79 Film Noir Quotes
Following is our list of film noir quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about noir.
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Famous Film Noir Quotes
The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time. — Frank Miller
After the film it was raining, a light steady rain. Ruthless neon on the wet streets like busted candy. — Denis Johnson
Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood. — Ginger Rogers
Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls. — Ingmar Bergman
Nostalgia, the vice of the aged. We watch so many old movies our memories come in monochrome. — Angela Carter
The film drama is the opium of the people…down with bourgeois fairy-tale scenarios…long live life as it is! — Dziga Vertov
This is my genre...the happiness, tragedies, and the sorrows of mankind as realized in the teeming black ghetto. — Jacob Lawrence
No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul. — Ingmar Bergman
Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills. — David Mamet
And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous. — Brian De Palma
I definitely would like to do something serious. Not like a love story, but serious like maybe a gangster or a mobster. A gang or a mob movie would be great. — Jason Mewes
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead station. — William Gibson
In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all. — David Baldacci
Down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid — Raymond Chandler
A film is never really any good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. — Orson Welles
Film Quotes
If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew. — Pocahontas
Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. — J. K. Rowling
There are a lot of good books around. People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it? — Lemmy Kilmister
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. — John Hughes
You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved. — Ansel Adams
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. — Clark Gable
One of the reasons I love to jump back and forth between mediums is that film does allow me to be more literal. I can go to the real place. I can go to the Coliseum, and I don't have to fake it. — Julie Taymor
Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow. — Imogen Cunningham
Drama is life with the dull bits left out. There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. I believe in putting the horror in the minds of the audience, and not necessarily on the screen. The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder. — Alfred Hitchcock
The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn't. — Jean-Luc Godard
Noir Quotes
I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble. — Dashiell Hammett
That was certainly true the first time, when I did Body Heat, the first movie that I directed. I was looking for a vessel to tell a certain kind of story, and I was a huge fan of Film Noir, and what I liked about it was that it was so extreme in style. — Lawrence Kasdan
There were some things that I found I really enjoyed singing about; like, on the title track, there's this film-noir character of a woman who's sort of losing it in a room. — Diana Krall
God made Cabernet Sauvignon, whereas the Devil made Pinot Noir. — Andre Tchelistcheff
Film noir is not a genre. It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood. It is a film 'noir', as opposed to the possible variants of film gray or film off-white. — Paul Schrader
When I pair food and wine, I start with the food. If I have a beautiful roasted bird, I might choose a Cabernet or Pinot Noir, or maybe a Syrah, depending on the sauce and what is in my cellar. — Jacques Pepin
I'm a huge fan of Cabernet and Bordeaux, and am passionate about Pinot Noir and Burgundies. — Raymond E. Feist
The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter. — Dashiell Hammett
Pinot noir is the ultimate wine to have at the table. It's a white wine masquerading as red...[while] chardonnay is a red masquerading as a white. — Kevin Zraly
There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood. — Vilmos Zsigmond
Animated Films Quotes
Inside me, 'Dragon Ball' became a thing of the past, but later, I got upset at the live-action film, revised the script for the anime film, and complained about the quality of the TV anime. — Akira Toriyama
I started my career giving a clinic in bad acting in the film, "The Silver Chalice," and now I'm playing a crusty old man who's an animated automobile [in "Cars"]. That's a creative arc for you, isn't it? — Paul Newman
The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. — Walt Disney
First I did animation films, when I was young, in time-lapse. And then in the '80s I went directly to video. The main reason for that was that I could control all the steps. — Pipilotti Rist
Sure, they were simple desk lamps with only a minimal amount of movement, but you could immediately tell that Luxo Jr. was a baby, and that the big one was his mother. In that short little film, computer animation went from a novelty to a serious tool for filmmaking. — John Lasseter
That's the thing with animated films - I often feel that puppets get the better parts compared to us normal actresses. — Helena Bonham Carter
I was so moved by the intelligence,sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegetarian. — James Cromwell
The music is an important and crucial part to an animated film. You don't think about it, but you can watch Tom and Jerry with no words, for hours, and the music dictates the emotion and where the story is going and how you're supposed to feel. Everything is in the music. — Rihanna
In animation, there's this exhilarating moment of discovery when you see the film and you say, Oh THAT'S what I was doing. — John Lithgow
'Coraline' is Neil Gaiman's book, it sold a lot, it has a big fan base. It was originally conceived to be live action, but I never really wanted it to be. I always thought that it would work better as an animated film. — Henry Selick
