141 articles
A Bittersweet Life (달콤한 인생)
A Bittersweet Life (달콤한 인생, Dalkomhan insaeng) is a 2005 South Korean neo-noir action film by Kim Jee-woon starring Lee Byung-hun as enforcer Sun-woo, who spares his boss's girlfriend and turns on his own gang; Cannes 2005 Out of Competition.
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (三枪拍案惊奇, A Simple Noodle Story) is Zhang Yimou's 2009 Chinese remake of the Coen brothers' Blood Simple, set in a desert noodle shop, starring Sun Honglei, Xiao Shenyang, Yan Ni, and Ni Dahong.
Absence of Malice
Absence of Malice (スクープ 悪意の不在) is Sydney Pollack's 1981 drama starring Paul Newman and Sally Field, in which a leaked false suspicion ruins an innocent man, teaching libel law and journalism ethics.
Angel Face
Angel Face is a 1953 RKO film noir directed by Otto Preminger, starring Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons; Diane Tremayne ensnares chauffeur Frank Jessup in murder schemes, ending in a famous cliff crash.
Bad Education (2004 film)
Bad Education (La mala educación) is Pedro Almodóvar's 2004 Spanish drama, the first Spanish film to open Cannes, starring Gael García Bernal as Ángel, Juan, and Zahara in a nested tale of Catholic-school abuse, blackmail, and murder.
Bad Times at the El Royale
Bad Times at the El Royale is a 2018 American neo-noir thriller written and directed by Drew Goddard, set in 1969 at a rundown Lake Tahoe hotel on the California–Nevada border, starring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth.
Black Coal, Thin Ice (白日焰火)
Black Coal, Thin Ice (白日焰火, "Daylight Fireworks") is Diao Yinan's 2014 Chinese neo-noir crime film starring Liao Fan and Gwei Lun-mei; it won the 64th Berlinale Golden Bear and Silver Bear for Best Actor and grossed over 100 million RMB in China.
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve, a sequel to the 1982 film Blade Runner, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
Blow Out
Blow Out is Brian De Palma's 1981 American political thriller starring John Travolta as a Philadelphia sound-effects man who records evidence of a staged car-crash assassination, with Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, and Dennis Franz; a box-office failure later reappraised and released by the Criterion Collection.
Blue Velvet (film)
Blue Velvet is David Lynch's 1986 American neo-noir mystery drama starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, in which a severed ear found in a field leads a student into a small town's violent underworld; made for $7 million by De Laurentiis with Lynch's final cut.
Bob le Flambeur
Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler) is Jean-Pierre Melville's 1955 French black-and-white crime film starring Roger Duchesne as an aging Montmartre gambler planning the Deauville casino heist; a key precursor of the French New Wave.
Bound (1996 film)
Bound is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller directed by the Wachowskis, starring Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon as lovers plotting to steal mob money.
Branded to Kill (殺しの烙印)
Branded to Kill (殺しの烙印, Koroshi no rakuin) is Seijun Suzuki's 1967 black-and-white Nikkatsu hitman noir starring Joe Shishido as third-ranked killer Goro Hanada; its absurdist style got Suzuki fired from the studio.
Brick (film)
Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir thriller directed and written by Rian Johnson, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school student investigating his ex-girlfriend's death.
Broken Embraces
Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos) is Pedro Almodóvar's 2009 Spanish drama starring Penélope Cruz and Lluís Homar, about a blind former director recounting a fatal Lanzarote love affair; shot on Lanzarote, a Cannes 2009 selection.
Brute Force
Brute Force (1947) is Jules Dassin's American prison film noir starring Burt Lancaster as escape-plotting inmate Joe Collins against Hume Cronyn's sadistic Captain Munsey at Westgate Penitentiary; produced by Mark Hellinger, written by Richard Brooks, and famously censored by the Production Code.
Butterfly Kiss
Butterfly Kiss is Michael Winterbottom's 1995 British debut feature, a lesbian road movie starring Amanda Plummer as murderous drifter Eunice and Saskia Reeves as Miriam, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce; distinct from the 2017 drama and 2018 found-footage film Butterfly Kisses.
China Moon
China Moon is a 1994 American neo-noir thriller, John Bailey's directorial debut, starring Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe, Charles Dance, and Benicio del Toro; filmed 1991, shelved by Orion Pictures, released March 4, 1994, grossing about $3 million.
Criss Cross
Criss Cross (1949) is a Robert Siodmak film noir starring Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, and Dan Duryea, based on Don Tracy's novel, about an armored-car driver drawn into a fatal heist by his ex-wife; remade as The Underneath (1995).
Cutter's Way
Cutter's Way (1981), originally released as Cutter and Bone, is Ivan Passer's neo-noir adapted from Newton Thornburg's novel, starring Jeff Bridges and John Heard; pulled after one week, re-released by UA Classics, later acclaimed.
D.O.A.
D.O.A. (1950), also called Dead on Arrival, is an American film noir directed by Rudolph Maté in which poisoned accountant Frank Bigelow investigates his own murder; a public-domain National Film Registry selection remade in 1969 and 1988.
Dark City (1998 film)
Dark City is a 1998 Australian-American science fiction neo-noir thriller directed by Alex Proyas, starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, and William Hurt, about an amnesiac man hunted for murders he cannot remember.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a 1982 American black-and-white comedy parodying film noir detective movies, directed by Carl Reiner and starring Steve Martin as private eye Rigby Reardon.
Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심)
Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심) is Park Chan-wook's 2022 Korean romantic mystery film starring Park Hae-il and Tang Wei; it won Best Director at the 75th Cannes Film Festival and swept 2022 Korean awards.
Detour (1945 film)
Detour (1945) is an Edgar G. Ulmer film noir made at Poverty Row studio PRC, starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage. A hitchhiking pianist assumes a dead man's identity; a National Film Registry classic restored in 2018.
Drive (2011 film)
Drive is a 2011 American neo-noir crime drama directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling as a stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver.
Elevator to the Gallows
Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud) is Louis Malle's 1958 debut feature, a French noir starring Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet with an improvised one-night Miles Davis score; Prix Louis-Delluc 1957.
Enemy (2013 film)
Enemy (2013) is a Canada-Spain psychological thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve, adapted from José Saramago's novel The Double, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a Toronto professor and his double; premiered at TIFF 2013, released by A24 in March 2014.
Fallen Angel (1945 film)
Fallen Angel (1945) is an Otto Preminger film noir for Twentieth Century-Fox, starring Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, and Linda Darnell, adapted from Marty Holland's novel; Faye left Fox after its editing cut her scenes.
Fallen Angels (堕落天使) (1995 film)
Fallen Angels (堕落天使, Do lok tin si) is a 1995 Hong Kong drama film by Wong Kar Wai, following a contract killer, his agent, and a mute ex-convict.