Noirvember Challenge (Official, November 2023)

[zzzorf]

Goal:
Watch as many movies as you can that fit into the Film Noir and Neo-Noir genres. If you are in doubt whether a movie counts or not, just ask.

Rules
- Each feature film (over 40 minutes) counts as one entry.
- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one entry.
- Films must be watched one at a time and at single speed (not sped up).
- Rewatches are allowed and are good for your soul.
- Challenge runs from November 1st - 30th 2023

Official lists:
IMDb Top 50 Film-Noir
TSPDT 100 Essential Noir Films
TSPDT 1000 Noir Films


Bonus Challenge: 30 Days of Noir
I wanted to design a Scavenger Hunt for this challenge but idiot me forgot to do it and the fact that it is already November 1st here in Australia I had to rush to get this up so I just found a ready made hunt that I shamelessly stole from Google, all prompts are put into a spoiler below the picture. Tag your eligible entries into the hunt with the date next to each prompt (e.g. #Nov1, #Nov2 etc). Each prompt will only be counted once but does not need to be done in order.

Spoiler

Nov1 - Stuck in an unhappy marraige
Nov2 - Love gone wrong/betrayal
Nov3 - Featuring a cynical detective
Nov4 - Featuring trench-coats/cigarettes
Nov5 - On the run
Nov6 - Alleyway murder
Nov7 - Featuring foggy scenes
Nov8 - 40's noir
Nov9 - 50's noir
Nov10 - Sci-Fi noir
Nov11 - Featuring a Femme Fatale
Nov12 - In a foreign language
Nov13 - Involving manipulation
Nov14 - Alfred Hitchcock Noir
Nov15 - Story focused on conspiracy/corruption
Nov16 - Set in a bar/Featuring a singer
Nov17 - Gangsters
Nov18 - Tragic ending
Nov19 - Memories (flashback/amnesia/false memory etc.)
Nov20 - David Lynch Noir
Nov21 - An adaptation
Nov22 - A remake
Nov23 - Featuring a serious detective
Nov24 - An antihero protagonist
Nov25 - Involving a disappearance
Nov26 - Featuring a female protagonist
Nov27 - A heist story/involving thieves
Nov28 - Involving an impostor
Nov29 - Featuring a vigilante
Nov30 - (Co)written and/or (co)directed by a woman

Rank	Participant	Count	Bonus Challenge
1st	msainy	183	1
2nd	WalterNeff	123	0
3rd	flavo5000	98	0
4th	gunnar	87	0
5th	Simba63	80	28
6th	RogerTheMovieManiac88	70	0
7th	FilmWalrus	57	53
8th	jdidaco	50	30
9th	sol	48	30
10th	frbrown	40	30
11th	Rufus-T	35	30
12th	Good_Will_Harding	29	0
13th	ororama	27	21
14th	klaus78	21	0
15th	magnusbernhardsen	18	18
16th	AB537	16	15
17th	jonas2k	15	15
18th	monclivie	13	13
=19th	pitchorneirda	12	0
=19th	Silga	12	12
=19th	Tngy	12	6
=22nd	blocho	10	4
=22nd	maxwelldeux	10	9
=24th	DudeLanez	9	8
=24th	Obgeoff	9	6
26th	Hunziker	7	7
27th	Lammetje	6	0
=28th	Lonewolf2003	5	4
=28th	Melvelet	5	0
30th	VincentPrice	4	3
31st	peeptoad	3	2
=32nd	frwnk	2	0
=32nd	Mochard	2	2
=34th	matthewscott8	1	0
=34th	zzzorf	1	1

[Rufus-T]

I am eyeing at this challenge. Got a lots of noirs I wanted to watch. Should have more time in November. Hope to have a noir-nuts November.

[gunnar]

I'm aiming for around 80 (mostly shorter) noirs this month and then going for bronze on the 1000 Noir list in 2024.

[WalterNeff]

I'm in, of course.

[blocho]

I'm in, of course.

The czar is back!

[msainy]

Is there a good reference for sci-fi noirs? The TSPDT 1000 noirs has only 5 and even this comprehensive list has only 16/3249 sci-fis.

[Simba63]

I'm aiming for at least 49 noirs this month which will give me the gold on the Noir 1000.

[jonas2k]

I'm in! This is my favourite challenge every year. My goal is at leats 10 entries, 2 movies unseen from TSPDT and at least 2 rewatches. I got 7 unwatched movies in my physical collection that counts as noir, will try to see them all.

