The Perfect Sleep

Continuing with the "Noir" theme, here is a film that has all the trappings of a noir, but puts its own unique spin on it. Yes, it has the "tough-as-nails" hero, the voluptuous femme fatale, and the sinister mastermind, but it also has this rather wry humor about it--at least that's what I can gather from the trailer:



You have to love the casting of Patrick Bauchau as the heavy. That voice is too damn cool and his smoldering style of menace is perfect for the mood of the film. There is a surreal visual style being employed that doesn't exactly adhere to "noir" form, but I think this fits the apparent intention of the story. Like all noir films, there is a sense of menace and underlying atmosphere of dread; however, The Perfect Sleep also seems to have a revenge element that creates an air of uncertainty for all the characters whereas in a classic noir this sense of uncertainty hangs over the head of the protagonist alone. Add to this the notion that the standard combat motif is not guns but martial arts and you certainly have something worthy of interest. The filmmakers' description of the film is no less heady and fanciful:

Think of the hard-boiled world of film noir: the world of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, a world of femme fatales, a world of shadows. Now imagine this world populated with characters from tragic Russian novels like those by Dostoevsky: tormented figures suffering through harsh circumstance. This unique world provides the foundation for the dark and vivid dreamscape of “The Perfect Sleep.”

You can find more at the official MySpace page for the film here.
Do yourself a favor and check out the "Do Not Go See the Perfect Sleep" version of the trailer.