classic noir"(The dark past keeps returning, by Heather Fireman). Film noir is, we can call an original flavour of the dark sides of human experiences. Film noir expresses the inhumane characteristics of human nature. The mood of film noir always reminds us that, the world we are living in, is not just about true love, trust, genuine feelings, light, purity or morality; the world is also full of hatred, mistrust, disappointments, darkness, dirty games and corruptions. The neo-noir displays almost the same mood, but in different ways. The neo-noir is a different direction or a different style of presentation the same ideas as film noir. The visible difference between film noir and and neo-noir is- film noir shot in grays, blacks and whites and neo-noir is in color.
               The connection between film noir and and neo-noir is very intimate. The mood of darkness, melancholy, moral corruption, dissillusionment and paranoia are often exist in both film noir and neo-noir.
"These films (noir) externalized fears and anxieties of American society of the time, generating a dark feeling or mood to accompany it's visual style"(Heather Fireman). The time, when classic noir was made is way different than neo- noir era. The point of view of the audience was little different than us- the neo-noir audience. So, the way of thinking of the audience makes the difference between classic noir and neo-noir films. 

The amazing quote, that I have found

            The article, that I have read, the movie review of "Double Indemnity" is by Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews", from the website sover.net. In the beginning, writer Dennis Schwartz, gives a nice description of the director/writer Billy Wilder and the whole unit including actors and actresses. He discusses about the strong acting power of actors, such as-MacMurray as Walter Neff, the protagonist of the story and another important male character played by Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes.
          Schwartz talks about the relationship between the MacMurray and Robinson characters. He also talks about the odd attraction that two killers(Phyllis Dietrichson played by Barbara Stanwyck and MacMurray) have- defines the dark atmosphere of the prewar Los Angeles scene. Reading this article, really helped me to understand the characters very well. Now I know, what is the reason of lack of love in the relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Dietrichson. According to Phyllis, Mr. Dietrichson has become a sullen man since he has lost a lot of money in oil investments. On the other hand, Mr. Dietrichson possible reason for not loving her is, she has such a coldness in her beauty, which pushes him away from her.  I probably will use this particular issue to explain the topic of my essay.
        The most interesting thing to me, that I think amazed me after reading the article is, the best quote of the movie; which the writer used in his article. Since I have not seen the whole movie yet, I don't know exactly when MacMurray and Robinson have that conversation. It could be the scene before the last scene. When MacMurray confesses and tells the whole truth about his killing of Mr. Dietrichson; his last comments: "You know why you couldn't figure this one Keyes?" I'll tell you, "Because the guy you were looking for was too close--right across the desk from you." Keyes says, "Closer than that, Walter;" and, then Neff says, "I love you, too." Keyes is the father figure to Walter, and these dialogues of both characters give a clear proof of their selfless genuine love for each other.