Seriously, it's difficult to imagine a better title for a film noir than Edith Carlmar's Death Is a Caress (with the possible exception of Takashi Nomura's 1967 Joe Shishido vehicle, A Colt Is My Passport). Not only is Death Is a Caress the first Norwegian film directed by a woman, it's also considered the first Norway's first film noir. The pervasive sexuality reminds me of Marlene Dietrich's famous observation that, "In America sex is an obsession, while in Europe it's a reality." It feels more like a character study of two obsessive, tortured souls than a true crime-driven film noir, although there is a murder at the end, but there is so much about the film that would genuinely qualify it for that vague category of film noir. It stars Bjorg Riiser-Larsen (who is wonderful) as a tortured rich woman and Claus Wiese as her younger mechanic lover, and their passionate and destructive relationship drives the narrative. Riiser-Larsen is considered one of the greatest Norwegian actresses of all time, while Wiese, oddly, ended up moving to the US and working in local TV stations and owning the Norseman Inn in Bethel, Maine. Carlmar directed ten films in a ten year period, and then retired as a director (introducing Liv Ullmann to the world in her last movie). Recommended. It's playing on the Criterion Channel right now as part of the Nordic Noir collection (and why don't you have the Criterion Channel?).
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