[please forgive cross-posting] help . . . i'm trapped in a generational bog and need help to extricate myself . . . in talking about film noir to an intro to film class i tried to evoke recognition by alluding to an almost archetypal noir moment: a single guy, perhaps wearing a trenchcoat, in a crummy hotel room alone at night; the hotel's neon sign is just outside his window blinking on and off, the light shining on him through the venetian blinds in the window; outside it is of course raining; on the soundtrack either a wailing saxophone and/or a voice over narration talking, saying something bitter and cynical on the order of "everything seemed to be swell, until . . ." this iconic moment, so often parodied, seems indelibly impressed on my [our?] cinematic memories, but to most of my students it rang absolutely no bells . . . some recognized one or another detail, but the package as a whole meant nothing [and many of them didn't even know what a saxophone was] . . . so i determined to find one or two moments from classic noirs that i could show them and that would give them this useful touchstone . . . but then, to my chagrin, i discovered that i could not off the top of my head think of a single moment in any film that really represented this scene . . . i could come up with lots of sequences that had one or two of the elements, but not a single one that gave me the whole package . . . is it possible that there are no such moments? . . . that in fact this is just a parodic pastiche of elements that never in the original films came together in quite this way? . . . i really hope not . . . . . . so i'm asking for references to sequences in films, preferably [but not necessarily] films of the forties and fifties, that embody all [or at least most] of these elements . . . all suggestions will be very much appreciated . . . thanks mike frank ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu