Lessons of "From Beyond"

5 Comments

• Sven m. says:

  April 21, 2013 at 1:58 am

  Hello Glenn, I love your essay for Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos Criterion book­let. It is great.

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• andy says:

  April 21, 2013 at 2:31 am

  Just went and read that essay, and have one nig­gling ques­tion: am I wrong to think that what is referred to as the noir trope of the swinging light­bulb was actu­ally ini­ti­ated by Psycho two years pri­or? Or is this one of those things where a late adop­ter gets the credit?

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• jbryant says:

  April 21, 2013 at 4:34 am

  Haven’t read the Le Doulos essay, but I know Anthony Mann and cine­ma­to­graph­er George Diskant did the swinging light bulb thing in DESPERATE in 1947.

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• Glenn Kenny says:

  April 21, 2013 at 6:37 am

  It’s been a while since I wrote that, and for a minute I almost believed that I had made such a care­less mis­take. But no. I call the swinging light­bulb not just a noir trope but a “noir staple,” as in “basic or prin­cip­al ele­ment or fea­ture.” So I’m not talk­ing about the film ini­ti­at­ing any­thing but rather about its relent­less and ima­gin­at­ive mix­ing of already famil­i­ar ele­ments. The sen­tence reads: “In the wake of Faugel and Gilbert’s con­front­a­tion, that noir staple the swinging light­bulb, appears—not via over­head wire but rather a prop­er table lamp, after the table has overturned.”
  Hope that clears things up. Anyway, thanks, Sven.

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• andy says:

  April 21, 2013 at 8:10 am

  Glenn–Sorry for the lack of clar­ity; I just meant that if Psycho star­ted that death­less trope, then it could hardly be a noir staple, but I stand corrected…

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