Film Noir Quotes

With a genre like film noir, everyone has these assumptions and expectations. And once all of those things are in place, that’s when you can really start to twist it about and mess around with it.

I’d love to play a femme fatale in a film noir. I’m thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. What I wouldn’t like is to suddenly find myself being cast, as many senior actresses seem to be, as the abbess in a convent.

When we say ‘cinematic‘, we tend to think John Ford and vistas and wide-open spaces. Or we think of kinetic camera movement or of a certain number of cinematic styles, like film noir.

So I grew up watching film noir, you know the classic stuff. William Holden, Richard Widmark, Robert Mitchum, all those.

I wouldn’t apply high frame rates to a love story or a thriller or a film noir or a mystery.

One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines.

I was influenced by American movies of the ’60s and ’70s, especially Don Siegel’s ‘Dirty Harry‘ and the films of Sam Peckinpah. And, of course, a lot of the film noir movies of the ’40s.

In D&D, you’re only in that fantasy world. But with GURPS, you can, like, play a game that’s Los Angeles film noir, or a game where the premise is you are world-jumpers, and you can go to different worlds.

Billy Wilder is really is a heavy influence on Bound. We felt that film noir was a genre where you could create a really contained story. We wanted to be on a set as much as we could to get the kind of style level we were looking for.

I’m into clothes, but in a way that’s related to wanting to walk into a film noir movie. You know, I love to go to vintage stores, but mostly it’s stuff that I don’t have anywhere to wear… I don’t have the life that goes with the clothes.

I love all kinds of stuff. I really am so eclectic in my taste. I love film noir, I love thrillers, and I love big blockbuster popcorn cinema stuff, but I like it when it’s twinged with a bit more social consciousness.

I didn’t know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!

Sometimes it feels as if the artist hasn’t done the real work of engaging with the material. Film noir can’t just play off looks and attitudes. A thriller needs a dose of genuine suspense. It does not have to be literal, but it does have to feel genuine. Otherwise the artist is just leeching off the form.

I think there are specific times where film noir is a natural concomitant of the mood. When there’s insecurity, collapse of financial systems – that’s where film noir always hits fertile ground.