Blast of Silence

One thing that really stuck in my craw (in a good way) was being told that I was "holding back" during my two public appearances at NoirCon. I was doing that, definitely. Some of it was due to my modesty, and not trying to upstage people. Some of it was due to the early morning of my panel discussion. And some was that I was truly holding back.

Most of what I wanted to say about BLAST OF SILENCE was found in the NoirCon program book, which is close to my review for Detour-Mag.com. The print shown was no print at all -- it was a digital projection of the new Criterion DVD release (available April 15, 2008). It was a gorgeous transfer. Sadly, I'm getting used to and even enjoying digital projection, even over film at times. What I would have liked to have gone into more was spotlighting the similarities between Baby Boy Frankie Bono and Travis Bickle.

I would have also followed up on Eddie Muller's comments about BLAST not being the "last of the film noirs" but the first in another cycle. I tend to agree with him. BLAST is really more of a neorealist piece, or more along the lines of the French New Wave. It's funny to see how much the French and Americans were on the same page, even if they weren't directly speaking to each other via their films. Budgetary constraints surely lead to a lot of the stylistic conventions that already had been shaped by noir's early Poverty Row days.