shorely-noir asked: Dear my Noir expert. I have been enjoying your noir page and I would like to ask you a question. I’m writer, even though it sounds pretentious to say it. Right now, I am lacking substance in my blacken well of inspiration at the moment. Could you suggest something to get my juices flowing? I rather enjoyed the little video that you posted. It gave me more than a few hours of keyboard abuse. I think though I need more, something a bit raw, but romantic. Sorry to ask such a plain question
I’m hardly an expert. I’m just interested enough to learn about it, and to share what I’ve learned and what I learn from my continued explorations. I wish I could claim expert status, but I don’t think I’ve seen or read nearly enough to justify that.
I’m going to post this here and let anyone make suggestions. I’m assuming you want a recommendation of some film noir to inspire your writing. There are scads of raw noirs, but I’m not sure how romantic you want it to be (in my humble opinion, Dark Passage loses it noir bearings by being overly romantic).
Here are my initial suggestions, and I encourage readers to reply and add their suggestions, also:
- The Maltese Falcon
- Laura
- Double Indemnity
- In a Lonely Place
- If you’re up for a proto-noir, perhaps The Petrified Forest
