I don't think the cynicism-drenched tone of noir is sustainable for any long-running series with a set cast of characters.

Profit, we hardly knew ye...

Absolutely! Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train. Rebecca to a certain extent.

Happy endings, all three, even if no one remembers them as vividly as other elements from them (probably because Hitchcock would have preferred to go another way if he didn't have an eye on the bottom line).

VERTIGO, on the other hand, now that I think about, may be the only VistaVision, full-color noir ever made. Not a pastiche, and one of the bleakest endings of all time.

C'mon! All the directors from the French New Wave were film theorists and critcs. They were extremely conscious of what they were doing as a group/movement.

While most of them did work together as critics, and for a number of logistic reasons their early films look similar, I would vehemently argue that they did not think of themselves as a group/movement, particularly since the term movement was often associated with a political agenda, as with Neo-Realism. In fact, one of the arguments I make in my dissertation is that their talk of being apolitical actually was very politically self-serving, especially in their defense of American films. But they certainly did not like being lumped together as a movement, which is something that came from the outside.

Another digression from noir: does this person amuse you as much as she amuses me? I don't want to defend Borat, but how hard do you have to work to miss the point like this?

Count me in among those who didn't like Lebowski until the second viewing.

I tried watching Lebowski yesterday, but it just didn't grab me. Partly, I was really tired.

Slate had, on last count, sixteen thousand articles on Borat, one even opening with 'I know we're all sick of Borat...'

Another digression from noir: does this person amuse you as much as she amuses me? I don't want to defend Borat, but how hard do you have to work to miss the point like this?

Er. Pretty hard, it seems. Although it was interesting to get the perspective of someone from the other side. I always wonder how they feel. Clearly...not very good!

While we're on the subject of The Big Lebowski, here is an awesome set of TBL livejournal icons. [link]

Also, for whose wanting to give the movie a second shot, TBL is best watched in 1) a group and 2) with some amount of alcohol in the system.

I think we clearly all need Wonder Woman statues to keep Borat at bay.