film noir

Cover for Decision to Leave

Decision to Leave

By Park Chan-wook
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Zachary C
Jan 9, 2023

A man is found dead at the base of a mountain peak.  Was it a suicide?  Could it be murder?  With the deceased's wife as the prime potential suspect, the investigator in charge of the case begins to tumble down a rabbit hole of obsession as he investigates her.  

The thing that makes Park Chan-wook's films so special, for me at least, is while other films employ dream sequences, or visions, or flashbacks, no other filmmaker uses them in a story without feeling a separation between real and unreal.  Using picture and sound, he somehow harnesses the subconscious in a visceral way.

Comparisons

Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews by Carl Rollyson


Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jan 8, 2013

Hollywood Enigma is a readable biography of one of Hollywood’s better, yet underappreciated male screen stars of the 1940s and 1950s. Dana Andrews was not a famous or flashy screen star in the mold of Gable, Tracy, or James Stewart, but his performances got to the heart of introspective, complex characters that probably would not have worked if he had been more famous or extroverted. Consider his performances in the Ox Bow Incident as a wrongly accused cattle thief and murderer, as confused detectives in film noir classics (Laura, Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends), or as a returning World