Cult,what is CULT?

Cult,what is it all about? The term 'cult' was originally used to describe a group of people who worshiped a deity.
But later on, some people began to use new terms 'new religious movement' to describe most of the groups that had come to be referred to as 'cult'.

Max Weber (1864-1920), one of the first scholars to study cults.
Next,what about a cult film?
A cult film is characterized by its active and lively communal following.

Highly committed and rebellious in their appreciation, cult audiences are frequently at odds with cultural conventions – they prefer strange topics and allegorical themes that rub against cultural sensitivities and resist dominant politics.

Cult films transgress common notions of good and bad taste, and they challenge genre conventions and coherent storytelling.

Among the techniques cult films use are intertextual references, gore, loose ends in storylines, or the creation of a sense of nostalgia.

Often, cult films have troublesome production histories, coloured by accidents, failures, legends and mysteries that involve their stars and directors.

In spite of often-limited accessibility, they have a continuous market value and a long-lasting public presence.

    A cult film is defined through a variety of combinations that include four major elements:

• Anatomy: the film itself – its features: content, style, format, and generic modes.
• Consumption: the ways in which it is received – the audience reactions, fan celebrations, and critical receptions.
• Political Economy: the financial and physical conditions of presence of the film – its ownerships, intentions, promotions, channels of presentation, and the spaces and times of its exhibition.
• Cultural status: the way in which a cult film fits a time or region – how it comments on its surroundings, by complying, exploiting, critiquing, or offending.

We do not propose that all of these elements need to be fulfilled together. But we do suggest that each of them is of high significance in what makes a film cult. 
The Anatomy of Cult Film

     
It's midnight somewhere! "Cult movie" is a hard thing to pin down.
Here are some examples of the greatest cult movies of all time:

1. Barbarella (1968)

The first R-rated comic-book movie stars Jane Fonda as a planet-hopping secret agent who has trouble keeping her clothes on. It was directed by Fonda's then-husband, Roger Vadim, who must have seen it as an opportunity to spend nine million dollars' of producer Dino De Laurentiis' money just to tell every ticket-buying man in the world, "Eat your heart out!" — P.N.

2. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

James Whale's sequel to his own 1931 Frankenstein is the wildest and greatest of all the classic Universal horror movies, and, with Ernest Thesiger's high-camp performance as the misanthropic mad scientist, an early Hollywood landmark of coded gay sensibilities. — P.N.

3. Brazil (1985)

Terry Gilliam's Brazil is the arguably the best (unofficial) movie version of Orwell's 1984 ever made, and certainly beats the pants off every official version. The movie only became more legendary, and more dear to the hearts of its cultists, thanks to Universal Pictures' attempts to geld it; their "happy ending" version is hilarious precisely because it looks as if it had been re-edited by Brazil's propagandist villains. — P.N.

4. The Brood (1979)

David Cronenberg redefined the possibilities of the horror movie as a vehicle for personal film making with this, his first great movie. Samantha Eggar plays a woman who becomes so successful at channeling the rage she feels towards her parents, her estranged husband, and others, that she literally births a series of monsters that brutally attack whoever she's mad at. Cronenberg, who conceived the film while going through a divorce, calls it his version of Kramer vs. Kramer. — P.N.

5. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Russ Meyer's best-known (and least breast-obsessed) exploitation classic is the kind of fantasy that most people would only put on film if they already had plans to burn the negative before any respectable people could get a look at it. The first twenty minutes — featuring freelance dominatrix babes racing their sports cars in the desert and killing anyone who looks at them funny — are like a drive-in movie from Mars. What happens after that? I'm not sure. I usually just watch the first twenty minutes again. — P.N.

References from http://www.nerve.com/movies/the-fifty-greatest-cult-movies-of-all-time?page=2
For my opinion, cult plays an important role not just in our life,but also in film.
I hope that more directors could find more about 'cult' in order to produce more cult movies so that people can get more knowledge about cult.
People or audience like us too may watch more these kind of movies in order to expose cult movie to the world.

