SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

blanche-2 There is always a lot of discussion about what comprises a film noir. This documentary, Film Noir: Bringing Darkness into Light, breaks down the various components and interviews directors, cinematographers, and actors about the various elements.The femme fatale, the light and shadows, the idea of fate, the ending, the complex male, the sexual symbolism - everything is discussed, using clips from "Out of the Past," "Murder, My Sweet," "The Letter," "Asphalt Jungle," "Clash by Night," "Born to Kill," "White Heat," "Detour," and many others.The documentary discusses what was the first film noir, the last, the societal influences that brought it about, why it died out, and why it returned. Absolutely fascinating.For me, "Out of the Past" is the ultimate noir, and Robert Mitchum the ultimate noir star. Others include Robert Ryan, Kirk Douglas, Sterling Hayden. Among the females, Jane Greer, Audrey Totter, Lizabeth Scott, Jean Gille, Stanwyck, Claire Trevor.Don't miss this trip through film noir. It's great.

MartinHafer "Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light" is an exceptional documentary about film noir--certainly the best I have seen. Aside from one minor problem, it is perfect. Instead of just talking about film noir movies and discussing a few seminal films, this documentary talks to a wide variety of modern filmmakers and asks them important questions--the most important of which is 'what is film noir'. I liked this discussion of what is noir, as the folks interviewed did NOT really seem to agree. One said noir began in 1945--but many examples others gave came before this (such as "The Maltese Falcon" and "Double Indemnity"). Additionally, wonderful discussions occur about the sound, look and dialog of noir--as well as a nice discussion on the morality and psychological aspects of noir. All of this was great--like being in a film class. BUT, the film also forgot, in many cases, to identify which films were being shown as the clips were rolling. To some this isn't a major problem--to me, it's annoying as I want to see these films for myself! Oh well....it's STILL well worth your time and very well made.

robert-temple-1 This superb documentary, featuring clips from 28 different film noir movies, is extremely professionally made. It is intelligently put together, brilliantly edited, and lasts 68 minutes. It was directed by the noted film historian Gary Leva, who knows very well what he is doing, having made 58 documentaries, most of them about the cinema. A serious attempt is made, in a series of interviews, to define 'film noir'. Many of the interviewees are fascinating people with whom one would ideally like to chat for many hours. An unexpected one is Kathleen Turner, star of BODY HEAT, the 1981 film noir. And one of the most interesting people is the woman who edited that film. Leva's conclusion seems to be that the most typical film noir, and one of the best of all, is OUT OF THE PAST (1947, see my review), featuring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. Leva takes Greer as possibly the best of the femmes fatale. Many, including myself, would agree with him. (Greer is interviewed in this documentary.) Leva points out that film noir did not really begin in the aftermath of World War II as many people imagine, but had deep roots earlier on, and he cites in particular STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR, which was released in 1940 and was thus pre-War. Some Raymond Chandler films also appeared well before the end of the War, such as THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and MURDER, MY SWEET (1944). Leva also classifies the remarkable film CAT PEOPLE (1942, see my review) as a film noir, and I would agree. This is despite the fact that most noir films concern doomed men, especially ones led to their doom by femmes fatale, whereas CAT PEOPLE concerns a doomed woman instead. Leva speculates that perhaps the first real film noir may have been Fritz Lang's M (1931). He also stresses the input of émigré German directors in general in Hollywood noir, for they had deep familiarity with German expressionism before they fled to America. And Leva makes the point that because they were only making B pictures, the studios left the film noir directors alone and just let them get on with it, which enabled genuine creativity and cinematic innovation to flow, albeit on slim budgets. He points out that atmospheric expressionist lighting was quicker and cheaper than normal lighting and thus went well with the small budgets. He also gives a lot of attention to CROSSFIRE (1947), and we get a clip of an earlier interview with its director, Ed Dmytryk. According to Leva, film noir as a cinematic movement culminated and essentially ended with TOUCH OF EVIL in 1958, though as we have seen, BODY HEAT and other modern films have continued the tradition intermittently, often with spectacular success. Leva also thinks of Christopher Nolan as a noir director living in our own times, and Nolan is interviewed in the documentary. Certainly, Nolan's first film, FOLLOWING, which came out in 1998, was a sensationally brilliant noir film, as I emphatically pointed out in my review of it for IMDb. Like the old noirs, it was made on a minuscule budget, and I described it as 'a triumph of genius over money'. I have not kept up with Nolan's work entirely, because I don't have any interest in Batman, but I greatly admired INCEPTION (2010, see my review). Naturally, there are many classic noirs of which we do not catch glimpses in this documentary, including some of the most famous, like GILDA (1946, see my review). Maybe there were problems getting the right to use clips with many of them. And you can't do everything in 68 minutes. But this is a whopper of a thoughtful summary. Leva is misnamed, because he does not engage here in Leva-ty, instead it is all pretty profound stuff. This documentary comes on a separate disc of its own in the 6-disc box set FILM NOIR CLASSIC COLLECTION Vol. 3 from Warner Brothers.

emilyblunt Bringing Darkness to Light is one of the most in-depth looks at Film Noir that has been made. The production team dug deep into the vaults for the miles of clip footage. And it is great to see scholars and stars debate what film noir even is. To this day some people refuse to call it a genre. Well, this well-done intelligent documentary lets the art-form speak for itself. The doc is part of B rate films - but still a collection worth the clams if you consider yourself a Noir buff. Besides, the James Ellroy interview is worth all the bucks in-tself. Buy it now and enjoy; Film Noir Vol 3 from Warner Bros. (The Keepers of the Past)