It is unclear whether In a lonely place (dir. Nicholas Ray) can be called film noir. It's not important anyway. A cynical script writer, Dixon Steele - Humphrey Bogart - is accused of having murdered a girl he invited into his apartment to read a script. His neighbor helps him out & falls for him - only to gradually start to doubt who he really is. The film has some similarities with Sunset blvrd, especially given how open-ended both films are in their treatment of characters who deceive themselves and others. Even though there is clearly a mystery to be solved here (who killed the girl) the film is not really about that at all. Steele is known to have treated women badly. In a very tense scene, we see him and the neighbor in a car. Steele speeds and bumps into another car - and beats up the guy who drives it. Everything is about to explode. This is what the film is like almost all the time, on the verge of explosion. Steele's innocence/guilt is a riddle for us to take issue with. We see him through the neighbor's eyes, and we hear accounts of him given by those involved in the investigation of the murder. What baffles this viewer is how neutrally the emotionless and even callous Steele is treated. No scene, not even the violent ones, make statements or try to elicit a reaction. The only thing one sees looming at the horizon is - doom.
The film presents a typical image of masculinity. The male star remains an enigma. Even when he explodes, we never see him. We start to suspect that there is nothing to see. We get the impression of an 'honest' man who flatters nobody, who is not afraid of scenes at the dinner party. A guy who is ruthless and doesn't care - and this is precisely what seems to make him attractive to the lady. Steele broods in the dark and he insults people in broad daylight - does the film make him into 'an existential hero'?
Anyway - this is a good film.
No comments:
Post a Comment