The Postman Always Rings Twice

To get to nordic noir you need to start with film noir (french called) but America called it melodrama.  Tainted with death of war and unknown peace. I was rhapsodizing on the Garfield film when I broke out this: "As I watch these noir films a from 55-65 years ago, it's hard not to laugh at first, but is this not also true in contemporary noir-like crime drama?  Cliches raised to an art form, and language so clipped, and jagged at times it approaches self-parody. But I don't see this as a knock on these films, what I more and more understand as "a profound triteness."  Humanity in all its diversity and nuances reduced into a few basic tropes of need, passion, love, desire and greed, creating an inescapable matrix--this dark levelling, which nonetheless never changes us.  We continue as do the characters, to believe in our own decency and dreams, to struggle to escape a fate that we/they know is impossible, and this is when the melodrama envelops us all in a descent that is overwhelming, but also enchanting, and seductive, and erotically and passionately charged.  That which is most primal in us is last to die or surrender.  And if to reach that level requires envisioning the collapse of all social mores, order and distinction, so be it for at least the two hours or less of the filmic experience.