We Will Never Know Their Names, But That’s Fine, Too

Whenever you read books or articles on film noir, you encounter expressions like this: Another influence on the visual style of the films was the development of camera and lighting technology in the late ‘thirties: faster film stock, coated lenses (which significantly increased the light transmission) and more powerful lights. – ‘Film Noir, Introduction’, Michael Walker, in “The Book of Film Noir”, edited by Ian Cameron, The Continuum Publishing Company, 1992 In fact, almost all literatures I have been reading recently reiterate the same thing: faster film stock, high-speed lens and powerful light. Some critics inserted these lines in the …

Nuclear Noir

Kiss Me Deadly The ending of Kiss Me Deadly (1955) has been a center of debate among its fans and critics, while the authentic ending is now in place and the alternate one is offered as an extra. As Gabrielle opens the Pandora’s Box, she is exposed to the bright light of the Hell, detonating the ultimate Doomsday device. In physics, that bright (blue) light is actually called Cherenkov radiation, and anyone who sees it too closely will die a horrible death. Intense light, including Cherenkov radiation, is created by critical state of nuclear materials, emitting enormous amount of nuclear …