Weekend TV: Life 2.14

When the lead singer of an 80s cover band is found dead, Crews and Reese must dig through a pool of posers to find the killer.



I haven't quite come to terms with what the zen subtext means to the noir character in this series, but there's a nice scene here with Charlie thinking about his own personal mystery while listening to a zen tape about taking life. There's a certain awareness here about the nature of transgression and the responsibility that comes with it. Certainly a note about self-determination within the noir landscape.

Weekend TV: Justified 2.7

Boyd is hired by the mine to act as security while a trial against them begins. Winona has to put the stolen money back in the evidence locker, but she's going to need Raylan's help to get it there.



But at its heart, this episode is about bonding through crime. Now that Raylan is complicit in Winona's crime, it has brought them closer together, while Raylan is espousing noir philosophy in this scene:



And here, Raylan synopsizes his relationship with Boyd and how, even though their paths normally collide instead of align, there is significant history. Pay attention to that last line:

Weekend TV: Life 2.13

Recovering from his shooting, Crews (and Reese) investigate the death of an astronaut that was somehow shot but still manages to land his plane. Meanwhile, Tidwell is interested in who shot Charlie and doesn't believe that Charlie doesn't remember...



This episode introduces an actual legal transgression for Charlie, which grows out of his investigation, which was a result of his being framed for three murders he didn't commit. This suggests a repeating cycle, where transgression begets retribution, which begets transgression. If noir is the exploration of the psychology of criminals, if it is a detailing of what pushes specific people to commit crimes, this is a very important scene. It at once becomes the event to which everything has been leading as well as the fulfillment of the role everyone has been expecting him to play based on the fact that he used to be in prison.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

And, of course, we had Sean Chercover provide an introduction for the film, and his insights were invaluable. Please enjoy...

Interview with Sean Chercover

We kicked off The Noir Series 2011 with a spectacular program featuring THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) and an interview with Shamus- and Anthony-winning author Sean Chercover. Sean's Ray Dudgeon PI novels BIG CITY, BAD BLOOD and TRIGGER CITY are classic tarnished knight tales in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Here he talks about his previous life as a PI, his books, and what the movies get right. Enjoy!

Mildred Pierce (1945)

While Shannon was here, our audience here at the Dryden Theatre was treated to his introduction to the film playing that night, MILDRED PIERCE. Here he talks about its basis in hard-boiled fiction and a surprising theory about what the best performance in the film might be...

Interview with Shannon Clute

This Winter, I was lucky enough to have four great guests visit for The Noir Series 2011: Sean Chercover, Shannon Clute, Megan Abbott and Charles Benoit. I've finally gotten around to posting the video for these talks, and I hope that you'll check them out, both here and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/jaredscase?feature=mhsn.

Today, I'm featuring my talk with Shannon Clute, TCM employee, film noir scholar, and co-author of the upcoming tome THE MALTESE TOUCH OF EVIL: POTENTIAL CRITICISM AND FILM NOIR.