[msainy]

1. Body Double (1984) #Nov1 - Involving manipulation
Loved this way more than I thought. De Palma copying Hitchcock is always fun and this might be my favorite of the bunch.

[Simba63]

Sorry if I'm being dense about the Bonus Challenge. So, we can use one a day and not reuse it for additional points? Not one per film, but per day? In other words, if I watch 5 films on Nov1 I only tag 1 of the five films for bonus?

[Good_Will_Harding]

I'm in! I don't expect to approach my undertaking for the October challenge, but this should be a nice palette cleanser, like always.

1. Obsession (1976)

This was my first time watching this, but I've actually been familiar with it for years now, specifically the musical score by Bernard Herrmann, who nabbed a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his work here, along with Taxi Drive the same year. I first heard the music back when I was in high school, about fifteen or more years ago, and it wouldn't exactly take a rocket scientist to identify how similar Herrmann's work here is to the music he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. But since I positively adore the music for the Hitch film, I'm not upset about getting more music that sounds an awful lot like it - which I'm sure was the instruction from director Brian de Palma.

Having now finally watched the film itself a full decade and a half after discovering the soundtrack, I now see that the musical score isn't the only way in which this echoes Hitchcock's earlier masterpiece. In fact, the similarities between this and Vertigo (again, I suspect fully intended from the conception of the film) are a bit hard to overlook here, so much so that this sometimes comes across as a feature length homage rather than its own standalone project, although there are certainly some additions to the plot here that were absent from the work which inspired it (namely incest, which I'm still unsure how well it works within the overall narrative). Even still, this was an interesting watch, and I'm at least glad to finally have some context for the music I've been listening to for nearly half of my lifetime.

[zzzorf]

Sorry if I'm being dense about the Bonus Challenge. So, we can use one a day and not reuse it for additional points? Not one per film, but per day? In other words, if I watch 5 films on Nov1 I only tag 1 of the five films for bonus?

You can tag a many films a day with the bonus tags but you can only use each tag once during the month. So say on day 1, you watch 5 movies like you said, and you tag them under 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. You have now used them so you can't tag them again later in the month. You also don't need to do them in order, such as that first day you tagged 1, 6, 23, 17 & 5. I'm trying to do them in order as the original developer wanted but I don't expect everyone to want to work like that.

[Simba63]

Sorry if I'm being dense about the Bonus Challenge. So, we can use one a day and not reuse it for additional points? Not one per film, but per day? In other words, if I watch 5 films on Nov1 I only tag 1 of the five films for bonus?

You can tag a many films a day with the bonus tags but you can only use each tag once during the month. So say on day 1, you watch 5 movies like you said, and you tag them under 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. You have now used them so you can't tag them again later in the month. You also don't need to do them in order, such as that first day you tagged 1, 6, 23, 17 & 5. I'm trying to do them in order as the original developer wanted but I don't expect everyone to want to work like that.

Thanks, that clears it up!

[frbrown]

1. Kill Me Tomorrow (1957) #Nov17 - Gangsters

[frbrown]

Is there a good reference for sci-fi noirs? The TSPDT 1000 noirs has only 5 and even this comprehensive list has only 16/3249 sci-fis.

There is this book, with a very broad definition of noir. I made an IMDb list of included films:

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066683178/

[zzzorf]

Is there a good reference for sci-fi noirs? The TSPDT 1000 noirs has only 5 and even this comprehensive list has only 16/3249 sci-fis.

There is this book, with a very broad definition of noir. I made an IMDb list of included films:

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066683178/

I will accept any of these movies for the sci-fi noir prompt as otherwise it is a pretty hard prompt to fill.

[WalterNeff]

Starting off with three from Encyclopédie du Film Noir Vol I that are also Pre Code
1. Night World (1932) Love and loss make up the night world at a Prohibition night club.
2. Quick Millions (1931) Gangster Bugs Raymond makes his quick millions by selling insurance against his trucks not rolling.
3. Zoo in Budapest (1933) A lost boy, an escaped orphan and an animal lover wanted by the police have to elude searchers and escaped animals in a zoo in Budapest.

[magnusbernhardsen]

Can we just change Nov12 to "not in English"? For most people in the world English is a foreign language, and all countries with an English-speaking majority have other languages that are not foreign to those countries.

[zzzorf]

Can we just change Nov12 to "not in English"? For most people in the world English is a foreign language, and all countries with an English-speaking majority have other languages that are not foreign to those countries.

