Those Wonderful People Out There In The Dark David Jansen

It’s the end of season one, or cycle one, or Earth one, whatever you want to call it, for the pod… We wanted to end the season on something special and this film is just so --- a veritable treasure chest of recognizable and quotable lines for film fans. Tight as a drum, unfolding an incredibly well-written story in less than two hours, with a cast of three memorable headliners and fantastic support. It’s definitely noir, though some reviewers characterize it as black comedy as well, but justifiably one of the career pinnacles for writer and director Billy Wilder --- 1950’s Sunset Boulevard, from Paramount Pictures. Not just another noir pretty face, but widely acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time. For all you wonderful people out there in the dark…

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

You may have seen Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and if so, you know the moment in the film when Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton sees himself in a role on TV and points at the screen excitedly --- it’s a meme now. I do it all the time watching film, at least in my mind. I mentally point at the screen, and shout to myself --- “Yeah, there’s that guy! He’s great!” But who is that guy? Sometimes, I’ve seen the actor so many times I have his name committed to memory, but I’ll often have to ashamedly drag myself off to Wikipedia and look him up. They too serve who no one knows. So, this is my pod salute to those actors who are repeatedly great in their roles, never the headliner, never the second lead, but always driving the story forward and so enjoyable to watch. BTW, these are all men, but I have plans in season two of the pod to do a salute to women actors in similar circumstances --- probably femmes fatale. Because all of these male actors have primarily made their reputations as bad guys. 
 Who are they? They’re memorable actors, good actors, who made their mark in several roles and, for some, hundreds of roles over a long career. As what might be termed character actors, they have idiosyncrasies or tics that plant them in your mind and have producers phoning them up repeatedly, regardless of the genre of film being cast. The kind of actor you point at. 

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

My top noirs are Double Indemnity and Out Of The Past, in that order, but Falcon is special. Right out of the hard-boiled school of writing, the character of the unstoppable but human private detective as a noir mainstay, one of the more fatale of the femmes in the genre, the moody lighting and framing, the inevitability of the conclusion of a twisted scheme. Hey, all it lacks is a voice-over and flashbacks! Oh well. Falcon launched from one-time Pinkerton agent Dash Hammett’s typewriter in 1930. Run as a serial in the classic Black Mask pulp magazine, it was later published as a detective novel by Knopf. Hammett was often a denizen of San Francisco, setting the novel there and taking his given first name, Sam, for the name of his protagonist, Sam Spade. Hammett is often contrasted with a hard-boiled, slightly later contemporary, Raymond Chandler, whose own detective Phillip Marlowe was set irrevocably in LA. Chandler was more of a florid descriptor of the LA scene, while Hammett’s prose was exceedingly spare, with little of the setting of San Fran or deep details of the background of the story revealed. However, this made Hammett’s work perfect for a screenplay. 

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

We’ve gone through quite a few pods on film, especially film noir and police procedurals, but this might be the first that has a female protagonist as the main character! More’s the pity! But what a protagonist! Perhaps to make up for the previous imbalance, we’re going to encounter one of the fiercest, most insightful, and action-oriented characters yet, regardless of gender. She has high EQ, high IQ, empathy, but she’s also tough as nails, and wise. Nicely enough, she was the character that introduced me deeply, as she did for so many people, to the wonder of the Coen Brothers and their cinematic universe. Now, this is one cinematic universe I can get into…

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

When film fans speak about directors, they often go on about idiosyncratic styles or bellwether looks and techniques. You can rapidly identify a Hitchcock film. Same for something from Orson Welles. Scorsese has tendrils that can be traced through most of his films. But few directors inject themselves into the films they create to the extent that the trials and agonies of the production become legendary. Or become immortalized in a documentary. These are directors who encourage their crew to partake of the rough and tumble as well. Does this result in a film that transcends the ordinary --- or just war stories about how bad the conditions were?
 Of the major world directors, one stands out as someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish their quest. And will successfully talk their backers and crew into following their lead, though it may take years to bring about the final film. And they may have to, purportedly, threaten an actor with a pistol to do so. Werner Herzog is able to capture his visions of protagonists that seek after the impossible, who are strangers in a strange land. As is he. 

Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark

Film is such a wonderful art form --- in some instances, almost the entirety of the world may be encompassed. Or the artist makes the attempt to capture the world. And thereby capture timeless subjects that are repeated down the years. Imagine developing a film that looks at the humanity of man. Classism. Racism. Antisemitism. War. The rise of fascism. Nationalism. Accomplished nearly one hundred years ago now --- and the ugly elements portrayed in the film are still around to plague us. Still relevant today.
The masterstroke was to expose all of this in a story elegantly simple and straightforward. It was done in 1937 by Jean Renoir --- the film, Grand Illusion. Here --- I’ll give you the plot. Two French pilots are captured during WWI. They’re sent to a prison camp and try to escape. They almost make it out, but at the last moment, they’re sent to a different camp, supposedly inescapable. The German commandant of the POW camp admires them. They hatch another plan to escape, involving a third prisoner. Two of the prisoners escape, due to the sacrifice of the third, shot by the German commandant. There. That’s it. You can stop the pod now if you like.



Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.com
IG: @thosewonderfulpeople
Twitter: @FilmsInTheDark