‘Noir Town’: Jordan Peele and Janelle Monáe Reimagine Hitchcock With A Woman Of Color in the Lead Role
Zack Sharf
Jordan Peele was quite vocal about his intentions to subvert classic thrillers like “The Stepford Wives” in “Get Out,” and he’s up to something similar in a new project for W Magazine titled “Noir Town.” The publication asked the Oscar-nominated filmmaker to direct a fashion photo shoot, so he decided to call up his friend Janelle Monáe and create a story that subverts the Alfred Hitchcock noir by casting a woman of color in the lead role.
The photo spread tells the story of a private detective (Monáe) who is standing in a clock tower watching a parade unfold on the street below. The detective is searching for clues to a murder, but as she looks through her camera and studies the crowd she begins to notice one of the bystanders looks exactly like her. The identical stranger is one of many who begin to appear through the detective’s lens.
“I wanted to create a Hitchcock moment that doesn’t really exist in a Hitchcock film,” Peele explained about the project, which pulls from titles like “Vertigo” and “Psycho” but tells the story through a women of color. Peele handpicked Monáe for the lead and also insisted W Magazine hire a female photographer, Collier Schorr.
“I didn’t want the Hitchcock heroine,” Peele said. “I wanted the Hitchcock hero. That way, we can reclaim this movie that we never got to see. The fear of gender and race robs us of beautiful pieces of film…Putting Janelle in that character is all you need to create my new favorite movie.”
You can see the entire “Noir Town” photo shoot by heading over to W Magazine’s website.
@JordanPeele reinvents the Hitchcock heroine, with the help of @JanelleMonae in “Noir Town” for W magazine: https://t.co/YEeCaHL0kp pic.twitter.com/q4CxEvrzVt
— W magazine (@wmag) February 20, 2018
