We head to the streets of New York for our next #noirvember pick with the seminal THE NAKED CITY from master noir craftsman Jules Dassin.
From the film's opening narration, with its unusual declaration of a film not made on a studio set but on the streets of New York, it's apparent that this is more than your typical film noir offering. Shot almost entirely on location, the first major Hollywood picture of its kind, the film is structured around the familiar framework of a police procedural - a former model is found dead in her bathtub and two detectives are tasked with investigating her murder - but the narrative takes a backseat to the films true star - NYC itself.
In post-war America, New York was a city doused with decay and beauty and the remains of its art deco skyline are squeezed into nearly every frame of Dassin's naturalistic crime drama, paving the way for grittier iterations of the genre in the decades to come.
Friday Night Film - THE NAKED CITY
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Friday Night Film - THE AMERICAN FRIEND
Dennis Hooper stars as villainous con-artist Tom Ripley in Wim Wender’s transnational neo-noir THE AMERICAN FRIEND.
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Friday Night Film - WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
We’re dedicating this month’s Friday Night Film picks to Noirvember and as we’re just coming out of the spooky season, we start off with the late-70s chiller WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, a fascinating blend of home invasion terror and gritty noir.