The Lamps of Film Noir

“aDulT cOntEnT”—I hate the prudishness of this website

Gray haired Man w/ brandy snifter near statue of naked women playing leap frog

Statue of naked women playing leap frog

The Lamps (and Remarkable Statuary) of DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971) 💡 #NoirLamps

Victorian man at his desk near blue green glass desk lamp (how they got electric light in the 19c I have no idea )

The Lamps of DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971)

Used car lot at night, string after string of bulbs over row after row of cars, w/ giant neon sign: Rocket Motor Sales

A used car lot has never been so beautiful

(THIEF, d. Michael Mann) (1981)

A perfect chalk drawing of Jimmy Stewart in REAR WINDOW

Had my Moviegoing students do a 2-minute drawing of their favorite movie yesterday. I did mine on the chalkboard. No one could identify it, how is that possible?! it’s so good 😂

I hope the dog is ok

Lyrics from Petula Clark’s “Downtown”: “Don't hang around and let your problems surround you There are movie shows/ Downtown”

🎶❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎶

LOL my first thought was hey that’s the lamp from LAURA… then realized yes, that’s because this is an actual screenshot of LAURA. I see lamps before I see actors!

Michael Sharp PRO THE AMERICAN SOLDIER The American Soldier 1970 ***½ Watched Oct 7, 2025 If you don't make out in tragic slow motion with your brother's corpse on the floor of a train station locker room while your mom watches are you even noir? Strictly for unrepentant postwar melancholics who drink their Ballantine's straight from the bottle. [sidenote: There is an uncanny moment in this movie where a maid sits on the edge of a bed and starts telling a story and about twenty seconds in I'm like "I know this story ... this ... this is the plot of ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (a *later* Fassbinder film, what the actual fuck?)]

This movie! 💥 ⁉️

Man sits on couch drinking scotch straight from the bottle. Woman in extreme foreground

“Don’t mind me, just sucking down this scotch before I murder you…”

The Lamps of THE AMERICAN SOLDIER (d. Fassbinder, 1970) 💡

Man leans in bathroom doorway, perhaps contemplating bath. There’s a little table lamp behind him

The Lamps of THE AMERICAN SOLDIER (d. Fassbinder, 1970) 💡

Men playing cards with gaudy spherical lamp overhead

The Lamps of THE AMERICAN SOLDIER (d. Fassbinder, 1970) 💡

Michael Sharp PRO CHINA MOON China Moon 1994 **; Watched Sep 29, 2025 Put every noir you've ever seen in a blender. Turn it on. Turn it off. Serve. CHINA MOON! The damn movie opens with: Rain-slicked streets at night Neon signs A motel Sex in a motel Saxy night jazz noir music Louvered blinds A P.l. taking photos through those blinds Just checking all the boxes on the Noir checklist, ripping off everything from DOUBLE INDEMNITY to THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE to BODY HEAT to PURPLE NOON/The Talented Mr. Ripley (book) along the way. I laugh-shout-watched this thing. Kind of a fun hour and a half if you watch it with the appropriate derision. Featuring an adorable and very young Benicio Del Toro (I watched this 'cause it's noir, I hadn't seen it, and it's leaving Criterion Oct 1)

Being a noir completist has its (sometimes considerable) downsides

Shelley Duvall on phone next to insanely colorful table lamp w/ nightmare-fuel B&W wallpaper in background: “He thinks he can fly,”

The Lamps of BREWSTER MCCLOUD (1970) 💡

Blonde woman on giant white flip phone, (1973)

Death Carries an Amazing Giant White Flip Phone

(DEATH CARRIES A CANE, 1973) #GialloStyle

Michael Sharp PRO The Cat o' Nine Tails 1971 TE CAT • NINE TAILS Watched Sep 17, 2025 This move does not deserve three stars and might not even deserve two stars but it's a Dario Argento giallo starring Karl Malden as a blind crossword constructor and there's a cat on the poster (which hangs over my desk in my office) so I don't care if it's not technically "good," if there's way too little violence, if the plot makes no sense and is essentially without suspense-the movie was clearly made for me, specifically, so l am ride or die. If die, so be it. (Tubi-though I'm def buying the Blu-ray)

In defense of bad movies … or one bad movie, anyway … ❤️

boxd.it/b6fsIR

Michael Sharp PRO BREWSTER MCCLOUD Brewster McCloud 1970 ** *½ Watched Sep 11, 2025 Sally Kellerman in a red Gremlin fucking with the cops. Sally Kellerman naked with little designs on her back where wings should be. Sally Kellerman marching dramatically out of the Astrodome with a raven on her arm, going back to whatever avian kingdom they came from. And every violent abusive asshole in Houston gets killed by literal bird shit. If ever a movie had Everything, it's this movie.

🦅 🐦‍⬛ 🦢

boxd.it/b2zQqr

Shelley Duvall on phone next to insanely colorful table lamp w/ nightmare-fuel B&W wallpaper in background: “He thinks he can fly,”

The Lamps of BREWSTER MCCLOUD (1970) 💡

Shelley Duvall removing her jacket near a very colorful overhead lampshade

The Lamps of BREWSTER MCCLOUD (1970) 💡

Michael Sharp PRO The Parallax View 1974 ½ THE PARALLAX VIEW Watched Sep 8, 2025 There's about 15 min of this movie where it feels like a pacific NW version of "The Dukes of Hazzard" or "Smokey & the Bandit" —extended bar fights, high-speed car chases, local sheriffs, what not. It's completely off from the tone of the rest of the movie. I loved it. This movie is like a trial run for Pakula's next movie, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976). It's also eerily similar to THE CONVERSATION (same year, 1974). Paranoia, surveillance, corruption, giant shadowy secretive organizations that the honest guy has no chance against. See also CHINATOWN, in that respect, I guess (also 1974). The first half of the 70s is basically an echo of the last half of the 40s. Noir grows in the soil of disillusionment.

Completing the Pakula/Willis “Paranoia Trilogy” 🙏

Meanwhile, I don't personally know anyone who gets value from stealth bombers, or from kidnapping and enslavement squads, or the demolition of regulations that protect us from the profit motive, but I know it isn't you or me or any of the rest of us.

Somewhere along the line the idea took hold that every part of public life needs to be efficient, an efficiency exclusively expressed in terms of whether or not it makes money. "Makes money for who, exactly?" is a question that is never asked.

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 🧵 #NoirLamps

Redford (far L) in dark parking garage w/ two fluorescent lights above him and a maw of ominous blackness to his left, which he’s looking at over his left shoulder

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 💡

This is the good stuff ❤️

A single lit street lamp on a street at night w Redford running away into a small patch of light in the distance (L)

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 💡

Holbrook smoking in parking garage w one fluorescent light above

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 💡

Redford oversleeps for meeting with Deep Throat (sitting on twin bed w plaid coverlet, a wall lamp mounted nearby)

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 💡

Dustin Hoffman on an orange floral couch next to an orange floral table lamp

The Lamps of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) (d. Pakula) 💡

d. Alan Pakula, shot by Gordon Willis

Redford on couch (far L) next to table lamp w/ beige fabric shade. An open box of Ritz crackers sits next to lamp

The Lamps (and Snack Crackers) of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) 💡