Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 2/26/2009, 5:11 AM
Loved that Ballmer clip...

It seems there are many stories about the origin of noir in film:

Now, a guy called William Ahearn, has dipped into this and written a pretty fascinating account of how noir came to be. It's been said that French critic Nino Frank coined the term in the years after WWII when he saw some American films for the first time. Ahearn has found out that this wasn't so - he used the term "noir" in reference to some other films. [From "Pulpetti: short reviews and articles on pulps and paperbacks, adventure, sleaze, hardboiled, noir, you name it."]

The book origin source was an NPR interview last year that stated that the term "noir" had its origin in an early crime series of books with a black cover design, sold in French train stations.

Equivalent to the equally popular white series of romance novels.

farss wrote on 2/26/2009, 5:24 AM
Getting even more OT but can anyone explain how yellow works became blue movies?
Oddly enough at least for the Chinese they're still called "yellow mvoies".

Bob.
busterkeaton wrote on 2/26/2009, 9:13 AM
The gritty postwar Italian movies that came to be called neo-realism were a reaction to Italian movies produced under fascism which were all about glamour. Those movies were called "telefoni bianchi" or "white-telephone" movies because no one in real life had a white telephone.

I think I stand corrected on noir films. The french were making some before the war.
It seems that Nino Frank did not coin the phrase film noir, but he may have written the first article about the genre, rather than individual films, so he get's the credit. I hadn't heard of William Ahearn before. Thanks.

Ahearn says the story that:

“When France was liberated after World War II, Paris film critics noticed the change in American crime movies that were finally being shown in Paris and coined the phrase “film noir” to describe the genre.”

can be tossed in the “everything you know is wrong” file. It is entirely inaccurate. Ahearn says when Frank uses noir the the article everyone talks about, he is using an already defined term. That is, this films have been described as noir beforehand.

These two articles are very useful
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Frank
http://www.williamahearn.com/truenoir2.html

I don't think William Ahearn did the research himself. Both of those articles refer to Charles O'Brien, a film professor in Canada who wrote "Film Noir in France: Before the Liberation." He found French reviews from the 30's referring to noir.
craftech wrote on 2/26/2009, 9:29 AM
Proof that Microsoft isn't cool????

I'll have you all know that my copy of Windows XP Pro came with a Microsoft Genuine Advantage "Eddie Reliable Trustman" bobble head statue. He's so cool! He has a baseball cap and shirt with "Windows XP Professional" written on them. He's holding a neato baseball bat and has the cutest sh** eating grin on his face. I say "Hi" to Eddie every time I boot up.

It also came with a Microsoft Genuine Advantage official baseball with Microsoft Windows XP Professional written on it. It is inside a plastic cube box.

Why I'm getting excited just typing this !!

John