24 Amazing Films None Of Us Will Ever See

Fascinating article over at IO9 on lost films. Check it out here.

Rogue's Gallery

above: John Payne busting heads in LARCENY

Check out the new entry of Rogue's Gallery, the three man standoff I have on semi-regular basis with Eric Beetner and Cullen Gallagher over at Spinetingler Magazine. This time around we discuss noir's unlikely tough guys--dudes like John Payne and Dick Powell who started out in musicals or comedies and then worked their way over to noir.

As a PS to the article, one guy we left off was the great Dana Andrews. He's so well known now as a noir icon in films like LAURA and WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS that its easy to forget that he started out as a singer.

Pitt and Dominik reteam for COGAN'S TRADE

If you live in dread of the thousand comic book movies coming our way you can at least take heart that, for art house crime geeks at least, the future does hold some signs of hope. As I talked about the other day, Gosling and Refn are reteaming for ONLY GOD FORGIVES.

Just as exciting is the new collaboration between Brad Pitt and director Andrew Dominik. The two worked together previously on the brilliant, if largely unseen, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. That film made about ten cents at the box office--when I saw it in the theater, the small audience in attendance dwindled throughout the screening until only some dude and I remained--but it is as good a revisionist Western as I've ever seen.

The news is that Pitt will be joining Dominik in an adaptation of George V. Higgins's gritty 1974 crime novel COGAN'S TRADE. It's interesting to note that as cinema becomes ever more enslaved to the tastes and preoccupations of sci-fi-loving fanboys, genres like westerns and noir are becoming de facto adult programming. (That's not a dig at sci-fi or comic book movies or fantasy flicks. I like that stuff well enough. I just think the domination of fanboy material at the box office is monotonous and, ultimately, redundant. Enough already with the armies of CGI characters charging at each other with swords.) Dominik and Pitt are joined by an amazing cast: SOPRANOS alums James Gandolfini and Vincent Curatola, the always welcome Ray Liotta, ANIMAL KINGDOM's Ben Mendelsohn, THE VISITOR's Richard Jenkins. If you can't make a good crime flick from with this cast, you cannot make a good crime flick.

One note of concern: there's word buzzing around the net that the name of the film will be changed to KILLING THEM SOFTLY. If true, this seems like an idiotic move. COGAN'S TRADE sounds like a crime classic. KILLING THEM SOFTLY sounds like, well, this. (Note: not dissing either Roberta Flack or Hugh Grant, just making the point that the new title strikes a, ah, different emotional chord. But, hell, who knows? Maybe it's the perfect title for the film Dominik and company have made. I'll be happy to see the film to find out.)

Gosling and Refn Reteam for ONLY GOD FORGIVES

I really liked DRIVE when I saw it in the theater last year, but when I bought new the Blu-Ray edition of the film I had one of those wonderful revelations that sometimes strike upon seeing a work for the second time. It turns out I love DRIVE.

Some movies have to percolate for a while. This is especially true of something like DRIVE, a film that has such an idiosyncratic mix of styles and moods. It's at once a lovely film and a gritty film, alternatingly quiet and bombastic. Its tenderness keeps close quarters (like elevator close) with its violence. A film this original (and this derivative) needs to be seen once just so a viewer can get a lay of the land, so to speak. Repeated views add rather than subtract from the experience. It's not for every taste. It is, however, for my taste. I love this flick.

Which means I'm excited to see the next teaming of star Ryan Gosling and director Nicholas Winding Refn. Their next project is ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Gosling plays a Bangkok gangster who runs a kickboxing club as a front for a drug running operation. When his brother kills a prostitute, Gosling gets roped into a violent cycle of revenge involving a cop known as The Angel of Vengeance, as well as his own controlling mother (played by Kristen Scott Thomas).

No word yet on a release date, but I'm hoping it's sometime in the fall. DRIVE came out in a dead spot in September and did surprisingly well at the box office, so maybe the Weinstein Company (which is releasing the film) will follow a similar approach.

Through The Camera's Eye

above: Audrey Totter looks into the subjective camera in THE LADY IN THE LAKE

The new issue of NOIR CITY is out. This one has been cooking for a while, but it's packed with great new material. Essays on the dishy dames of 50's British Noir (hello Belinda Lee...), the varieties of railroad noir, the music of Bernard Herrmann, the art of noir paperbacks, and much more.

This issue also features two pieces by yours truly. First, I do a book to film comparison of THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE (which reminds me, I have some exciting news to break in few weeks that touches on this film and its director Felix Feist, but more on that later).

I also have a longer piece about the use of the subjective camera in film noir. Rather than explain what that means, I'll just link to it since the good folks about the Film Noir Foundation have posted the article online. Go check out Through The Camera's Eye and consider becoming a supporter of the Film Noir Foundation.

Aftermath

I have a new flash up at the Flash Fiction Offensive:

When the robbers burst in at twelve past twelve on that bright August afternoon, Edward didn’t notice. Leaning over the tabletop, ignoring his lobster sandwich, he was explaining commodities futures to a potential client. So focused on making his argument, so zeroed in on his goal, Edward did not see that everyone around him had started to raise their hands. Conversations lurched and sputtered. People began pulling out their cell phones and holding them in the air. Only when the client broke eye contact and gasped did Edward turn and see three men with guns stomping among the fine linen tables issuing orders.

Read the rest of "Aftermath" here.

The Serpent Box

I'm pleased to say I have the debut story up at Fires On The Plain, the new website specializing in Western Noir. "The Serpent Box" is a bloody revenge tale set among a group of snakehandling fanatics at the turn of the century. Think Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING, except set in rural Arkansas. Go check out The Serpent Box and let me know what you think.