Category: Hammett

My 100 Favorite Films…Probably

On December 1, 2022, Sight and Sound Magazine released the results of its decennial Greatest Films of All Time Critics’ Poll (“SS Poll”). The key result is that Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles dethroned Vertigo as the “greatest film of all time.”[1] Vertigo had itself dethroned Citizen Kane 10 years earlier. I … Continue reading My 100 Favorite Films…Probably →

Matt Berger A Night at the Opera, Alfred Hitchcock, Back to the Future, Charlie Chan, Data collection, David Lynch, Double Indemnity, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Film, Film Noir, Hammett, L.A. Confidential, Marx Brothers, Measurement, Murder on the Orient Express, My life, Neo Noir, Otto Preminger, Robert Siodmak, Sidney Lumet, Statistical reasonsing, Thank God Its Friday, The Cotton Club, The Maltese Falcon, The Public Eye, The Sure Thing, Times Square, Woody Allen 3 Comments January 14, 2023January 23, 2023 23 Minutes

I Never Wrote the Most Important Story I Ever Wrote, Part 2

Part 1 of this essay may be found here. I cannot remember exactly when I first saw Hammett. By which I mean, when I first watched the second half of the 1982 film, a fictional account set in 1928 San Francisco, just before the eponymous writer published his first novel. One night, while I was … Continue reading I Never Wrote the Most Important Story I Ever Wrote, Part 2 →

Matt Berger Ann Arbor, Dashiell Hammett, Depression, Hammett, Interrogating Memory, My life, Philadelphia, Relationships, Romance, Valentine's Day, Writing 10 Comments May 31, 2022June 8, 2022 12 Minutes

Crafting the “Soundtrack” to my Interrogating Memory book

In 2005, Rupert Holmes published his second novel, a murder mystery called Swing. Being, well, Rupert Holmes, he also wrote and recorded an accompanying seven-track CD of swing-inflected music; both are well worth finding. The combination, meanwhile, led him to quip, “I’ve been singing songs from my new book.” In the past month, I received … Continue reading Crafting the “Soundtrack” to my Interrogating Memory book →

Matt Berger Bee Gees, Charlie Chan, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, David Lynch, Fiddler on the Roof, Film Noir, Genesis, George Gershwin, Hammett, History, Interrogating Memory, Jazz, Jerry Goldsmith, Jesus Christ Superstar, Judaism, L.A. Confidential, Mark Isham, Miles Davis, Music, My life, Neo Noir, New Wave, Noir City Film Festival, Pale of Settlement, Peter Gabriel, Philadelphia, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, Romance, Roxy Music, Rupert Holmes, Talking Heads, The Beatles, The Cars, The Hooters, The Public Eye, Times Square, Twin Peaks, Yale University 9 Comments January 22, 2022March 25, 2022 26 Minutes

Grappling With the Instinctive – and Unnecessary – Fictionalization of History

I recently watched Michael Mann’s Public Enemies for the first time since its 2009 theatrical release. Based on Bryan Burrough’s excellent 2004 book of the same name, it narrows the focus of the sprawling book to the cat-and-mouse game played by bank robber John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis, special agent in charge of the Chicago … Continue reading Grappling With the Instinctive – and Unnecessary – Fictionalization of History →