The Killing Moon

Despite blurred vision my latest noir “The Premonition” is starting to take shape.  Here is a piece of it complete with subconsciously intentional imagery …

“Le Voyage dans la Lune” considered to be one of the greatest films of the 20^th Century, is a short silent film from 1902 directed by French filmmaker Georges Melies and inspired by author Jules Verne. Predating the traditional narrative structure of early filmmaking techniques Melies’ unconventional highly theatrical approach and creative use of editing makes this short uniquely magical.

With roots in German Expressionism and a couple decades of gangster versus detective themed material it was just a matter of time before Hollywood decided to incorporate the edgy, angst-ridden moodiness of film noir into something as romantically all-American as the Western. 

Director Robert Wise’s menacing “Blood on the Moon” starring noir veteran Robert Mitchum and Barbara Bel Geddes is a classic example of one of a series of very darkly-themed noir Westerns produced between 1940 and the early 1950’s.   If you have a chance to see this film I know you’ll appreciate the opening scenes shot in near darkness with a beautiful Chiaroscuro effect of shadows and stark single point lightening. 

The eternally cool, stereotypically cast ‘outsider’ Mitchum also starred in one of the first noir westerns ever produced, “Pursued,” which incidentally was the last film Jim Morrison watched on the night he died. 

But whether from gunslingers on the wild frontier to gumshoes on 5^th Avenue, to me – the essence of film noir is in the artistry of the lighting. 

“Once more and for the last time, the moon flashed above and broke into pieces, and then everything went black.” – Mikhail Bulgakov  “The Master and Margarita”

           “As black as the moon on a starless night  – that’s pretty black” – Twin Peaks