The Bloody Olive: A Wickedly Fun Homage to the Film Noir Tradition

Short­ly after fin­ish­ing film school, the young Bel­gian direc­tor Vin­cent Bal shot The Bloody Olive (1996), a 10 minute film based on a com­ic book by the French artist Lewis Trond­heim. It was an instant hit, win­ning over 20 awards at film fes­ti­vals world­wide. Want­i­ng to keep things spoil­er-free around here, let us just say this: the short film pays a fun lit­tle trib­ute to the film noir tra­di­tion — its aes­thet­ic, con­ven­tions and all of the rest.

For more film noir fun, don’t miss Key Lime Pie, a 2007 ani­mat­ed film in the noir tra­di­tion, or our col­lec­tion of 31 Free Noir Films. The noir col­lec­tion fea­tures clas­sics by John Hus­ton, Elia Kazan, Fritz Lang, Ida Lupino, Otto Pre­minger, Orson Welles and oth­ers. You can find great clas­sics from oth­er gen­res with­in our list of Free Movies Online.