Hopperesque

Hopperesque

Monday, 2 February 2026

And a Woman

       Yes i killed him. I killed him for money - and a woman - and i didn't get the money and i didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it ?

Double Indemnity
1944

God Didn't Order



           Just one more row of stopped-up orifices in this giant honeycomb that was the city. Human beings shouldn't have to enter such doors, shouldn't have to stay behind them. No moon ever entered there, no stars, no anything at all. They were worse than the grave, for in the grave is absence of consciousness. And God, she reflected, ordered the grave, for all of us ; but God didn't order such burrows in a third-class New York City hotel.

Cornell Woolrich
Deadline at Dawn
1944

Sunday, 1 February 2026

Dark Reflections #44

Big Heat

Insignificance

Gun Crazy

Carol

Dementia

Mean Streets

Kneeling Goddess

LA Confidential

La Caza

Mikey and Nicky

Murder My Sweet

Violette Noziere

One Way Street

Rebecca (2020)

Raging Bull

Union City

Secret Beyond the Door

They Shoot Horses Don't They
some images from
Noirsville.blogspot.com

Saturday, 31 January 2026

Are Used To



         Because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away from us ; because we stand in the midst of a transition where we cannot remain standing.

Rainer Maria Rilke

image
Harry Todd
1942

Sean Penn

Dead Man Walking

Mystic River

State of Grace

The Game

Assassination of Richard Nixon

U Turn

All the Kings Men

Friday, 30 January 2026

Plans Always Go Awry



         A world where every femme is fatale, a world where heroes wear their flaws like hand-me-down medals, where best laid plans always go awry. Indeed Noir is moralistic : but beyond the fairytale world of good princes and evil witches, beyond a christian world of heaven and hell : these are tales for a fractured world of dimly-lit rooms and doomed schemes. Real redemption is rare.

from
Gutter to Gutter
The Dark Heart of Noir
2017

image
Troy Brooks

Thursday, 29 January 2026

Night and the City

 

Night and the City
Jules Dassin
1950

Able to Imagine



       Seems that Hitchcock is simply saying that utopia does not exist in real life. We may be able to imagine some kind of perfect situation for ourselves, but it can never be achieved in reality. There will always be something to throw off the equilibrium of things. In a sense we all suffer from vertigo, and as Midge says to Johnny ''there's no losing it''.

Mikey Gee
Essay on Vertigo
Sept 2011

image
Valerie Burzo

Wednesday, 28 January 2026