Art Films Quotes
The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn't. — JeanLuc Godard
Cinematography, a military art. Prepare a film like a battle. — Robert Bresson
The great art of films does not consist of descriptive movement of face and body but in the movements of thought and soul transmitted in a kind of intense isolation. — Louise Brooks
Like all art forms, film is a media as powerful as weapons of mass destruction; the only difference is that war destroys and film inspires. — Nicolas Winding Refn
Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I'd say that film is the sculpting of time. — Andrei Tarkovsky
Kids are always infatuated with the action in Martial Arts Films. Let me tell you, there is nothing better for kids than the Arts. That is what kept me straight and decent. I always had a place to go. That was the dojo. I always had something to look forward to doing. — Thomas Ian Griffith
Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does. — Walter Murch
Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum. — Ansel Adams
The first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money - the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art. — Chuck Palahniuk
Motion pictures are the art form of the 20th century, and one of the reasons is the fact that films are a slightly corrupted artform. They fit this century - they combine Art and business! — Roger Corman
People Writing About Film Noir
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Ingmar Bergman |
80 | 896 |
 Frank Miller |
72 | 281 |
 Denis Johnson |
61 | 311 |
 Ginger Rogers |
44 | 692 |
 Angela Carter |
142 | 767 |
 Dziga Vertov |
11 | 75 |
More Film Noir Quotes
Film noir has a mood that everyone can feel. It’s people in trouble, at night, with a little bit of wind and the right kind of music. It’s a beautiful thing. — David Lynch
As the tall dark and handsome male star, Carey Grant always stands for male beauty and desirability, whether in a 30s screwball, a 40s film noir, or a 50s romantic comedy. He consequently turns around the orthodox gender between the one who looks and so desires, and the one who is looked at, and so is being desired. — Steven A. Cohen
I admire hard-bitten, wisecracking realism of Ida Lupino and the film noir heroines. I'm sick of simpering white girls with their princess fantasies. — Camille Paglia
I am grateful for what I call well-spent moments: Making a tuna fish sandwich with the works. Taking at least a half hour to eat it outside. Ironing my vintage tea towels while watching old black-and-white film noir movies and sipping one martini with extra olives - a quirky combination, but it works. — Sarah Ban Breathnach
I'm really a sucker for old, old movies. Like old film noir. I don't know. I also really enjoy independent movies. — Boti Bliss
Robert Pattinson has the face of a film-noir dupe. It's a face that is searching and open and kind. It's a face that a certain type of woman might want to fool because, in its intensely old-fashioned kindness, the face says, I love you. Fool me. — Wesley Morris
I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting! — Marie Windsor
I think the original Matrix was really incredible. It was so original and it did so many innovative things with film. It was a much bigger film. Bound was just a smaller film. It was kind of like an old noir film. — Gina Gershon
To me, the most interesting approach to film noir is subjective. The genre is really all about not knowing what's going on around you, and that fear of the unknown. The only way to do that effectively is to really get into the maze, rather than look at the maze from above, so that's where I sort of come at it. — Christopher Nolan
(In) most cop shows, every cop in the squad speaks exactly the same and the same kind of short clipped film noir-ish talk. — Rainn Wilson
I'd love to do a noir. I think Steve McQueen is so cool. But a classic film is a classic film, and perhaps the fantasy of being those characters should be left alone. You're treading on very thin ice. — Benedict Cumberbatch
There are specific times where film noir is a natural concomitant of the mood. When there's insecurity, collapse of financial systems - that's where film noir always hits fertile ground. — Werner Herzog
I never wore a single fedora filming L.A. Noire. It took about an hour and a half to do the hair - it was a very precise process. — Aaron Staton
Is there something in druggy subjects that encourages directors to make imitation film noir? Film noir itself becomes an addiction. — Pauline Kael
I am hoping to film another ad in the summer for Carte Noire. — David Ginola
When I was making these damned pictures, I never knew about film noir. If you had asked me about it then, I probably would have pointed to something like Bill Wellman's The Ox Bow Incident, the best Western I ever saw and very much in the style of film noir I don't care if it's a mystery story, a Western, or the story of Julius Caesar. To me it's the emotion, the lies, the double-cross that defines what kind of drama it is. — Samuel Fuller
Yes, to me that's one of the most compelling fears in film noir and the psychological thriller genre - that fear of conspiracy. It's definitely something that I have a fear of - not being in control of your own life. I think that's something people can relate to, and those genres are most successful when they derive the material from genuine fears that people have. — Christopher Nolan
I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze. Think of film noir and if you picture the story as a maze, you don't want to be hanging above the maze watching the characters make the wrong choices because it's frustrating. You actually want to be in the maze with them, making the turns at their side, that keeps it more exciting...I quite like to be in that maze. — Christopher Nolan
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