[FILM] Point Blank (1967)
The first 15 minutes of Point Blank are absolutely bonkers. Shots flow in and out of each other without any regard for timeline, linked only by loose thematic connections - a gruff noir voiceover gives only a vague indication as to what’s going on. The sequence doesn’t feel like a film made in Hollywood in the late 60s - it feels more like something out of the French New Wave. The rest of the film is shot in a slightly more conventional way, but there are stylistic flourishes here that set it apart in the genre. A particular highlight is a fight scene at a jazz club, where various photos of a woman’s face provide the backdrop to the violence, lit up in lurid neon tones. This is noir at its best - a dead simple story told with outrageous style.