Decadence and the Necrophilic Intertext of Film Noir: Nikos Nikolaidis’ Singapore Sling

Abstract

An erudite, inveterate cineaste, dedicated auteur and provocateur, Nikos Nikolaidis (1939–2007) became one of the most distinctive and uncompromising voices of Greek and world cinema. Singapore Sling: Ο Άνθρωπος που Αγάπησε ένα Πτώμα [Singapore Sling: The Man Who Loved a Corpse] (1990) is his chef d’œuvre, a bold, independent film that has acquired cult status internationally. The film is an elitist shocker that, as the exotic cocktail of its title suggests, blends genres and styles: black comedy, Grand Guignol, splatter horror, Gothic melodrama, tragedy, and, most of all, film noir. In fact, classic film noir is not only referenced but is the very skin that gives form and shape to Singapore Sling. This is a film whose narrative and visual motifs rely on allusions to other films. Shot in lush black and white, it is a quasi-prequel and tempestuous cinematic love letter of sorts to Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944) that also gestures towards Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950). Its exquisitely photographed, polished, and highly baroque mise en scène is replete with heavy furnishings, bibelots, objets d’art, vintage costumes, fabrics, and ostentatious jewellery. Its materiality blends with a fetishistic presentation of the female body in gorgeous, tactile textures and a geometry of dramatic contours. Its ambience of Gothic luxury and decay recalls Norma Desmond’s mansion in Sunset Boulevard and even Paul Mangin’s mansion in Terence Young’s debut feature, the noirish Gothic melodrama, Corridor of Mirrors (1948).