In mid-October 2013 the publisher Limelight released my book A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide
. The book has entries on well over 3,000 films noirs and related movies from all over the world, including over 2,000 from the US alone.
The purpose of Noirish is to act as an extension to the Encyclopedia -- an annex, if you like -- where I can add entries for movies that for one reason or another didn't make it into the printed book.
In some instances, this is just because the movie concerned was released too late for inclusion.
Most often, though, the reason was logistic. Although the Encyclopedia takes the broadest possible view of film noir, there were some movies that were either too obscure or too tangential to the theme to merit the use of precious page space: 800+ large-format pages -- nearly 700,000 words -- may seem a lot but, when you're trying to cover in excess of 3,000 movies, you soon learn to appreciate the constraints.
That's why this enterprise has the title it has: Noirish. Many of the movies here are very borderline noir, and some aren't noir at all but have associational interest.
Just because a movie's obscure doesn't mean it's lousy . . . although there'll be some lousy movies covered here. There'll also be plenty of movies that are, shall we say, undistinguished -- which is not to say they're without at least some points of interest, and certainly isn't to say they're not lots of fun to watch.
After posting a bunch of entries to get myself started, I'll be adding new movies to Noirish as and when I watch them.
Wow, this is absolutely fantastic John!!! And I must extend enthusiastic congratulations to you for your actual participation in this project!!! Your own volumes on animation speak for themselves and for your special embrace and knowledge of this genre! I’d say this is a very fair result, combining as it does Hollywood classics like PINOCHHIO and SNOW WHITE, the Miyazakis and Pixars and several other independents. Definitely a must for animation and cinema fans, and an eternal reference point!
Thanks for the kind words — although I was just among the humblest of scores of contributors!
I was delighted to see Svankmejer’s Alice (my own first choice) featuring so high on the list.
I’ve been making notes on a number of others there that I haven’t seen and obviously ought to.
Ah, Svankmeyer’s ALICE as the top choice! You have exceedingly good taste John! And you are truly the humblest person I know.
And you are truly the humblest person I know
Could you tell Pam this?
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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