Film Noir and Neo Noir in the Theaters
FILM SERIES
Femme Fatales to the Fore
The femme fatale is at the forefront of the Pacific Cinematheque’s Annual Film Noir Series being held in Vancouver, Canada. The women in this year’s film series actually fall in a variety of places across the moral spectrum: from Barbara Stanwyck’s downright evil Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilders’ Double Indemnity (1944) to Gloria Grahame’s victim turned avenger Debby Marsh in Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953). Then there’s Lana Turner’s Cora in Tay Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) who needs to be a "hellcat just this once." Complete series information for the festival, which runs August 11 through September 3, can be found at the Cinematheque’s website.
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Film Noir, Now in 3-D!
The New York Film Forum will offer a rare chance to see a couple of 3-D film noirs this August. Gangster Edmond O’Brien has to battle amnesia and his prior associates after a botched operation to cure his criminal nature in Lew Lander’s Man in the Dark (1953). Also featured in their Classic 3-D series is Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954) starring Ray Milland as an embittered husband who plots to kill wife Grace Kelly. Also on tap in the series, Roy Ward Baker’s Inferno (1953) featuring noir stalwart Robert Ryan as a cuckolded husband stranded in the desert by his wife and her lover. Full program notes for the series can be found at the Forum’s website.
Noir or Not?
Ah, the eternal question: what exactly is film noir? Programmer Elliot Lavine returns to the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco with a selection of genre melding films that explores that ongoing debate. The series includes everything from Don Siegel’s darkly paranoid sci-fi classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), to Brian De Palma’s twisted riff on Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), Obsession (1976) starring Cliff Robertson as a wealthy industrialist who seemingly discovers his late wife’s doppelganger. There are also a couple of guest curators along the way. Peter Conheim will screen a double feature of “western noirs”: Andre DeToth’s Day of the Outlaw (1959) starring perennial noir favorite Robert Ryan; and Joseph H. Lewis’ Terror in a Texas Town starring the equally iconic, Sterling Hayden. Johnny Legend will contribute a night of rare treats: a pre-Saw torture porn classic, James Landis’ The Sadist (1963) shot by legendry cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond, as well as the Rod Serling penned The Town That Turned to Dust (1958), an episode from the critically acclaimed fifties anthology television series, Play House 90, directed by John Frankenheimer. Check out a complete schedule for Not Necessarily Noir, showing August 20 through September 2, here.
Getting Her Due
Actress, writer, independent film producer, and director. Nope, not Barbara, not Jodie, but Ida, she was there first. New York’s MOMA pays tribute to Ida Lupino’s diverse career in front of and behind the camera with their film series, Ida Lupino: Mother Directs, screening August 26 through September 20. Series highlights include two of her finest acting performances. First, she plays George Raft’s obsessed stalker in Raoul Walsh’s truck driving thriller, They Drive By Night (1940). Second, she gives a touching performance in Nicholas Ray’s masterpiece, On Dangerous Ground (1951), as the blind sister of a psychologically disturbed killer who falls for the burnt out cop, Robert Ryan, pursing her brother. The series also spotlights Lupino’s contributions to independent film production. She often tackled women’s social issues in her films, for example, unplanned and out of wedlock pregnancy in Not Wanted (1949) or the consequence of rape on the psyche of the victim, in Outrage (1950). Check out MOMA’s site for the complete line-up and program notes.
ARTHOUSE
Southern Neo-Noir
In Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone (2010), a young woman desperately searches for her missing father when he misses a court date, risking the family’s property which he has put up for bail. She travels through the underbelly of the Meth drug culture pervading the Ozarks with the help of her ruthless uncle. The film is adapted from the novel by the contemporary noir writer Daniel Woodrell. Check out the official site to see where it’s playing in your neck of the woods.
BEYOND THE CINEMA
Philly Noir
Artist Mark Khaisman works in an unusual medium, painting with tape. He layers packing tape onto acrylic panels which are then placed on a light box. The resulting images have the depth and feeling of film. Typically the pieces hang as a set. Most of the pieces are inspired by different images from popular culture, among them images from film noir. Check out Gallery Two and Gallery Three at his official website to see two of his noir inspired works.
