Dir. Robert Aldrich, 1958
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Sun 13 July 2008 // 19:30
/ Cinema
Classic Film Noir
Featuring Mickey Spillane's tough, narcissistic, neo-violent character Mike Hammer, this acclaimed classic film noir which influenced the work of Lynch, Speilberg and Tarantino.
The film is rich with symbolic allusions, labyrinthine and complex plot threads, and Cold War fear and nuclear paranoia about the atomic bomb.
Shot over a one month period in late 1954, it is a masterpiece of cinematography, exhibited in the disorienting camera angles and unique and unconventional compositions of Ernest Laszlo.
Women, violence and the rest of it....
Kiss Me Deadly contains all the elements of a great film noir - a stark opening sequence, destructive femme fatales, low-life cheap gangsters, an anti-hero, expressionistically-lit night-time scenes, a vengeful quest, and a dark mood of hopelessness. Sheer pleasure.
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