As the Oscars® recently honored old Hollywood with The Artist as its Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, the film rejuvenated the idea that a silent, black and white film from Hollywood's Golden Era will still be welcomed by the masses and critics. While one genre may make a comeback, another has been laying low for a while looking for a nice comeback of its own - film noir. While films of the last two decades or so, L.A. Confidential, Usual Suspects, Hollywoodland paid homage to the gritty genre, the striking style should find a comeback to the big screens. While we hope a director or production team like that of The Artist will consider bringing it back, we hope they use Out of the Past as a prime example. The 1947 film starring the intimidating Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas is as gritty and raw as it gets and for the era in which is arrived, it was controversial but praised. The film centers around Jeff Bailey, a mild mannered man living in California when one day his crooked past catches up with him and takes him on a wild ride to redemption and closure. The film, which was released by RKO and directed by Jaques Tourneur, was hailed as one of the greatest film noir movies of all time and in 1991 it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," by the US National Film Registry. in 2004 the film was released on DVD for the film time in a box set called "The Film Noir Collection Vol. 1."
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Movie of the Month - Out of the Past
As the Oscars® recently honored old Hollywood with The Artist as its Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, the film rejuvenated the idea that a silent, black and white film from Hollywood's Golden Era will still be welcomed by the masses and critics. While one genre may make a comeback, another has been laying low for a while looking for a nice comeback of its own - film noir. While films of the last two decades or so, L.A. Confidential, Usual Suspects, Hollywoodland paid homage to the gritty genre, the striking style should find a comeback to the big screens. While we hope a director or production team like that of The Artist will consider bringing it back, we hope they use Out of the Past as a prime example. The 1947 film starring the intimidating Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas is as gritty and raw as it gets and for the era in which is arrived, it was controversial but praised. The film centers around Jeff Bailey, a mild mannered man living in California when one day his crooked past catches up with him and takes him on a wild ride to redemption and closure. The film, which was released by RKO and directed by Jaques Tourneur, was hailed as one of the greatest film noir movies of all time and in 1991 it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," by the US National Film Registry. in 2004 the film was released on DVD for the film time in a box set called "The Film Noir Collection Vol. 1."