I'm happy for that, I just copied the text from the picture, I will edit it soon.

[Simba63]

1. Cloudburst (1951) 7/10 #Nov29 - Featuring a vigilante
An interesting little Noir about a code-breaker who seeks out his own special kind of vengeance on his wife’s hit-and-run killers. Memorable quote by the antagonist as he starts his interrogation: “When you’re being tortured remember that the first lie is the most important. You may never get a chance to tell another.”

2. Stolen Identity (1953) 7/10 #Nov28 - Involving an impostor
Another good little Noir in which an opportunistic, but unlicensed cabby gets stuck with an unwanted passenger. Memorable quote by the bar owner as he loses patience with a phone hog: “In case you’d like to learn the telephone book by heart I wouldn’t bother with the letter Q, there are so very few customers. Other people would like to phone too!!!”

3. Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) 7/10 #Nov30 - Cowritten by a woman
Interesting Noir about a stern father, his family, a pub and its patrons. I particularly enjoyed the moments of witty banner. Memorable quote by a drunk and jealous husband as he chastises his wife’s lover: “Little runt of a warned-off jockey! I’ll break every bone in his body.”

4. Tread Softly Stranger (1958) 7/10 #Nov11 - Featuring a Femme Fatale
Another good Noir with two brothers and girl who have differing opinions on how to solve a financial crisis. Memorable quote by Dave when he realizes Calico has left him for his brother: “I’m congratulating you, Johnny. She’ll stick with you think and thin…at least for a week.”

[VincentPrice]

1. Mystery Street-1950: B #Nov9 - 50's noir

[AB537]

1. The Killer (David Fincher, 2023) 8.5/10 ... #Nov24 - Antihero

Spoiler

Nov24

[FilmWalrus]

Do any of the Ocean's 11 movies count as noir? They've got crime, betrayal, heists, but they aren't really dark, shadowy, or pessimistic. Thoughts?

[zzzorf]

Do any of the Ocean's 11 movies count as noir? They've got crime, betrayal, heists, but they aren't really dark, shadowy, or pessimistic. Thoughts?

I'm not an expert on Noir so others will have a better opinion but I see them as Capers not Noir

[msainy]

Is there a good reference for sci-fi noirs? The TSPDT 1000 noirs has only 5 and even this comprehensive list has only 16/3249 sci-fis.

There is this book, with a very broad definition of noir. I made an IMDb list of included films:

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066683178/

Thanks for the list

[flavo5000]

1. Hold Back Tomorrow (Hugo Haas, 1955)


2. Burning Kiss (Robbie Studsor, 2018)


3. The Hoodlum (Max Nosseck, 1951)


4. Female Jungle (Bruno VeSota, 1955)

A Shot Rang Out in the Dark

1. Hold Back Tomorrow (Hugo Haas, 1955)
2. Burning Kiss (Robbie Studsor, 2018)
3. The Hoodlum (Max Nosseck, 1951)
4. Female Jungle (Bruno VeSota, 1955)

[Mochard]

1. Jigsaw (1949) - 5/10 - #Nov8 - 40's noir

1

1. Jigsaw (1949) - 5/10 - #Nov8 - 40's noir

[blocho]

Do any of the Ocean's 11 movies count as noir? They've got crime, betrayal, heists, but they aren't really dark, shadowy, or pessimistic. Thoughts?

I wouldn't consider them noir, but that's a personal opinion. Noir is in the eye of the beholder.

[msainy]

2. Street of Chance (1942)
3. Strangers in the Night (1944)
Two little fun noirs, the first is starts with an amnesiac protagonist and the other about an obsessive mother.

Log

1.Body Double (1984)
2. Street of Chance (1942)
3. Strangers in the Night (1944)

[frbrown]

2. The Green Buddha (1954) #Nov27 - A heist story/involving thieves

Short Brit noir, where the titular Buddha statue is stolen at the start

Spoiler

1. Kill Me Tomorrow (1957) #Nov17 - Gangsters
2. The Green Buddha (1954) #Nov27 - A heist story/involving thieves

[magnusbernhardsen]

1. All the King's Men (Rossen, 1949) #Nov15 - Story focused on conspiracy/corruption
Oscar-winner for best picture. Some great scenes and fairly compelling story.

