On the up and up
This morning, I had a meeting with my two supervisors to discuss my PhD progress. Primarily, we were discussing a written piece that I had submitted, as well as my aims for the next six months. I came away feeling both more positive and more negative than I had beforehand, mainly because it became clear to me that I had, until now, essentially been working without a plan, doing a bit of reading here and a bit of writing there without any concrete goals. This was pretty much spelled out to me when my supervisor asked me to define my thesis' unique selling point, and my response was more or less "Um... er... well, my aim is to... er... sorry, let me just think... um... how should I explain this...?"
So, as a result, I'm a bit down right now because it feels as if the work I've done so far hasn't been of a great deal of use, and I now see myself with a lot of work ahead of me as I get up to speed again. On the other hand, the meeting was extremely useful not only in terms of revealing to me what I was doing wrong, but also in terms of showing me what I should do to put things right. I now have a definite plan of action for the next four weeks:
- Week 1: read up on film noir literature and watch a couple of key films. One of my supervisors suggested film noir as being a useful point of reference due to the similarities he perceived between it and the giallo movement (not necessarily in terms of its themes but more as a body of films born out of a literary movement that can't be classified in traditional genre terms), so that will be my first port of call. I know next to nothing about film noir barring what little I've read so far, so this should prove to be interesting.
- Week 2: check out some of the dissertations that have been written by other PhD candidates in the department. It occurs to me that I have little, if any, idea of what one of these actually looks at, and with that in mind it's not entirely surprising that I've been flailing about like a blindfolded chimp with a pencil in his teeth, to quote The Simpsons.
- Week 3: get my hands on a copy of Dimitris Eleftheriotis' book Popular Cinemas of Europe: Texts, Contexts and Frameworks. He was the course convenor when I did my MLitt and I remember this book, from what little I read of it, being very clear and well-written. I also aim to spend Week 3 (and, if necessary, the beginning of Week 4) deciding on an actual title for my dissertation, setting down my key research questions, putting together an initial outline (with a preliminary timeline to take me through to 2010) and a brief bibliography of key texts.
- Week 4: meet with my supervisor again to discuss my progress and set the next deadline.
On balance, I feel considerably better about this project than I did this time yesterday, if only because I now feel I have some idea of what I'm doing and have agreed a plan of action with my supervisors, to the extent that the three of us seem to be on the same wavelength. It's disheartening to discover that a lot of what you've been doing hasn't been much use, but I suppose that's the way things go sometimes. If nothing else, the 11,000 or so words that I've churned out since October have got me back into the frame of mind required for academic writing, something that had been a little rusty after taking a year out.
PS. Can anyone recommend me a couple of good film noirs? (Or is that films noirs, or films noir?)
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Posted: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 3:49 PM
| Comments: 10
Categories:
General
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Gialli
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PhD
Comments
1.
I'd have a word with our mutual friend Graham, if I were you. He's quite a fan of film noirs.
Posted by:
Baron Scarpia, April 8, 2008 4:01 PM
2.
This Gun For Hire
Double Indemnity
Laura
The Woman in the Window
Scarlet Street
Murder My Sweet
The Postman ALways Rings Twice
Gilda
The Killers
Out of the Past
Kiss of Death
The Lady From Shanghai
The Set-Up
Brute Force
The Big Clock
He Walked by Night
The Naked City
White Heat
The Asphalt Jungle
D.O.A.
Night and the City
The Enforcer
Pickup on SOuth Street
Kiss Me Deadly
Touch of Evil
Posted by: , April 8, 2008 8:16 PM
3.
Essential/recommended:
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Dark Passage (1947)
Dial M For Murder (1954)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Key Largo (1948)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Notorious (1946)
Out Of The Past (1947)
Rififi (1955)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Third Man (1949)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
Touch Of Evil (1958)
A lot of classic gangster films have a noir feel to them as well, such as:
Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)
Dillinger (1945)
Little Caesar (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scarface (1932)
White Heat (1949)
Key directors:
Howard Hawks
Alfred Hitchcock
John Huston
Billy Wilder
Key Actors:
Lauran Bacall
Humphrey Bogart
James Cagney
Robert Mitchum
Edward G. Robinson
Barbara Stanwick
Key Studio:
Warner Bros.
That's just the "classic" period.
Barely scratching the surface.
Later films with "noir" elements:
The Black Dahlia (2006)
Blade Runner (1982)
Body Heat (1981)
Chinatown (1974)
Dark City (1998)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Memento (2000)
Whether you like him or not, Brian De Palma has a lot of "noir" to his films.
This is all just off the top of my head.
My collection: http://someonesinthewolf.dvdaf.com/
Posted by:
Daniel Sardella, April 8, 2008 8:31 PM
4.
Daniel and anonymous guy: thanks very much for the suggestions. Any possibility of narrowing things down a bit? I appreciate that this is an extensive field, but at the moment I'm looking to get up to speed as quickly as possible, and figure I might as well do so by watching a couple of the key iconic films. Is there a noir equivalent to Deep Red (as in a film that many consider the defining statement on the movement)?
Baron: I shall probably take up your advice and contact Graham, then. Is he still active on Teh Interweb? I notice he hasn't updated his journal in a while.
Posted by:
Whiggles, April 8, 2008 9:38 PM
5.
He's still around, mainly on facebook. I'll email you his email address.
Posted by:
Baron Scarpia, April 8, 2008 9:46 PM
6.
Considering you're focusing on gender in popular cinema, I'd recommend (as a starting point for your reading) the book WOMEN IN FILM NOIR, edited by E. Ann Kaplan. That's probably the best springboard for any study of gender in noir, as it contains most of the key essays/articles on the topic.
I would say that, in terms of films that bear comparison with the Italian-style thrillers of the 1960s and 1970s, the best classic-era films noir to look at for a discussion of gender issues are:
LAURA (Preminger)
ANGEL FACE (Preminger)
THE MALTESE FALCON (Huston)
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (Welles)
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (Lang)
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Wilder)
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (Garnett)
CRISS CROSS (Siodmak)
Posted by: Paul, April 9, 2008 12:27 AM
7.
I would say my top 5 noirs are:
Double Indemnity (my equivalent to 'Profondo Rosso')
Out Of The Past
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
The Asphalt Jungle
Posted by: Daniel Sardella, April 9, 2008 1:27 AM
8.
Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. I'll peruse the shelves both of the library where I work and the local video stores today and see what I can get my hands on, with an eye to the titles you've listed.
Paul: I actually have Women in Film Noir on my desk right now and have just started making my way through it.
Posted by:
Whiggles, April 9, 2008 7:01 AM
9.
Let me recommend THE MALTESE FALCON, THE BIG SLEEP and CHINATOWN (in that order). Incidentally, a modern film that hasn't been mentioned which still fits the noir label is SIN CITY.
Posted by: Richard Booth, April 9, 2008 1:55 PM
10.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. I had to get hold of some films as quickly as possible, so I was limited to what the local shops had in stock, but still I managed to snag The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Lady from Shanghai and, to give me a flavour for a more recent take on the noir framework, The Black Dahlia. Not a bad haul, when all said and done.
Posted by:
Whiggles, April 9, 2008 8:40 PM
