Jacques Tourneur
Out of the Past

It was the French critics, always ready to uncover the dark soul of American cinema, who coined the term "noir" to define a genre that, between the '40s and '60s, populated screens with stories of unsolved crimes, disillusioned and/or alcoholic private investigators, and of course, femmes fatales.

But noir is not just a plot; it is an atmosphere. It stands out for being:

• More stylized and dreamlike than a simple detective story,
• More ambiguous than an erotic film without being explicit,
• Ruthless, yet without the bloodshed of the horror genre,
• Certainly devoid of any sentimentality in the depiction of love stories.

In short, noir is a pleasure for connoisseurs, a sophisticated genre that lends itself to multiple variations, as in the case of Blade Runner, a sci-fi noir that transfers its tropes to a rainy and decadent future.

If you love rankings, you should know that Out of the Past (1947) is often cited among the best films of the genre, alongside Double Indemnity (1944). It's a pity about the Italian titles: Le catene della colpa and La fiamma del peccato, which seem stolen from third-rate romance novels, in contrast with the detachment of the original versions.

Out of the Past boasts the quintessential noir icon, Robert Mitchum, as Jeff Markham, a former private investigator trying to start anew in the peaceful Bridgeport, running a gas station and dating Ann, a "good" girl. But as every good noir teaches, the past is never truly behind, and sinister figures from Jeff's past arrive, led by a young and unsettling Kirk Douglas as Whit Sterling, an ambiguously affable mob boss.

The femme fatale is not absent, and she is the stunning Kathie (Jane Greer), a woman as lethal as she is irresistible, who has the little flaw of having shot Whit and stolen $40,000. The first meeting between Jeff and Kathie, in an Acapulco inn, is pure noir magic: Kathie literally emerges from the darkness, "out of the darkness" as Jeff says, a detail that does justice to the original title but is lost in dubbing.

The film unfolds in two parts: in the first, narrated in flashback, Jeff tells his story to Ann, revealing his past as an investigator tasked with tracking down Kathie. In the second, the classic complications of a respectable noir plot: Jeff, now trapped, is forced by Whit to carry out the classic "final mission" destined to fail.

The most original element of Out of the Past is its rural setting, an intriguing variation from the usual urban backdrop. However, the atmosphere remains typical of the genre: endless nights, oppressive fatalism, and the awareness that, no matter how much you try to escape, the past always prevails. After all, we are still in a noir: there's no escape.

Directed by French-American director Jacques Tourneur, born in Paris in 1904 and moved to the United States at just ten years old. Cat People (1942) is another of his most renowned films. Fun fact: both Out of the Past and Cat People were remade in the '80s, but with decidedly inferior results. Out of the Past became Against All Odds (1984), directed by Taylor Hackford, while Cat People was remade with the same title in 1982, directed by Paul Schrader.

Available on RaiPlay with decent dubbing.