2. Soho Incident (Sewell, 1956) #Nov17 - Gangsters
Boooring film about a Canadian boxer in London.

Spoiler

1. All the King's Men (Rossen, 1949) #Nov15 - Story focused on conspiracy/corruption
2. Soho Incident (Sewell, 1956) #Nov17 - Gangsters

[Good_Will_Harding]

2. Chinatown (1974)

This wasn't in my "to watch" pile for the month, but it's free on Youtube and hey, who really needs an excuse to re-watch arguably the greatest Amercian neo noir ever made?

No R's

1. Obsession (1973)

[DudeLanez]

1. No Highway (1951, Henry Koster) 6,5/10 - Nov9 - 50's noir
2. Two Men in Manhattan (1959, Jean-Pierre Melville) 6,5/10 - Nov12 - In a foreign language

[Simba63]

Noirvember History

1. Cloudburst (1951) 7/10 #Nov29 - Featuring a vigilante
2. Stolen Identity (1953) 7/10 #Nov28 - Involving an impostor
3. Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945) 7/10 #Nov30 - Cowritten by a woman
4. Tread Softly Stranger (1958) 7/10 #Nov11 - Featuring a Femme Fatale

5. La nuit des traquées (1980) 2/10 #Nov10 - Sci-Fi noir
A group of people are held in the Black Tower which serves as a clinic in assisting them with their loss of memory and inability to make and retain new memories. Watched as a Sci-Fi Noir check as noted in “A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir: The Essential Reference Guide”.

6. Make Haste to Live (1954) 6/10 #Nov21 - An adaptation
Noir in which a woman attempts to protect her family from the schemes of her recently paroled husband. Based upon a crime novel written by The Gordons.

7. Footsteps in the Fog (1955) 7/10 #Nov7 - Featuring foggy scenes
A twisting Noir where the critical scene takes place in the fog of London. I enjoyed seeing the first Doctor Who actor (Hartnell) in a supporting role.

[frbrown]

Continuing the "Green" theme...

3. Green Eyes (1934) #Nov21 - An adaptation

Short, but slow and stagy (even though it's adapted from a novel, not a play)

Spoiler

1. Kill Me Tomorrow (1957) #Nov17 - Gangsters
2. The Green Buddha (1954) #Nov27 - A heist story/involving thieves
3. Green Eyes (1934) #Nov21 - An adaptation

[WalterNeff]

The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre - A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir
4. Accidental Death (1963) French resistance fighter seeks to kill the man who betrayed him in WW II, but who meets with an accidental death?
5. Who Was Maddox? (1964) A man gets framed for the murder of his wife's rich uncle, but who was Maddox?
6. Dead Man's Chest (1965) Two journalists perpetrate a hoax to show up the established press, but will one of them wind up in a dead man's chest?

Life is a Bitter Mystery

1. Night World (1932) Love and loss make up the night world at a Prohibition night club.
2. Quick Millions (1931) Gangster Bugs Raymond makes his quick millions by selling insurance against his trucks not rolling.
3. Zoo in Budapest (1933) A lost boy, an escaped orphan and an animal lover wanted by the police have to elude searchers and escaped animals in a zoo in Budapest.

[AB537]

2. Internal Affairs (Mike Figgis, 1990) X/10 ... #Nov3 - Cynical Detective

Spoiler

Nov3
Nov24

[msainy]

4. The Amazing Mr. X (1948)
5. So Dark the Night (1946)

Log

1.Body Double (1984)
2. Street of Chance (1942)
3. Strangers in the Night (1944)
4. The Amazing Mr. X (1948)
5. So Dark the Night (1946)

[jonas2k]

1. Le cercle rouge (1970) 8/10 - Nov12 - In a foreign language
2. Baise-moi (2000) 6/10 - Nov30 - (Co)written and/or (co)directed by a woman

[flavo5000]

5. Blind Alley (Charles Vidor, 1939)


6. A Life at Stake (Paul Guilfoyle, 1955)


7. Night and the City (Irwin Winkler, 1992)


8. The Clouded Yellow (Ralph Thomas, 1950)

A Shot Rang Out in the Dark

1. Hold Back Tomorrow (Hugo Haas, 1955)
2. Burning Kiss (Robbie Studsor, 2018)
3. The Hoodlum (Max Nosseck, 1951)
4. Female Jungle (Bruno VeSota, 1955)
5. Blind Alley (Charles Vidor, 1939)
6. A Life at Stake (Paul Guilfoyle, 1955)
7. Night and the City (Irwin Winkler, 1992)
8. The Clouded Yellow (Ralph Thomas, 1950)