Noir Art

First of all,what is noir? I was confused when first time I hear the word 'noir'.
Then,I did so many researches about noir,so,here is my understanding about noir.
According to Dictionary,Noir showing characteristics of a film noir,in plot or style.It also means that having the characteristics of film noir; tough and bleakly pessimistic. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/noir

Baiscally,noir contains of top 5 elements.And also please remember noir can be found in any media, be it art, literature, film, video-games, or comics, it's there.

1. The Seedy Underworld

The setting of any great noir piece is the filthy underbelly of the polished public. This place is filthy, grimy, bleak, and often deranged. Expect steaming sewer grates, torrential downpours, second-hand-smoke, and nefarious characters. Crime thrives here, and its perveyors are brutally corrupt and extremely adept. Sadly, these roads are lined with condemned buildings labeled 'hope,' 'faith,' and 'charity.'

2. The Anti-Hero

The main character of the noir genre is at best despicable. We are fascinated with his/her moral ambiguity and glaring flaws while hiding our disgust with the same. Dangling from this character's lips is the tell-tale cigarette and the greasy tendril of smoke tickles the street lamp above. Usually this character's life is at stake, and this is almost always due to their own poor choices. We quietly root for him/her and cringe when the baseball bat or crowbar beats their brow bloody.

3. Femme Fatale

A secret ingredient that adds spice and variety to any noir is the femme fatale. She is sultry, sexy, and manipulative. Her power over the main character is unmistakable and she gently leads him along to meet her own ends. Elegance of speech and brutal double crossings as common as lipstick stains on wine glasses and discarded lingerie. She is deadly, untrustworthy, and 9 times out of 10 the villain.

4. Misogyny

Throughout the genre of noir, there seems to be a fairly steady stream of misogyny. I'm not suggesting that this "dame-hating" is always aware of itself or that it's a conscious decision by the noir creators, but it rears itself very consistently in each piece. Women are the villains, the burdens, and the childish fools that merely tolerated by the hero. Also the women are always "male-defined." Their behaviors, attitudes, and appearance are constantly pandering to a male audience. I assume that this must be incredibly frustrating for female audiences (it frustrates me and I'm a male). As a result of these male definitions, noir seems to always focus on beautiful women with low sexual standards and no depth of character (other than where it serves plot). Recently I've read that there are some female authors who have reversed the roles in modern noir novels. I hope to read some of them soon so I can report back my findings.

5. Redemption

Another theme that has presented itself in my studies is that of redemption. In noir, the detective always arrives after the tragedy has taken place. He is plunged into a world of chaos, where something whole was just shattered (murder, rape, violence, etc.). His job is completely consumed with trying to redeem the unredeemable. Think Batman. Bruce Wayne is haunted by the murder of his parents. He decides to seek vengeance for the rest of his life by "righting" all the wrongs in Gotham. The only catch is that his task is impossible. He cannot change the fact that his parents are dead, nor can he completely succeed in purifying Gotham. He can' t win. The only measure of success he achieves is through putting as many pieces back together as he can. In this way we (the audience) are lead to believe that something has actually been redeemed. We feel better about the injustice when we know how or why it happened, even though it still occurred. Dean DeFino calls this "illusions of order" and "intellectual control." He says that "the story redeems that sense of order and control by (fictionally) exposing its logic, its cause-and-effect chain, how one thing leads to another."

References from http://noirwhale.com/category/noir-definition/

Furthermore, the light,shadow,and dramatic cinematography play a vital role in a completed noir work.

In this picture,we can see that there's lighting on the man and woman,it just made the picture looks more interesting.


In this picture,it focus more on the shadow.

References from https://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=600&q=noir+picture+shadows&oq=noir+picture+shadows&gs_l=img.3...1366.10269.0.10355.28.13.0.15.0.0.169.1067.10j3.13.0....0...1ac.1.30.img..17.11.830.FLMo7SvCdlE#imgdii=_

The basics of lighting for flim Noir.

Where The Sidewalk Ends 1950 Dana Andrews/Gene Tierney

This is what I understand about Noir,hope you will like it! :)