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'Out of the Past' by Jacques Tourneur Review: Nothing particularly special
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After over a week of immense boredom, I am finally back to normal and capable of watching longer productions again! Lately I have been really craving some film noir, something that propped up the day before I fell ill. I came across four film noir films that I had never seen before and set them aside to watch; though waiting patiently for my attention span to return this last week with some slight excitement for the black-and-white, and the very much dated filmmaking that I love. With the four films I came across, today I chose to finally watch one, though with no particular reason for my decision I went with Out of the Past. A film from 1947 that I had never heard of until the prior week. I have been avoiding reading up on films and watching trailers, especially for these older film noir films, so I had no idea what to expect other than some familiarities with the genre of noir itself: mystery, romance, simplistic stories, and very still cinematography with the boxed aspect ratio of the era.
One of my favourite parts of the film noir genre is the way in which the stories unfold with direct messaging to the audience. A narration from the main protagonist's perspective. A series of gentle dialogue that pushes a character's thoughts as context alongside the visuals that tie things together. Not only does it allow for the visuals to take over, it gives the audience a closer look into the events of the film and the main character. It never feels like lazy exposition to explain its reasoning and structure, but instead a method of telling a story. In the case of detective stories, this use of dialogue can even promote thoughts and agendas into the audience, making us think and come up with our own theories and assumptions of where things are going and why. It's an effective style of filmmaking that seems very much abandoned in modern filmmaking. Fortunately Out of the Past doesn't rely on it too much, either.
Though it's very cemented in the noir genre for its narrative and style. Something that didn't seem too adventurous, something rather tame and familiar. While that does make it a bit forgettable, I still very much enjoyed it.
Usually during my exploration of the film noir genre I am met with a series of cast members I likely have never heard of or seen before, actors and actresses that came and went in time. Out of the Past was a rare instance in which I did in fact recognise someone. A Kirk Douglas, of course in his much younger years. This did to some degree shape how I perceived the film, having had someone I had seen before and knew somewhat of and how the act. Out of the Past was unique, however. A different type of noir film that felt very safe and simple, using the very minimal idea of how one may attempt to run from the past with the past forever catching up to you. That past problems aren't ever really behind you. This idea drags out for the duration of the film as it attempts to juggle the many ideas of the film noir genre: deceit, romance and its various complications as love is at the forefront of all drama, and alternate motives that appear when one is cornered and attempts to escape.
For the most part this narrative didn't really pull me in all that much. It felt as if it continued to repeat itself and jump from character to characterw without really giving the audience much to care for. Given the film surrounds the idea of the past returning to haunt someone, it very rarely felt as if there were any stakes at hand as it juggled locations and characters, particularly the romance aspect which is of course a significant part of the noir genre. It was as if much of this was shoehorned in to fit the genre and its success at the time, not quite capable of taking off on its own and instead being very cautious as to what it could and could not do. For a film from 1947, it also felt as if the directing and cinematography was a bit too lacking, where sometimes the camera movements were really creative and interesting, but used far too sparingly as things grew too tame again.
In one particular scene we see the camera zoom up close into two character's faces, it's a moment of heightened emotion and tension that is projected to the audience extremely well. I found myself very caught up in that shot, but it made me expect much more from it, and that never really came. It exhausted itself quite early, and then with its runtime just handled the drama of a situation that didn't have much weight. This was also met in the performances, which seemed rather flat and perhaps too film noir, where delivery didn't feel like it had much emotion in it. Characters seemed as if they were drifting off to sleep and that none of the film's events really meant anything to them. I didn't feel as if I was getting all that drama that was supposed to be felt with the revival of the past; it didn't feel as if the characters had any desperation in them to keep the past hidden and move forward.
This is not to say that the film was bad, just that it felt incredibly flat. It had much more potential but felt as if it didn't utilise any of it. As mentioned with the performances and directing, nothing was really pushed in any specific manner. It had all been done already elsewhere, and it felt like Out of the Past was just following in better treaded steps. The all-familiar use of narration didn't help the film much either, it was used sparingly which was nice given it didn't rely on it too much, but the dialogue presented to the audience through it didn't seem all that important. It didn't really bridge things together much or really give us much of a perspective of the character's thoughts leading up to events. I didn't feel like it was being used as a tool, but instead used as a trope.
Despite not really enjoying the way the narrative was told, I did enjoy some of the brief creative filmmaking techniques that were visible every so often. In particular I noticed a scene in which car lights were being perceived in the background, way off in the distance to imply a busy highway road in the night. The lights were of course out of focus and implied via bokeh, oval towards the outside of the frame and going circular towards the inner part of the frame. These lights were relatively even in distance, and moved from one side of the background to the next. It was clear these were not actual cars, but a technique to simulate the idea of car lights moving. I questioned as to how it could've been done. These days one could pull such a technique off with a small LED strip and pull them in either directions slowly, or one could throw on a reflective surface and effectively use light to illuminate them. There's a few ways in which this could be done, and I found myself appreciating the idea of it from 1947 with the potential limitations, as well as the creativity required to turn it practical.
I enjoyed the brief moments in which the camera moved, how it moved alongside the characters and amplified moments of emotion and tension. The quick zoom in felt more modern and impressive, very theatrical and intended to promote weight of a scene. Sadly the rest wasn't quite up to the same quality. Though I still enjoyed the film, it was far from bad. But I have definitely seen better. Do I recommend it still? Sure, but don't go in expecting the very peak of the film noir genre.
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