World Noir Vol. 1 (Blu-Ray Review)

It's easy to think of film noir as a distinctly American tradition, a genre defined by the cynical attitudes that emerged in the US in the years after World War II. But even in its nomenclature noir reveals its international origins, coined, as it was, by French critics looking to categorise the wave of hardboiled, stylised American crime dramas. Indeed, many of the filmmakers making these true-blue American pictures were, in fact, European emigrés; Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, and Robert Siodmak to name but a few. In their new box set, the promisingly titled World Noir Vol. 1, Radiance Films expand the scope of what we consider a noir even further, hopping from Japan to France to Italy in an attempt to trace the influence of film noir between continents and cultures.

First up is I Am Waiting (1957), one of the earliest noir works from legends of Japanese noir, Nikkatsu studios. Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, tropes of the genre abound, from the woozy sultry jazz score that plays over the opening credits, to the high shadows cast by men in mysterious trench coats, and the constancy with which everyone is always lighting cigarettes, pouting all the while. The plot is pure pulp too, kicking off on a dark and dingy night as a boxer-turned-restaurateur (with a troubled past) saves a mysterious club singer (with a troubled past) from killing herself in stormy waters, steam trains whistling by in the distance. And yet despite the dark silhouettes that dog their every move, it's their romance that shines out as the film's most compelling feature; a reminder that noir doesn't always have to be defined by ulterior motives and underhand betrayals. Fortunately, those hungry for bold contrasts and striking lighting are well served as well—a final punch up that spans multiple shadowy corridors and nebulous backrooms serves as a timely reminder of the genre's roots in German Expressionism.

Next up is the French noir Witness in the City (1959), a fitting location given the term's origins. Perhaps the most traditional noir of the bunch, Edouard Molinaro's film is defined by its cat-and-mouse tension, taking in the entirety of Paris' dusky city streets. Starting with a real bang, we open on a screaming woman moments before she's shoved from an open train door by her lover—but this is something of a misdirect. Rather than following the attempts to bring her murderer to justice, it's not long before he's offed too, this time by the woman's husband, Ancelin (Lino Ventura). The inevitable spanner in the works? A taxi driver who saw Ancelin fleeing the scene. As much a homage to the inner workings of the Parisian taxi ranks as it is a thriller, Witness in the City is a taut and distinctly French work, one that trades in the same pessimism that suffused American cinema in the years after the war, while still making plenty of time for affairs and womanising. Molinaro's style as a director is a little prosaic, but when he makes use of the high beam lights of the various taxis, it really cuts through the more workmanlike material elsewhere.

The real gem of the bunch, however, is The Facts of Murder (1959), ironically the least legibly film noir entry. Directed by Pietro Germi, The Facts of Murder is a far more traditional Italian crime film, shot with a formal flair that lacks the exaggerated high contrast photography of its peers. What marks it as worthy of inclusion, however, is the ways in which it touches on similar thematic threads to the cynicism of film noir, as Germi paints a world in which everyone is motivated by self interest, whether it's the perennially lazy police force trying to pin a robbery on the first lowlife they find, or a minor witness' sister who angrily reveals she's been sleeping with her sibling's lover. That it's also a eyebrow-raisingly amusing work (“I get it, The Third Man,” rebuffs the lead investigator during one exchange about the muddled murderous plot) is in line with Germi's perspective; because while everyone we meet is a liar, they're also all shaded with hidden depths, always afforded the space to reveal the unexpected. Noir or not, it's an impressive slice of mid-century Italian cinema (restored in beautiful detail by the infamous L'Immagine Ritrovata, fortunately saved from their yellow tint tendencies by being black-and-white) that reveals a lot about prevailing attitudes at the time.

When Nino Frank coined the term film noir in 1946, his work was largely rejected by the American film industry, until it gained traction again decades later. In that sense, noir has only ever been defined retrospectively—so who's to say that such definitions can't be further expanded? Certainly, many of the included videoessays and interviews make a strong case for noir as a more porous, intercontinental movement, one which built on earlier trends in European cinema—Italian neorealism, French poetic realism—and, in turn, informed the works that directors made worldwide in the years after. For anyone looking to expand their understanding of how such genre trends are rarely as easy to categorise as the traditional canon may have you think, World Noir Vol. 1 is a thought-provoking and gorgeous collection to cap off what's been a stellar year for Radiance.

Special Features

• New 4K restoration of The Facts of Murder carried out by L'Immagine Ritrovata at the Cineteca di Bologna, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world
• 2K restoration of Witness in the City, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
• High Definition digital transfer of I Am Waiting, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world
• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio for all films
• Optional English subtitles for all films
• Newly designed artwork based on original posters
• Limited edition 80-page perfect bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by critics and experts including Barry Forshaw on noir represented outside the US, William Carroll on post-war occupation period in Japanese cinema, Hayley Scanlon on Japanese noir, an interview with Edouard Molinaro, Roberto Curti on the hybrid nature of Italian cinema, and Sam Wigley on 50s world noir from other countries
• Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases for each film and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
• For the dedicated special features for each film, see here

World Noir Vol. 1 releases in the UK on December 18th courtesy of Radiance Films