by Complexity

Noir is the most nebulous of genres. Perhaps the best way to define Noir is in the way Augustine defined Time: "If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know." In most minds noir is an atmosphere: dark, dangerous, erotic, Godless; it's a series of amorphous sounds and images: rain-soaked cities at night, voice-overs conjuring dubious flashbacks; humdrum lives and inadvertent entries into the criminal underworld; the moral confusion that follows; futile attempts to escape the labyrinth you're trapped in.

I'm writing a screenplay that references noir at the moment. I love the snappy, lazy lines of wit that stand in for foreplay, the heavy-lidded gazes, the endless cigarettes, the fatalistic acceptance of the clumsy human condition and the clinch of our protagonists seeking a moment of solace from the storm of the human world.

But it's a genre at least 70 years old. Is any of it relevant in a gleaming silicone world? Do you noir, Hubski? (And is one of the classics worth a watch in Hubski film club?)

Here's Bernard Hermann's 'Concerto Macabre' from Hangover Square to get you in a noir mood:

And a bit of Miles: