Noir Style Quotes

She looked playful and eager, but not quite sure of herself, like a new kitten in a house where they don't care much about kittens.

A check girl in peach-bloom Chinese pajamas came over to take my hat and disapprove of my clothes. She had eyes like strange sins.

What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?

Les mauvaises langues ont l'habitude de voir leurs cobayes tout en noir ou tout en blanc et de leur attribuer des défauts ou des mobiles que le style sténographique de la conversation peut aisément suggérer.

You just hang in there, boy, hang in with that apprenticeship of yours, do you hear me? You are lucky they would even take someone like you. You’re a child of the slums. A ragtag. On top of that, you’re a whining piece of shit. Nobody will ever do anything for you. Do you understand what I’m saying? They’ll let you starve to death, no problem. Nobody is going to cry on your grave.” Poul-Erik’s Mother The Informer by Steen Langstrup

After being dry for a couple a weeks, three cocktails went down quicker than a boner in a busted rubber.

Spike Lee was the voice depicting the ills of social issues. Joseph Strickland will depict the spiritual issues (or ills) from within. ("The Making of Dual Mania: Filmmaking Chicago Style," 2018)

Love? What's that? Preferring someone to someone else? If that's love, then yes, she loved you. Of course, if that's love...then I love you. At least for tonight.

Gene was six feet three inches of lean muscle and hard bone enclosing a brain that had only one object: the acquisition of power.

Of course, to be truly 'surveillance free' required unpredictability or its cousin, spontaneity.

The hallmarks of the noir style are fear, guilt and loneliness, breakdown and despair, sexual obsession and social corruption, a sense that the world is controlled by, malignant forces preying on us, a rejection of happy endings and a preference for resolutions heavy with doom, but always redeemed by a breathtakingly vivid poetry of word (if the work was a novel or story) or image (if it was a movie). ("Introduction")

Someday this war will be over. A new order of the world will appear in its place. The idea of Socialism will prevail. In the future they’ll remember us as heroes.” Thorkild aka ‘Borge’ The Informer by Steen Langstrup

So you shoot people," she said quietly. "You're a killer." "Me? How?" "The papers and the police fixed it up nicely. But I don't believe everything I read." "Oh, you think I accounted for Geiger - or Brody-or both of them." She didn't say anything. "I didn't have to," I said. "I might have. I suppose, and got away with it. Neither of them would have hesitated to throw lead at." "That makes you a killer at heart, like all cops." "Oh, nuts.

Anne held out her arms. I don't want to say I flew into them. I wasn't in condition for flying. Or running. Or even dignified limping. Fell towards the center of gravity in my own personal universe. And if our lips met on the way down, was that any fault of mine?

The movie style eventually known as ‘Film Noir’ served up hard-bitten crime stories featuring morally bankrupt men and mysterious femme fatales, blending violence and sexual desire into bleak tales of modern life, without clear messages of morality. The comic book industry offered younger readers its own version of the Film Noir mood with a wave of crime comics that began sweeping the newsstands around 1947.

Victor Noir. He was a journalist shot by Pierre Bonaparte," St. Clair says, as if that explains anything. He pulls The Hat up off his eyes. "The statue on his grave is supposed to help...fertility." "His wang us rubbed shiny," Josh elaborates. "For luck." "Why are we talking about parts again?" Mer asks. "Can't we ever talk about anything else?" "Really?" I ask. "Shiny wang?" "Very," St. Clair says. "Now that's something I've gotta see." I gulp my coffee dregs, wipe the bread crumbs from my mouth, and hop up. "Where's Victor?" "Allow me." St. Clair springs up to his feet and takes off. I chase after him. He cuts through a stand of bare trees, and I crash through the twigs behind him. We're both laughing when we hit the pathway and run smack into a guard. He frowns at us from underneath his military-style cap. St. Clair gives an angelic smile and a small shrug. The guard shakes his head but allows us to pass. St. Clair gets away with everything. We stroll with exaggerated calm, and he points out an area occupied with people snapping pictures.We hang back and wait our turn. A scrawny black cat darts out from behind an altar strewn with roses and wine bottles,and rushes into the bushes. "Well.That was sufficiently creepy. Happy Halloween." "Did you know this place is home to three thousand cats?" St. Clair asks. "Sure.It's filed away in my brain under 'Felines,Paris.

Cities have characters, pathologies that can make or destroy or infect you, states of mind that run through daily life as surely as a fault line. Chandler’s “mysterious something” was a mood of disenchantment, an intense spiritual malaise that identified itself with Los Angeles at a particular time, what we call noir. On the one hand noir is a narrow film genre, born in Hollywood in the late 1930s when European visual style, the twisted perspectives and stark chiaroscuros of German Expressionism, met an American literary idiom. This fruitful comingling gave birth to movies like Double Indemnity, directed by Vienna-born Billy Wilder and scripted by Raymond Chandler from a James M. Cain novella. The themes — murderous sex and the cool, intricate amorality of money — rose directly from the psychic mulch of Southern California. But L.A. is a city of big dreams and cruelly inevitable disappointments where noir is more than just a slice of cinema history; it’s a counter-tradition, the dark lens through which the booster myths came to be viewed, a disillusion that shadows even the best of times, an alienation that assails the sense like the harsh glitter of mica in the sidewalk on a pitiless Santa Ana day. Noir — in this sense a perspective on history and often a substitute for it — was born when the Roaring Twenties blew themselves out and hard times rushed in; it crystallized real-life events and the writhing collapse of the national economy before finding its interpreters in writers like Raymond Chandler.

When we are sold perfume, we are accustomed to also being sold the idea of a life we will never have. Coty's Chypre enabled Guerlain to create Mitsouko; Coty's Emeraude of 1921 was the bedrock on which Shalimar was built and Coty's L'Origan become the godmother of L'heure bleue, also by Guerlain. Some people dedicate themselves to making life beautiful. With instinctual good taste, magpie tendencies and a flair for color, they weave painfully exquisite tableaux, defining the look of an era. Paul Poiret was one such person. After his success, he went bust in 1929 and had to sell his leftover clothing stock as rags. Swept out of the picture by a new generation of designers, his style too ornate and Aladdinesque, Poiret ended his days as a street painter and died in poverty. It was Poiret who saw that symbolic nomenclature could turn us into frenzied followers, transforming our desire to own a perfume into desperation. The beauty industry has always been brilliant at turning insecurities into commercial opportunities. Readers could buy the cologne to relax during times of anxiety or revive themselves from strain. Particularly in the 1930s, releases came thick and fast, intended to give the impression of bounty, the provision of beauty to all women in the nation. Giving perfumes as a gift even came under the Soviet definition of kulturnost or "cultured behavior", including to aunts and teachers on International Women's Day. Mitsouko is a heartening scent to war when alone or rather, when not wanting to feel lonely. Using fragrance as part of a considered daily ritual, the territorial marking of our possessions and because it offers us a retrospective sense of naughtiness. You can never tell who is going to be a Nr. 5 wearer. No. 5 has the precision of well-cut clothes and that special appeal which comes from a clean, bare room free of the knick-knacks that would otherwise give away its age. Its versatility may well be connected to its abstraction. Gardenia perfumes are not usually the more esoteric or intellectual on the shelves but exist for those times when we demand simply to smell gorgeous. You can depend on the perfume industry to make light of the world's woes. No matter how bad things get, few obstacles can block the shimmer and glitz of a new fragrance. Perfume became so fashionable as a means of reinvention and recovery that the neurology department at Columbia University experimented with the administration of jasmine and tuberose perfumes, in conjunction with symphony music, to treat anxiety, hysteria and nightmares. Scent enthusiasts cared less for the nuances of a composition and more for the impact a scent would have in society. In Ancient Rome, the Stoics were concerned about the use of fragrance by women as a mask for seducing men or as a vehicle of deception. The Roman satirist Juvenal talked of women buying scent with adultery in mind and such fears were still around in the 1940s and they are here with us today. Similarly, in crime fiction, fragrance is often the thing that gives the perpetrator away. Specifically in film noir, scent gets associated with misdemeanors. With Opium, the drugs tag was simply the bait. What YSL was really marketing, with some genius, was perfume as me time: a daily opportunity to get languid and to care sod-all about anything or anyone else.

Les 8 Vallées (les noms des paliers de profondeur du vagin) 1) La Corde du Luth, profonde de 1 pouce (2,5 cm) 2) Les Dents de la Châtaigne d’eau, 2 pouces 3) Le Ruisselet, trois pouces 4) La Perle Noire, 4 pouces 5) Le Propre de la Vallée, 5 pouces 6) La Chambre profonde, 6 pouces 7) La Porte Intérieure, 7 pouces 8) Le Pôle Nord, 8 pouces Les 9 manières d'agiter la Tige de Jade 1) Frapper à gauche et à droite comme un guerrier courageux qui tenterait de disperser les rangs de ses ennemis 2) Mouvoir de haut en bas (la tige de jade) comme un cheval sauvage fit le saut de mouton pour passer une rivière 3) Se retirer et s’enfoncer comme une bande de mouettes jouant sur les vagues 4) Alterner rapidement pénétrations profondes et pénétrations superficielles comme un moineau bequetant les grains de riz 5) Enchaîner d’une façon régulière coups profonds et coups peu profonds comme de grosses pierres s’enfonçant dans la mer 6) Entrer avec lenteur comme un serpent se glisse dans son trou pour hiverner 7) Donner de petits coups rapides à la manière d’un rat effrayé qui se précipite dans son trou 8) S’élever lentement, puis foncer comme l’aigle attrapant une proie fuyante 9) S’élever puis piquer du nez comme un grand voilier bravant le coup de vent Sou Nü, la conseillère de Huang Di (l'Empereur Jaune) ajoute: «Profonde et superficielles, lentes et rapides, directes et obliques, toutes ces poussées ne sont nullement uniformes, et chacune possède ses propres effets et caractéristiques. Une poussée lente doit ressembler au mouvement d’une carpe jouant avec l’hameçon; une poussée rapide, au vol des oiseaux contre le vent. Introduisant et retirant, remuant de bas en haut, de gauche à droite, marquant des pauses ou bien en une succession rapide, tous ces mouvements doivent se correspondre. Il faut appliquer chacun d’eux au moment voulu et ne pas s’en tenir toujours à un seul et même style parce qu’on y trouve son bon plaisir»

He felt satisfaction that the attack had gone as he anticipated, but he also felt oddly empty about the experience. He’d expected adrenaline. He’d expected the high of being back in the game. Instead, the violence itself had done nothing for him. Watching her realize that he’d won, watching the light go out of her eyes, had been a hollow victory. Maria Lopes would be different.

The old man wasn’t quite gone yet. His lungs gurgled. Rudy was hungry. He checked the refrigerator and found a recent deli bag of sliced turkey. He sat on the bed, finished the turkey, and watched the traffic crawling on the street outside as he waited for Keyes to die.

The knife was warm, heated by the dying man's severed entrails.

Do you always carry a gun?’ Peach asked. *** ‘It’s Florida,’ Annalie said. She hefted her purse up and down as if she were working out with weights. ‘Even Mickey Mouse probably carries a piece.

Tarla answered the door in a black silk nightgown and robe. Her feet were bare. Her bed hair was mussed. She was beautiful, but he could see a hint of age in her face, as if it were the first time he’d noticed that she was growing older.

Je savais que nous devions passer par ces mauvais moments, pour ensuite connaître une humanité bienveillante. C’est du moins ce que nous avait dit notre Führer Adolf Hitler. Rien de cela n’existe. Qu’il repose en paix. Je ne lui en veux pas plus à lui qu’à tous les autres grands dirigeants de ce monde. Lui, au moins, bénéficie du doute puisqu’il n’a pas eu l’occasion d’établir ces lendemains de victoire. Tandis que les autres, qui ont organisé leur petite paix grelottante aux quatre coins du monde, les autres qui, stupidement hantés par une frousse injustifiée, et au nom d’une évolution éducatrice, ont laissé aux primates du globe l’occasion d’allumer un peu partout des incendies menaçants, ces autres là peuvent être jugés. Des commerçants pendables. Des commerçants qui ne pouvant plus vendre de nègres, ont alors trouvé une astuce presque aussi rentable et qui vendent à présent les blancs aux nègres ! Tout ceci enrobé dans une petite politique mielleuse de vieille femme. Une politique qui ne prend pas position. Sait-on jamais ? Le vent peut tourner. Evidemment, dans l’attitude de Hitler ou de Mussolini il y avait un autre style. Ceux-là se permirent de dire non aux vieilles convenances. A tous les potentats : industriels, francs-maçons, juifs ou culs-bénits. A cette époque, tous ces indolents étaient comme des carpettes : fous d’inquiétude devant leurs tirelires dans lesquelles le chef d’orchestre Hitler puisait à deux mains. Cela, évidemment, les rendait blêmes de voir gaspiller tout cet argent pour réaliser un grand opéra. Alors, les spectateurs chiasseux et apeurés grimpèrent sur la scène et étouffèrent le metteur en scène prodigue. Mais ils ne connaissent pas la paix. Les coliques les travaillent sans arrêt. Ils sont à la merci du premier chef de musique, noir ou jaune qui risque de les faire danser une autre danse. Mais, cette danse-là ne sera pas européenne et ils ne comprendront pas.

Tailing someone is like maintaining a relationship: you keep at it until they give you the slip, or until they confirm everything you suspect them of.

ON PLAYING back the 911 recording, it’d seem that Mrs. Stegman was more concerned that the man outside her apartment door was naked than that he had a big shotgun.

Lots of cops married nurses, Tallow knew. Nurses understood the life: murderous shiftwork, long stretches of boredom, sudden adrenaline spikes, blood everywhere. Tallow almost smiled as he followed his wincing partner into the apartment building. He made sure the door closed as silently as possible, and only then did he draw his firearm.

IT TOOK a conscious effort for Tallow to keep his hand off his gun as he walked up the apartment building’s stairs. There was no threat here. He told himself that with every step. But every step held memory.

I presented boudin noir aux pommes for my final dish. A traditional French preparation by all accounts, but I added my own creative style. I sourced the meat myself—the blood and even the sausage casings too. And Chef Matis said it was the most flavorful saucisse he’d ever had. I wonder how he’d feel about my secret ingredient?

Man this getting out of prison sucks.

Just as a door can be opened from the inside to allow us out, the same door can allow the outside in. The inhabitants of Dy5topia, namely the 'nOmen'―picture 1940’s style, film noir gangsters, that possess dark 'supernatural' powers―engage in behaviors that allow them 'passage' into our world...where encounters can and do occur.

Expressionism was an artistic symptom of the trauma World War I brought to Europe. A stylized, severe, and serious aesthetic, it emphasized abstractions and angles, an attempt to express off-kilter and intense emotional content rather than balanced, symmetric, mundane realism. Caligari production supervisor Rudolph Meinert enlisted artists Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann, and Walter Rohrig to create a completely artificial and exaggerated set design for Caligari. They painted all the settings in flat perspective on the canvas, including bolts of light and shadow. Everything, even outdoor scenes, was shot inside cramped studio confines. The result was a claustrophobic style that was to permeate not only the horror film, but would percolate into film noir as well. The style is nightmarish, a physical embodiment of the madness overtaking the characters externalized, an artistic effort that’s a sustained attack on the senses that’s just as disturbing as the story it tells—the result? The first great horror film.

Frank Macy looked surprised. That was what Cab thought as he studied the dead man’s eyes. Surprised that he had been conned. Surprised that a man who was smart, cool, and lethal could be played for a fool.

When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance, it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball. That is to me what you have more than anything else and more than anyone else. . . . The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordi-nary qualities. Perry Mason is the perfect detective because he has the intellectual approach of the juridical mind and at the same time the restless quality of the adventurer who won’t stay put. I think he is just about perfect. So let’s not have any more of that phooey about “as literature my stuff still stinks.” Who says so—William Dean Howells? Raymond Chandler to Erle Stanley Gardner, 1946

Amanda esitò. – Maddie? Lei la guardò nella penombra della notte. Il lampione era lontano, la luce ambrata stendeva campiture nitide sui lineamenti tesi dell’amica. I capelli scuri si confondevano con l’ombra. – Andrà tutto bene, te lo prometto – mormorò Amanda e le strinse la mano. Madison annuì, vaga. – Sì. Sarebbe andato tutto bene, si ripeté nella mente. Se lo ripeté di nuovo. E di nuovo. E ancora.

Écrite dans un style où les mots durs et directs ainsi que les formules abruptes ne tirent pourtant pas à ras de la basse prose l’expression qu’un lyrisme de bon aloi élève vers ce que l’auteur considère comme « une poésie qui pense…pour ne dire que les choses fondamentales », cette œuvre aurait pu emprunter le titre d’un poème qu’il contient: Aux pays des pyramides inversées. Fouillant le passé, regardant en face le présent et scrutant l’avenir, elle exprime la nostalgie, les frustrations et la révolte. Elle est à la fois un cri du cœur et une interrogation pathétique sur le destin de l’Afrique qui survit en marge du grand destin qui devait être le sien. En effet les pyramides évoquent le temps de gloire du continent noir qui, aujourd’hui, ploie sous le poids de la dette et subit les contradictions d’une « démocratie …maquillée, enrobée de faux-semblants. » Marouba FALL, Ecrivain, Dramaturge !