And I did see at least a portion of what Ms. Leslie wrote to you--you aren't as disciplined at "protecting reputations" as what you seem to think is the case!
As for the assertion that I've never shown the updated method since then, you are mistaken: there are several examples of this still available here, should you care to examine the Board's back pages.
With respect to REPEAT PERFORMANCE, the evolution of the method for the "noir-o-meter," a good bit of which was undertaken to correct for the interpretive deficiencies that accompany the "hard-boiled paradigm," has produced a revised score that reflects the fact that the film is clearly in the "melo-noir" region on the several diagrams I've linked to here regarding the "character continuum" in film noir.
Since in the past you've attempted a takedown of individual noir elements in the method, I see no reason to provide you with more ammunition for what seems to be some form of "noir jihad" by revisiting each and every element at this time.
What is most important for you and anyone else who is concerned about the details/efficacy of the method to understand is that the ratio between the elements that represent the "hard-boiled" (crime) aspects of noir and those that stem from "melodrama" (romance, psychology, social alienation short of overt crime) can be measured for each of the major components--and in the grouping of elements that examine the characters in a film, the method allows for a measurement of how "hard-boiled" or "melodramatic" the character interaction is.
When this is done for REPEAT PERFORMANCE, the level of "hard-boiledness" for the character interaction grades out at 49, which is markedly below the average for all the films that have been scored in the "noir-o-meter" database--nearly 1500 titles. (The average score, BTW, is 89--it's below 100 because, as the "noir-o-meter" data demonstrates, the "melodrama" elements are actually stronger in noir than the "hard-boiled" elements: the MELO rate for all the films in the database is 114.)
The reason why REPEAT PERFORMANCE doesn't also have an extremely high MELO score (it's 121: above-average, but not remarkably high) is that, unlike most other melo-noirs, it opens with a murder; that plot point creates a fatalism or dread that permeates the film even as it quickly reverts to a more markedly melodramatic set of actions. In other melo-noirs, the possibility of violence takes much longer to manifest itself, and, in some cases, doesn't rise to the level of murder/assault at all, but (as in the case of a melo-noir like THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS) proceeds to a moment where the alienated protagonist attempts to take his/her own life. These two types of narratives must necessarily produce a significantly different score for "sense of fatalism"; the high score that clearly applies to REPEAT PERFORMANCE affects its overall MELO rate without directly affecting the details of the film's ongoing character interactions (and, thus, the "character interaction" score).
Those who care to examine a more recent application of the "noir-o-meter" are invited to look at an entry at my occasional blogsite NOTW: selections from the Blackboard which looks into the hard-boiled/melo relationship in nine films adapted from the works of Cornell Woolrich. You can find that here:
https://bboardnotw.blogspot.com/2021/03/cornell-woolrich-and-noir-o-meter.html
The writeup does not go into the gory details of the elements themselves, however, as it was intended to make a point about Woolrich's material in contrast to those of the other "classic noir writers" with whom he's often included (Hammett, Cain, Chandler, Burnett).
Dan, I'm sorry that whatever combination of circumstances--including this sudden "efflorescence" of ill will on your part--has kept you from seeing some interesting films at the Roxie in the ongoing MIDCENTURY MADNESS series, where we did commit "sacrilege" by showing a "heist film" (PLUNDER ROAD) this past weekend, which was followed by films of much greater psychological complexity (Croatia's H-8... and Germany's EPILOG and MANY PASSED BY). The good news for both you and me is that the audience knew that EPILOG was much more profound in its layers of noir than the entertaining but ultimately limited PLUNDER ROAD. And in the times we live in, even a tiny amount of good news is a good thing.
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