From a pop culture perspective, private detectives stand for all that’s memorable about film noir. The indifference, the wittiness, and the moral ambiguity that define each urban knight has since become the stuff of parodied legend. We’re talking about the mediators between the crooks and the cops, the embodiment of back alley grayness that’s so tough to pin down. P.I.’s could cooperate with the law if needed, but they could just as soon do business with the bad guys for the right price. To a certain extent, that is – shamus work has always attracted the ignored and the ethical. The Wild West has mythical men with no name, The Asphalt Jungle has names with investigating licenses attached to them. Instead of a poncho and a ten gallon hat, they’re provided a fedora and trench coat.
The archetype has undergone many faces throughout Hollywood’s history,...
The archetype has undergone many faces throughout Hollywood’s history,...
- 2/16/2016
- by Danilo Castro
- CinemaNerdz
Rip Van Marlowe
By Raymond Benson
Robert Altman was a very quirky director, sometimes missing the mark, but oftentimes brilliant. His 1973 take on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye is a case in point. It might take a second viewing to appreciate what’s really going on in the film. Updating what is essentially a 1940s film noir character to the swinging 70s was a risky and challenging prospect—and Altman and his star, Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe (!), pull it off.
It’s one of those pictures that critics hated when it was first released; and yet, by the end of the year, it was being named on several Top Ten lists. I admit that when I first saw it in 1973, I didn’t much care for it. I still wasn’t totally in tune with the kinds of movies Altman made—even after M*A*S*H,...
By Raymond Benson
Robert Altman was a very quirky director, sometimes missing the mark, but oftentimes brilliant. His 1973 take on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye is a case in point. It might take a second viewing to appreciate what’s really going on in the film. Updating what is essentially a 1940s film noir character to the swinging 70s was a risky and challenging prospect—and Altman and his star, Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe (!), pull it off.
It’s one of those pictures that critics hated when it was first released; and yet, by the end of the year, it was being named on several Top Ten lists. I admit that when I first saw it in 1973, I didn’t much care for it. I still wasn’t totally in tune with the kinds of movies Altman made—even after M*A*S*H,...
- 2/27/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
(Robert Altman, 1973, Arrow Academy, 15)
Like Raymond Chandler, Robert Altman (1925-2006) was a difficult, hard-drinking, self-destructive artist, a brilliant maverick who achieved his first success late in life. In 1973, his career still in the ascendant after the popularity of his first expansive, widescreen movie, Mash, he made a controversial screen version of Chandler's last work of consequence.
Published in 1953, The Long Good-bye was arguably Chandler's best, certainly his most personal novel and turned upon his knight-errant private eye Philip Marlowe going down the mean streets of Los Angeles to defend the reputation of his friend Terry Lennox, who's accused of murdering his wife before apparently committing suicide in Mexico.
Altman brought in Leigh Brackett, co-screenwriter with William Faulkner on the 1946 film of Chandler's The Big Sleep. His big changes were to simplify the plot and, above all, to bring forward the action some two decades from the conformist early 50s to the permissive 70s.
Like Raymond Chandler, Robert Altman (1925-2006) was a difficult, hard-drinking, self-destructive artist, a brilliant maverick who achieved his first success late in life. In 1973, his career still in the ascendant after the popularity of his first expansive, widescreen movie, Mash, he made a controversial screen version of Chandler's last work of consequence.
Published in 1953, The Long Good-bye was arguably Chandler's best, certainly his most personal novel and turned upon his knight-errant private eye Philip Marlowe going down the mean streets of Los Angeles to defend the reputation of his friend Terry Lennox, who's accused of murdering his wife before apparently committing suicide in Mexico.
Altman brought in Leigh Brackett, co-screenwriter with William Faulkner on the 1946 film of Chandler's The Big Sleep. His big changes were to simplify the plot and, above all, to bring forward the action some two decades from the conformist early 50s to the permissive 70s.
- 12/22/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Books and films have been joined at the hip ever since the earliest days of cinema, and adaptations of novels have regularly provided audiences with the classier end of the film spectrum. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
- 11/15/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
With Gangster Squad coming to theaters this Friday, we've decided to take a look at some of our favorite Los Angeles detective stories, and what they tell us about the city they depict. First up is Robert Altman's 1973 noir The Long Goodbye. There are really two Los Angeleses in The Long Goodbye. There's the 70s version, where the film actually takes place, with neighbors who do naked yoga, raucous beachside parties, and a femme fatale who swans around her house in a sundress and bare feet. Then there's the 50s, where the character Philip Marlowe really come from-- director Robert Altman and star Elliott Gould privately called the character "Rip van Marlowe," acting as if he'd gone to sleep in 1953 and woken up, utterly out of place, in 1973. Both eras now seem irretrievably in the past, but watching The Long Goodbye the enormous differences between them become fascinating, and hilarious,...
- 1/7/2013
- cinemablend.com
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