Noirvember update: why we still need to watch more international noir

It’s Noirvember again. In recognition of noir’s international character, around this time last year posted about ten non-American films that can be loosely categorised as film noir that you might want to catch.

Because I think we always need to watch more international noir, here are another ten non-American films I’ve clocked over the last twelve months I think readers might dig. I’ve taken the liberty this year of stretching the time frame to include a few entries from the late 1950s and 1960s, so it is not just film noir but neo noir as well.

As was the case twelve months ago, while some of these are streaming and others are easy and not too expensive to acquire on DVD, a few are much harder to find. And in response to that I’ll give you the same tip that I did last year, YouTube is your friend here.

The Small Back Room (1949)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had a well-deserved moment this year with the release of David Hinton’s excellent documentary, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger. Watching it made me rush to plug my holes in the filmography of these two cinema masterminds. There is more than one of their films that could safely fit in this list – seriously, is there anything more noir than Black Narcissus (1947)!? – but the one I will focus on is The Small Black Room. Nigel Balchin as a traumatised alcoholic bomb disposal expert whose skills are called on to help disarm a new make of explosive booby trap being dropped by the Nazis on Great Britain.

The Lost One (1951)

Peter Lorre's sole directorial outing, The Lost One is an absolute noir tour de force and, like all the other West German noirs featured on this list, a devastatingly effective cypher for a country still coming to terms with its acts during WWII. Lorre plays Rothe, a German scientist who murders his fiancée after he discovers she has been selling his secret research for the Nazis to the allies. Working in a displaced persons camp after the war, Rothe starts to mentally unravel when he encounters one of the Nazi’s who helped him cover up the homicide. This film has one of the most daringly pitch black endings ever. All I can say is, what a tragedy that Lorre never helmed another film.

The Rats (1955)

This Robert Siodmak film starts with Pauline, a destitute, pregnant young Polish woman (Maria Schell) making her way to allied controlled Berlin in search of the father of her baby. Instead, she finds an older German woman, Anna (Heidemarie Hatheyer) who, after several miscarriages, is desperate to conceive a child. The two strike a deal whereby Anna will pay Pauline to have baby, so she can pass it off as her own. What could possibly go wrong? You guessed it, just about everything, including complications from Pauline’s mental ill-health and the machinations of Anna’s brother (Kurt Jugens), who it is strongly sign-posted has a history as a sexual criminal that his sister is helping him keep under wraps.

The Ogre of Athens (1956)

One of two films I saw this year by Greek director Nikos Koundouros, that exuded very strong film noir influences. Thomas, a timid bank clerk is mistaken for a notorious killer stalking the streets of Athens, known as ‘the Dragon’, by a group of criminals who are planning an ambitious heist. Alarmed at first, Thomas gradually starts to enjoy the benefits of his new identity, including the rough comradery of his new friends and the attentions of an attractive young dancer. Can his deception last? I loved drenched this film is in US popular culture tropes and references, but also feels very Greek. Also how highly sexed it is.

Black Gravel (1961)

I wrote about this tough as nails West German noir a couple of newsletters ago. Set on the cusp of the county’s economic boom, it focuses on a collection of characters in a fictitious town next to a major US air force base. The locals’ chaff under the economic supremacy of their American occupiers, while at the same time doing their utmost to make money off them by catering to their sexual and other desires or, in the case of the main character, a truck driver called Neidhardt (Helmut Wildt), by stealing from the black gravel being used to extend the base’s runway and selling it on the black market. A chance encounter with a lover from before the war, Inge (Ingmar Zeisberg), sets off a chain of events that will see both come undone.

Black Test Car (1962)

One of two films by the talented and versatile Tasuzo Masumura to make the list. The plot of Black Test Car revolves around two rival car manufacturers locked in a race to release a new model sports car, while undertaking every dirty trick in the book to find out what their rivals are up to. A wonderfully dark, bent tale of corporate intrigue, blackmail and sex, that absolutely flays Japan’s then rising economic fortunes and the resulting changes in the country’s culture and society.

Any Number Can Win (1963)

Hearts are heavy over the passing of the Alain Delon in August. As I wrote in my tribute to the French actor here, while he was a constant in my cinema viewing life, there are still so many of his films I have not seen. One of these was Henri Verneuil’s Any Number Can Win. Career criminal Charles (Jean Gabin) comes out prison and immediately starts planning an ambitious casino robbery. His accomplices are two younger men, Francis (Delon) and Louis (Maurice Biraud). But as anyone who makes a habit of watching these films knows, the heist always goes wrong. The final scene, stolen money floating on the surface of a swimming pool, is worth the price of admission alone.

Symphony for a Massacre (1963)

Another wonderful French heist goes wrong film, Jacques Deray’s Symphony for a Massacre deals with the aftermath of a drug deal masterminded by a group of Parisian businessmen. All hell breaks loose when one of the men, in league with wife of another member of the gang, embarks on a daring side hustle, hijacking the cash from the drug deal. Absolute chaos ensues. The fact that one of the film’s stars and writers, José Giovanni, was a Gestapo collaborator during the Occupation and had significant underworld connections of his own, adds a suitably sleazy sheen to this nasty tale of men and women involved in a veritable orgy of double and triple crossing.

Wake Up and Die (1966)

This Bonnie and Clyde style tale is based on the real life story of Luciano Lutring (Robert Hoffman), a daring jewellery thief, nicknamed the ‘the machine gun soloist’ by Italy’s media, because he travelled with a machine in a violin case. Teaming up with a louche nightclub singer called Candida (Lisa Gastoni), the two go on a headline fuelled crime spree, all the while pursued by a relentless police detective, played against type by Gian Maria Volonté. The film is directed by Carlo Lizzani, who’s The Violent Four (1968) – which also could have made this list – is generally considered the first in the poliziotteschi cycle, and was scripted by Ugo Pirro, whose other credits include An Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970).

Red Angel (1966)

The second Masumura film on the list, Red Angel was a revelation. Frequent Masumura collaborator Ayako Wakao plays Nishi, a Japanese army nurse assigned to work in a field hospital during the Second Sino-Japanese war. Raped by a patient on the first night of her posting, she is sent to a front line medical centre, where she falls in love with a morphine addicted army doctor. One can only image how daring this no holds barred tale of the country’s brutal military involvement in China must have been in mid-sixties Japan, including the the depiction of comfort women. Not for the faint hearted.

Projection Booth podcast #711: Turkey Shoot (1982)

If you have been reading my work for a while now, you’ll know that I am a fan of as well as a semi-regular co-host of the Projection Booth film podcast. Episode #711 sees me join the wonderful Mike White and Heather Drain to discuss Brian Trenchard-Smith’s 1982 Ozsploitation classic, Turkey Shoot. I am pretty sure I have not seen the films since the last-1980s, when my then hardline Trotskyist politics saw me dismiss it as garbage. But re-watching it recently, I believe it is actually very good. A wild Ozsploitation film continually ratchets up the thrills, gore and sexual innuendo, this is a film that knows exactly what it wants to do and does it very well. Bonus points for including Noel Ferrier and Gus Mercurio in the cast. The show is available at the Projection Booth site here and wherever you get your podcasts.

Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema, from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960-1990

My new PM Press book, co-edited with Samm Deighan, Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960-1990, is in the world and available from online and physical bookshops. You can also pick it up as a physical and ebook from the publisher at this link here.

I just wanted to share one recent piece of publicity the book was fortunate enough to get, a very positive full page review in the December copy of the bible of film, Sight and Sound magazine (below) It is also the more exciting because it is penned by no less than the esteemed critic, J Hoberman.

Now, doesn’t that want to make you buy the book?