Happy Noirvember to all who celebrate! I figured I'd make an attempt to sneak a few noirs in this month since I own a few box sets and I remain woefully underexposed to this period of studio filmmaking. Address Unknown merges noir aesthetics with wartime propaganda which seems at first to take on the appearance of a social problem film before that facade melts away into shockingly brutal revenge. As one would hope from any good noir, much of the cinematography in this film is simply breathtaking. Rudolph Maté, who started as a cinematographer on a lot of Carl Theodor Dreyer's silents, makes gorgeous use of shadows and lenses to give Nazi offices an otherworldly feeling and create a visual claustrophobia as we get further in. The connection to silent film is also apt as there's quite a bit of runtime in this picture that functions without dialogue. It's a short and not very sweet little slice of noir, a perfect addition to the Noirvember repertoire.
Happy Noirvember to all who celebrate! I figured I'd make an attempt to sneak a few noirs in this month since I own a few box sets and I remain woefully underexposed to this period of studio filmmaking. Address Unknown merges noir aesthetics with wartime propaganda which seems at first to take on the appearance of a social problem film before that facade melts away into shockingly brutal revenge. As one would hope from any good noir, much of the cinematography in this film is simply breathtaking. Rudolph Maté, who started as a cinematographer on a lot of Carl Theodor Dreyer's silents, makes gorgeous use of shadows and lenses to give Nazi offices an otherworldly feeling and create a visual claustrophobia as we get further in. The connection to silent film is also apt as there's quite a bit of runtime in this picture that functions without dialogue. It's a short and not very sweet little slice of noir, a perfect addition to the Noirvember repertoire.
