Movie Details
| Title: | Blast of SIlence | |
| Director: | Allen Baron | |
| Year: | 1961 | |
| Genre: | Noir | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.12.16 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.12.16 | DVD | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2016 Boom. This late-era low budget noir has everything that I love about the best in the genre. Amazingly hard-boiled narration, cool diegetic music, an insane amount of location shooting (in this case all over 1960/61 NYC), crazy subversive subject matter, and a pitch black ending. I mean it's really something, and judging from the credits it's a completely homebrew movie from producer/writer/director/star Allen Baron. I guess crime flicks like these were the horror movies of their day. A genre bankable enough to yield breakouts like Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity (floating in a sea of crap). To me, this really feels like Baron went out and tried to make a film, then got in the editing room and realized it BARELY made sense, so this layer of narration was poured on top, seeping down between the bricks like sensational grizzled mortar. You can see the stuff that Baron is taking from, the same stuff that the french new wave and Melville are taking, but still thoroughly american. Really great stuff. Wow. It's so exciting to see a "new" noir that's on par with the greats that made me fall in love with the genre so many years ago. Ok... so what's next? |
