Betrayal, sexual jealousy, sudden violence: Why directors are so transfixed by film noir

Steven Soderbergh’s ‘No Sudden Move’, a tribute to mid-century gangster thrillers, has just premiered at the Tribeca Festival. Geoffrey Macnab explores why directors continue to turn back to film noir

Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange in the 1981 remake of ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ (Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)

There is something about 1950s film noir that seems to transfix contemporary directors. In features ranging from Curtis Hanson’s James Ellroy adaptation LA Confidential (1997) to Steven Soderbergh’s new crime thriller No Sudden Move, this is the decade that filmmakers keep on revisiting. Everything about the Fifties intrigues them: the Cadillacs, the nightclubs, the factories, the race tracks, the boxing rings, the fedoras worn by detectives and criminals alike, the jazz music and the sad-eyed club singers. They are endlessly fascinated by the contrast between leafy, suburban family America and the goings-on in those shadowy, crime-infested alleyways downtown.

Soderbergh’s new film is set in Detroit in 1954. It has a classic heist narrative. Small-time criminals Don Cheadle, Kieran Culkin and Benicio del Toro are hired to steal a document. It’s a straightforward job, a few hours of work for a decent pay-off. They’re supposed to intimidate an accountant by invading his home and holding his wife and kids hostage. He’ll then go and get the document from his boss’s safe. “When their plan goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them – and for what ultimate purpose – weaves them through all echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city,” reads the official synopsis.

This isn’t the first time Soderbergh has turned to film noir for inspiration. His 1995 feature The Underneath was a remake of Robert Siodmak’s crime thriller Criss Cross (1949). Several of his other films, including Out of Sight and The Limey, have included film noir elements. But No Sudden Move is actually set in the Fifties.