How Did Film Noir Inspire Celine Song's RomCom 'The Materialists'?

Tracking really well to light up this weekend's box office is Celine Song's The Materialists. Fresh off her Academy Award-nominated Past Lives, she's back with a love triangle movie set in the world of matchmaking. Song recently sat down with SlashFilm for an interview, in which she revealed some really interesting things about herself and her process. Let's dive in. - YouTube www.youtube.com As I said above, Past Lives was one of the best movies of 2023, so expectations were high for Song's next movies. But what did she take with her from that experience that translated into this one? Song said she took one main thing away, "Well, honestly, how to make a movie. [laughs] I feel like I did not know how to make a movie making Past Lives, and I feel like Materialists, I walked into it at least having made one movie. It's so holistic. And what that, of course, does is that it allows me to challenge myself more. Because I know more, so I feel like I end up asking more of myself and my team and my crew and my actors too, so I get a little greedy." One of the coolest things about Song is that it seems like she's actually lived a life before becoming a director. Including spending time as an actual matchmaker in this worked. So this story is personal and deals with things she's seen. Song said, "As a matchmaker, I was in a position where I was getting to hear — because I worked as a matchmaker for six months — I actually ended up in a situation where people were very honest. So I actually heard really the nitty-gritty, the real, the blunt. So I think in that way, that's what really informed the way that Lucy speaks, because of this amazing relief we feel when we can say the part that we are all thinking." I'm excited to see this movie and have already gotten my tickets. But I almost jumped out of my seat when I read what film genre inspired her to write this romantic comedy, as it is one of my favorites. Song expanded on this, "Well, the truth is, and I talked to my department heads and I also talked to my cast about this the whole time, but the film is actually in the structure of a noir. So I think that I really looked more to the structure of noir than anything. So it's a person in a cynical job. In the first five minutes or so, you meet the client who changes your life. You may meet the case that changes your life, and then you see how it changes your life throughout the film. There is a femme fatale. There is a police chief. There is a partner that you trust. Those are kinds of archetypes that are actually playing out in this particular cynical job, which is as a matchmaker, right? It's [also] like, the city. It's the feeling of it. And then, of course, when that transforms, there are moments where now he's falling apart in the alley. There's so many different ways that I think that the noir as a structure was something that informed us. And, of course, the noirs end [with] either you run away with the femme fatale, or you get a promotion. You run away from the law with the femme fatale, or you get a promotion. So I think in that way, those are the kind of tropes that I was actually looking to almost as much as I was thinking about the romantic comedy tropes. Where I think so much of that is about the longing, the fantasy. Some of those things are, of course, that's how you build this world of romance. But the actual hard structure of it, the archetypes of it, it's noir. [laughs]." Yes, at the core of this love triangle is film noir, I mean, if that doesn't sell you on seeing this movie, I don't know what will. Using other tropes from other genres is a really smart way to make something feel fresh and to put your own voice or spin on the material. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Jun 14, 2025 - 03:25

How Did Film Noir Inspire Celine Song's RomCom 'The Materialists'?

Tracking really well to light up this weekend's box office is Celine Song's The Materialists. Fresh off her Academy Award-nominated Past Lives, she's back with a love triangle movie set in the world of matchmaking.

Song recently sat down with SlashFilm for an interview, in which she revealed some really interesting things about herself and her process.

Let's dive in.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

As I said above, Past Lives was one of the best movies of 2023, so expectations were high for Song's next movies. But what did she take with her from that experience that translated into this one?

Song said she took one main thing away, "Well, honestly, how to make a movie. [laughs] I feel like I did not know how to make a movie making Past Lives, and I feel like Materialists, I walked into it at least having made one movie. It's so holistic. And what that, of course, does is that it allows me to challenge myself more. Because I know more, so I feel like I end up asking more of myself and my team and my crew and my actors too, so I get a little greedy."

One of the coolest things about Song is that it seems like she's actually lived a life before becoming a director. Including spending time as an actual matchmaker in this worked. So this story is personal and deals with things she's seen.

Song said, "As a matchmaker, I was in a position where I was getting to hear — because I worked as a matchmaker for six months — I actually ended up in a situation where people were very honest. So I actually heard really the nitty-gritty, the real, the blunt. So I think in that way, that's what really informed the way that Lucy speaks, because of this amazing relief we feel when we can say the part that we are all thinking."

I'm excited to see this movie and have already gotten my tickets. But I almost jumped out of my seat when I read what film genre inspired her to write this romantic comedy, as it is one of my favorites.

Song expanded on this, "Well, the truth is, and I talked to my department heads and I also talked to my cast about this the whole time, but the film is actually in the structure of a noir. So I think that I really looked more to the structure of noir than anything. So it's a person in a cynical job. In the first five minutes or so, you meet the client who changes your life. You may meet the case that changes your life, and then you see how it changes your life throughout the film. There is a femme fatale. There is a police chief. There is a partner that you trust. Those are kinds of archetypes that are actually playing out in this particular cynical job, which is as a matchmaker, right? It's [also] like, the city. It's the feeling of it. And then, of course, when that transforms, there are moments where now he's falling apart in the alley. There's so many different ways that I think that the noir as a structure was something that informed us. And, of course, the noirs end [with] either you run away with the femme fatale, or you get a promotion. You run away from the law with the femme fatale, or you get a promotion. So I think in that way, those are the kind of tropes that I was actually looking to almost as much as I was thinking about the romantic comedy tropes. Where I think so much of that is about the longing, the fantasy. Some of those things are, of course, that's how you build this world of romance. But the actual hard structure of it, the archetypes of it, it's noir. [laughs]."

Yes, at the core of this love triangle is film noir, I mean, if that doesn't sell you on seeing this movie, I don't know what will.

Using other tropes from other genres is a really smart way to make something feel fresh and to put your own voice or spin on the material.

Let me know what you think in the comments.