Film Noir

In all likelihood the primary reason for my love of the movies of the 1940s and 1950s is a type of film called film noir.  The bumper crop of them was dispatched in some abundance in those two decades.  Another tack is to perhaps say the period from John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).  Some might not consider either of those films as film noir, but I do.  What we can be certain of, oddly enough, is that even the high-minded film scholars don't always agree on what film noir is. 

Mmmm Marilyn

                                                    
I think Marilyn Monroe is the biggest movie star in the world... ever.  Yeah, I know that trumps John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable and a small handful of others, but really, who is bigger than MM?  Even the initials clue you in.  She dazzled us for roughly 14 years while she was alive and famous.  The years before her true fame have really become rather textbook to many.  Those years prior to 1948 are etched in our memories thanks to the scores and scores of books written about her.  This year she will be gone 50 years... and we are still talking about her.

REVIEW: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy



(Out of 4 stars)

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

From Focus Features

2 hours and 8 minutes

Starring

Gary Oldman

John Hurt

Colin Firth

Ciarin Hinds

Toby Jones

Benedict Cumberbatch

Mark Strong

Tom Hardy