The session: "Yuletide Noir"
An abbreviated session (two films) featuring Christmas-based films noir.
Week 1: Lady in the Lake (1947)
Directed by Robert Montgomery
My Impressions Going In:
I had never heard of this.
Plot:
A private detective decides to become a writer. But his efforts only get him embroiled in another murder case.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
LitL does well as a film noir. It's got that crisp, clever dialogue and the surprising plot twists that the genre requires. So I found myself surprised several times. And the denouement definitely caught me off guard. But the thing is that all that doesn't really make it stand out as film noir. It establishes it as one of many really good films noir out there.
What makes this movie special is that Montgomery used it to experiment with a "camera as protagonist" approach. Essentially, the movie is all POV, seen from the vantagepoint of protagonist Philip Marlowe (played by director Robert Montgomery). Montgomery's idea was to recreate the style of the novel,. which was told in first-person. As a result, we rarely actually see the protagonist. He only appears when he looks in a mirror or when he delivers a monologue. It was an interesting technique, but it could be disconcerting at times.
And in case anyone asks, I do think this counts as a Christmas movie. At least it dies if Die Hard does...
Ratings
Somehow I neglected to write down the ratings for this, so those are lost to time. My bad.
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