Noga Erez – "Nails" (2022)

Bump a b*tch

Flesh pieces in my nails

The Murderer Lives at Number 21 – the original title is L’assassin habite au 21 – is a 1942 French movie directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.  (Clouzot’s best movie was The Wages of Fear, a 1953 thriller that I saw in college.  It was one of the first foreign films I ever watched, and I’ve never forgotten it – I challenge you to name a more tense and harrowing movie.)

The Murderer Lives at Number 21 has been described as a “crime comedy.”  The breezy tone of the movie is somewhat reminiscent of that of The Thin Man, the famous 1934 Hollywood movie that featured a nonchalant husband-wife team who spent most of their waking hours mixing martinis and flirting with one another, but still found time to help the police solve the odd murder.

The plot of The Murderer Lives at Number 21, which involves a serial killer who seems to have the ability to kill in two – or even three – places at once, is quite clever.  It culminates in a very satisfying surprise ending that I didn’t see coming at all.  

But while the movie is ostensibly about an investigation into multiple murders, it’s first and foremost a comedy.  There’s lots of banter between the police detective who’s charged with solving the crimes and his ditzy girlfriend.  (Suzy Delair, who was director Clouzot’s petite amie at the time the movie was made, was terrific as the girlfriend.)

The following scene between the detective and girlfriend really threw me:

Can you think of another movie – much less a sophisticated French classic – that features an extended blackhead-squeezing sequence?

*     *     *     *     *

From the Cleveland Clinic’s website:

It can be very tempting — and satisfying — to squeeze out or pop blackheads. However, squeezing out blackheads can create several problems:

– You may not remove the entire blackhead.  You may even push the blackhead further into your skin, which can cause painful irritation.

– You may introduce bacteria or more oil into the blackhead opening.  Your blackheads could get bigger or even spread.

– Your skin is sensitive, and your nails are much stronger than your skin. When you use your nails to apply a lot of pressure to your skin to remove a blackhead, you can irritate or seriously damage your skin.

But if you absolutely must have a go at a blackhead – either yours, or a friend’s – click here before you start squeezing. 

*     *     *     *     *

You might be wondering what inspired me to watch an obscure old foreign movie like The Murderer Lives at Number 21 in the first place.

That’s a very good question, and I’ll endeavor to answer it in the very next 2 or 3 lines.

In the meantime, enjoy “Nails,” which was released in 2022 by the Israeli recording artist Noga Erez.  An excerpt from that record was featured on the soundtrack the Netflix series, Big Mistakes, which is one of the more interesting TV series I’ve seen recently.  Had it not been for the fact that I watched Big Mistakes, I almost certainly would have never heard “Nails,” and my life would have been much poorer as a result.

Click here to listen to “Nails.” 

  

Click here to buy “Nails” from Amazon.