Coffee and Noir: IN A LONELY PLACE
every scene of coffee in noir films - 001
The title of this Substack comes from two things I love to make and consume, both involving rotes and ritual, which I take soul-dark and no sugar, machinations evolving over the years while base ingredients and effects remain the same.
I love the connection so much a coffee siphon serves as not mere decoration but also a weapon in my first short, a noir called The Lilith Necklace.
In an effort to live up to said title, I’m cataloging coffee-making scenes in noir; these (niche?) posts will probably comprise the bulk of this Substack as more of my film and TV analysis migrates to our Shot Zero project.
I agonised only briefly over what should be the first entry . . .
In A Lonely Place is noir about a Hollywood writer, starring one of the most famous men ever who embodied Sam Spade and Philip Marlow alongside one of the most conflicted femme fatales to grace the screen, making coffee in the most convoluted, beautiful way possible.
From “who said anything about rushing into anything? I thought maybe if you gave me an answer, say in the next ten seconds . . .” to the steam rising from the very-really-boiling siphon coffee, everything is on the edge of bubbling over.
This isn’t even the most famous noir involving Gloria Grahame and boiling coffee, but no way was my kickoff entry involving overt violence against a woman (even if it was the scene which inspired my own), so The Big Heat will be my second entry.
Stay tuned.