#23 François Truffaut - because of Shoot the Piano Player (not the others) which propounded isolation. as lifestyle, absurdity as human condition: the super-hip flick.
Saturday, September 26, 2020
From PULP SERENADE - Goodis Will Not Be Forgotten
Saturday, September 26, 2020
David Goodis Grinds His Axe in "Esquire"
In the December 1, 1965 issue of Esquire, David Goodis wrote a letter to the editor, grinding his axe and criticizing them for crediting Francois Truffaut as the creator of Shoot the Piano Player without acknowledging his source novel, Down There. Ironically, the editor's snotty response only gets the story partly correct this time around, indicating that the novel was published in 1962 but without mentioning that it was originally published 6 years earlier as Down There by Fawcett as a Gold Medal paperback original. Here's the letter and response in full.
"Shoot"
In the September issue, 28 People Who Count cites François Truffaut for Shoot the Piano Player, and this is not exactly as it should be. But then, very little is these days, and there are two ways to handle it. One is to sort of drift away from all the manipulating, as the piano player did. The other is to get hold of an ax and start chopping.
After two years of doing the piano-player bit and seeing Truffaut get all the credit, I’m finally impelled for the sake of my blood pressure to screech that Shoot the Piano Player was not created by Truffaut. It was created by the author of the novel, which the film follows as closely as a baby rhino following mamma. With all due respect for the talent of Truffaut, this writer wants it known that primarily it’s his work.
DAVID GOODIS Philadelphia, Pa.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Right. Shoot the Piano Player, by David Goodis, was published in 1962 by Grove Press as A Black Cat Book; it is still very much in print.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Goodis's DARK ROAD.
It would appear that DARK PASSAGE was originally to be called DARK ROAD. Delmer Daves and David Goodis must have gone with DARK PASSAGE as it had been in the Saturday. Evening Post. and. published. as a book by. Julian Messner in 1946.
(Thank you Marianne at. Make Mine Film Noir h ttp://makeminefilmnoir.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Due to COVID-19, NoirCon 2020 is canceled.
Dear NoirCon family,
Due to COVID-19, NoirCon 2020 is canceled.
While I hope that conditions will be better by this fall, at this point there is no certainty about anything, and I feel that it would be irresponsible to prolong cancellation any longer.
NoirCon is nothing without the love, contributions, and support of you, its dedicated family.
Noircon will perservere.
I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy, and I look forward to reconvening in 2021.
NoirCon will rise again and provide a forum for sharing new ideas, work, and our collective passion for all things noir.
Much love and gratitude,
Lou Boxer
Lou Boxer
Sunday, March 1, 2020
Goodis's Last Lines
Pulp According to David Goodis
Goodis’ contradictory stories of hopeless entrapment and heroic struggle for change have protagonists who can accept a world where God may be crazy, but a man in charge of himself does not have to remain so.
RETREAT FROM OBLIVION is the title of Goodis’ first novel.
A green Victoria coupe with chromium wheels and a black canvas top whisked around the corner as if someone had just given it a hard shove. At another time Herb would have wondered why they let people like that take out a license. But now he stood waiting outside the entrance to the apartment house and did not notice the car nor the turn it made until it was screeching alongside the curb, and then jolting like a bronco, stopping before his eyes. The door was being pushed open, left open, the motor running as she [Dorothy] jumped out of the car. She was rushing toward him and he knew it was she and she was coming to him. That was all he wanted to know.
[RETREATS FROM OBLIVION]
He hung up. He hurried back to the depot and saw the bus gliding into the parking space alongside the waiting room. The passengers formed a jagged line and going into the bus they moved hungrily toward the empty seats. Parry found a seat in the rear of the bus and gazing frontward he saw the man in the straw hat sitting next to the skinny woman and the two children sat together across the aisle. The driver came hopping into the bus and closed the door. A few people on the outside were waving good-by. The driver started the motor and then he faced the passengers and he said, “All set?”
[DARK PASSAGE]
Martha placed the revolver in Fraser’s extended hand. That made two guns on Fraser’s side. The guns aimed casually in the direction of John, but John wasn’t looking at the guns. He seemed far away from the whole business. He didn’t even blink when he heard the sirens, although he knew they were coming toward him and toward no one else. [NIGHTFALL]
Tonight and from here on she [Agnes] would sleep upstairs in a decent room. [BEHOLD THIS WOMAN]
They began to put the books and papers back in the desk, Ballard watched her as she worked at his side, arranging the desk, preparing it for the continuation of his work, the function of his badge, the purpose of his existence. [OF MISSING PERSONS]
“It’s all right.” He swallowed the heaviness but still he wasn’t able to look at her. “I’ll be all right in a minute. Then I’ll tell you what it is.” [CASSIDY'S GIRL]
He walked out and closed the door and started across the pavement. But something caused him to turn and look back. And through the door window he saw the dark hallway in there and a thing glowed in the darkness. It was the platinum-blond hair, going away. Going farther and farther away and gradually drowning in the shadows. [OF TENDER SIN]
He nodded very slowly, and his eyes took her toward the place where her (Bertha) next home would be, telling her it was just a short walk across the street to the first floor front. [STREET OF THE LOST]
But he saw Gladden’s arms reaching toward him, and it was Gladden, it was Gerald’s child, and there was only one thing to do, the honorable thing to do. He went down toward Gladden and got to her and held her and tried hard to lift her and himself up through the water and couldn’t do it and they went down together. [THE BURGLAR]
In the parlor, Bella was lying face down on the sofa. He gave her a slap on her rump. “Get up,” he said. “Make me some supper.” [MOON IN THE GUTTER]
He had no idea where he was going and didn’t care. [BLACK FRIDAY]
Lenore lifted a finger and beckoned to him. He moved toward her. [THE BLONDE ON THE STREET CORNER]
They sat there passing the bottle around, and there was nothing that could bother them, all. [STREET OF THE LOST]
The touch of her hands was warm and soft. Feels nice, he thought. Feels so nice. [THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN]
He opened his eyes. He saw his fingers caressing the keyboard. [DOWN THERE]
She uttered a sigh and leaned against him. And then, wanting to give him something, wanting him to know she was his and he’d have her for always, she lifted his hands to her breasts. [FIRE IN THE FLESH]
Lillian started to close the door. Then she looked at him. It went on like that for awehile. Then she openedthe door wider and said, "All righty, come on in."[NIGHT SQUAD]
He said all right, he’d be home soon. [SOMEBODY DONE FOR]
The final sentences of five later ones are as follows:
Unusual for a pulp noir writer.
A CHRONICLE OF CORPSES [3/24/2020]
A Chronicle of Corpses. 2000. USA. Written and directed by Andrew Repasky McElhinney. With Marj Dusay, Oliver Wyman, Margot White. Digital projection. 83 min.
The Elliot family plantation is as withered and rotten as the remaining family members. Once prominent, the clan is now fearful of a real or imagined supernatural force beyond the walls of their moldering mansion. Dementia and alcohol haven’t helped, either, but at least there is Sara, the youngest member of the family, who could rescue their reputation. But the enigmatic horrors in the tangled woods might just be unavoidable retribution for the days when the Elliots were slave owners.
Shot in 16mm, when director Andrew Repasky McElhinney was in his 20s, A Chronicle of Corpses draws from a cinephile’s love of Gothic horror films, while establishing its own unique visual language, aided by cinematographer Abe Holz. The atmosphere is both languid and charged, the actors are keyed up with fear yet move like zombies, and the narrative is intentionally old-fashioned and reliant on such key antecedents as Night of the Living Dead.
Andrew Repasky McElhinney joins us to introduce the 4K restoration of A Chronicle of Corpses on the 20th anniversary of its release.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
CHINATOWN - Noir at its very best!
Slouching Towards ‘Chinatown’: How a Masterpiece Got Made
It is perhaps the darkest movie to ever come out of Hollywood. Sam Wasson talked to The Daily Beast about his new book profiling the film’s twisted, talented collaborators.
Read in The Daily Beast: https://apple.news/
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