Classic Film Noir
Here be those darkly vexing offerings one should include in their diet periodically. Film Noir (literally 'black film or cinema') was coined by French film critics (first by Frank Nino in 1946) who noticed the trend of how 'dark' and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released in France following the war. It was a style of black and white American films that first evolved in the 1940s, became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted in a classic "Golden Age" period until about 1965.
With the list below Alice has included many "Contempory Noirs", making browsing that much more "coloured".....
Right: Orson Wells stars and directs "A Touch Of Evil".
Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud ( Lift to the Scaffold ) (1957)
Director: Louis Malle
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Amedee , Lino Ventura
Celebrated director Louis Malle's debut film was a post-modern film noir, starring Jeanne Moreau as a woman who plots with her young lover (Maurice Ro... Read more
Black Angel (1946)
7/10
Director: Roy William Neill
Starring: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Wallace Ford, John Ph...
An imaginative and effective noir adapted from the novel by Cornell Woolrich, with Dan Duryea as a down-hearted musician who goes on a bender after hi... Read more
Blackmail / Murder! (1929)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anny Ondra, Herbert Marshall, John Longden, Sara Allgood, Norah Baring
'Blackmail' (1929): Hitchcock's first sound picture is the story of a young girl who stabs an artist to death in defense of her honour. Her boyfriend,... Read more
Bob the Gambler ( Bob le Flambeur ) (1955)
7.8/10
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring: Isabelle Corey, Roger Duchesne, Daniel Cauchy
Suffused with wry humour, Jean-Pierre Melville's 'Bob le Flambeur' melds the toughness of American gangster films with Gallic sophistication to lay th... Read more
Born To Kill (1947)
7.3/10
Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak
This steamy noir drama stars Lawrence Tierney as a killer given refuge from the police by the woman who loves him (Claire Trevor). But when he eventua... Read more
Breathless ( A bout de souffle ) (1960)
7.9/10
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Daniel Boulanger, Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Henri-Jacques Huet
A.k.a. "A bout de souffle". There was before "Breathless", and there was after "Breathless". Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with th... Read more
Breathless ( A bout de souffle ) ( Blu-ray ) (1960)
7.9/10
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Daniel Boulanger, Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Henri-Jacques Huet
A.k.a. "A bout de souffle". There was before "Breathless", and there was after "Breathless". Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with th... Read more
Brighton Rock (1947)
5.8/10
Director: John Boulting
Starring: Richard Attenborough, Carol Marsh, Hermione Baddeley, William Hartnell, Nigel St...
A brutal look at the British underworld as seen through the amoral eyes of teenaged thug Pinkie Brown, played brilliantly by a 24-year-old Richard Att... Read more
British Intelligence (1940)
6/10
Director: Terry Morse
Starring: Boris Karloff, Margaret Lindsay, Bruce Lester, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert, Au...
Made during the early part of the Second World War (when England was enduring constant air assaults and other threats), and set during the First World... Read more
Brute Force (1947)
7.7/10
Director: Jules Dassin
Starring: Ann Blyth, Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Hume Cronyn, Yvonne De Carlo, Ella...
As hard-hitting as its title, "Brute Force" was the first of Jules Dassin's forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look... Read more