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The Warner Archive has recently made John Brahm’s psychologically driven film noir The Locket available on demand. A psychiatrist, Brian Aherene, tries to convince a millionaire that his future bride, Laraine Day, is really his mentally unstable ex-wife, Nancy. As he tells his tale to the soon to be groom John, he reveals that he himself had received a similar visit by an artist, Robert Mitchum, shortly after his marriage to Nancy. Is he telling the truth or is it the paranoid delusion of a mad man? Who should be trusted?
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the brilliant Australian neo-noir The Square (2008) on August 24. Nash Edgerton’s film begins with a simple film noir plot, a pair of adulterous lovers plots to run off together. And take the illicit stash of cash belonging to the woman’s criminal husband with them. However, the film then takes turn after turn after turn, hurtling the protagonists and everyone else around them to their inescapable fate. The film will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Extras will include three featurettes as well as stunt coordinator turned director Nash Edgerton’s impressive directorial debut- the short film Spider.
Chanel 4’s griping adaptation of three of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet novels makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray on August 31. Julian Jarrold‘s Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974, James Marsh’s Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 (2009), and Anand Tucker’s Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 (2009) detail the corruption of the Yorkshire police department in the years surrounding the infamous Ripper murders which occurred between 1975 and 1980. Distributor MPI has not announced any extras for the discs.
A low level crook, John Cassavetes, seeks revenge on the mob after they cross him by plotting a Casino heist in Giuliano Montaldo’s Machine Gun McCain (1969), available on DVD and Blu-Ray August 24 from Blue Underground. Britt Ekland co-stars as McCain’s new bride and willing accomplice. The supporting cast includes long time Casasavetes’s collaborators Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk. Academy Award winning composer Ennio Morricone provide the score. Extras include an interview with the director, as well as the Italian and English language trailers.
Recently Released
VCI has released Russell Rouse’s classic film noir New York Confidential (1955), Broderick Crawford stars as a ruthless mobster who brings in an enforcer, Richard Conte, to restore discipline in the ranks. Things get complicated when Conte falls for Crawford’s daughter, played by Ann Bancroft. The DVD was digitally re-mastered and restored from the original negative. The bonus features include audio commentary by FNF board member, film historian and author Alan K. Rode and film writer, Kim Morgan.
July 27th marked the DVD release of three film noir classics from Olive Films. First off, Charlton Heston’s film debut, William Dieterle’s Dark City (1950). Heston plays a sucker hunting down the three guys who ripped him off in a poker game. Next, Alan Ladd stars in Lewis Allen’s Appointment with Danger (1951) as postal inspector who goes undercover to find a murderer. Lastly, Rudolph Maté’s Union Station (1950) unwinds the tale of a secretary, Nancy Olson, who tries to convince the Union Station’s top cop, William Holden, that her boss’s blind daughter has been kidnapped.
The international hit film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been released in the US on DVD and Blu-ray. Based on Stieg Larsson's international best seller, and directed by Niels Arden Oplev, the film details the investigation of a wealthy girl's decades-old disappearance by an intrepid but recently besmirched journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played by Michael Nyqvist. His reporting prowess is complimented by the wizardly computer research skills of the titular character, mysterious hacker Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Rapace. Viewers should be forewarned: the film depicts scenes of intense–and arguably gratuitous–sexual violence against women. The Music Box Films Home Entertainment release includes interviews with star Noomi Rapace, director Niels Arden Oplev, and The Vanger Family Tree.
Italy’s award-ladened thriller The Girl by the Lake (2007) makes its American DVD debut in July from MPI. Andrea Molaioli’s thriller follows a detective, Toni Servillo, as he investigates the murder of a young woman in a small town in Northern Italy. As with all small towns around the world, everyone living there has something to hide. It’s based on an international bestseller, Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novel Don’t Look Back.
Joon-ho Bong’s critically acclaimed thriller, Mother (2009) made its debut on DVD and Blu-ray on July 20 from Magnolia Home Entertainment. The devoted mother of a mentally disabled son descends into the corrupt underworld lurking beneath her village to clear him from a charge of murder. Would it kill Magnolia to put some effort into their DVD releases and include some extras?
The fine folks at Warner’s are bringing out Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5 on July 13. A small warning: not all of the films in the set are true film noirs, but rather genre pictures with noirish aspects. This set includes: Edward Dmytryk’s Cornered (1945); Anthony Mann’s Desperate (1947); Phil Karlson’s The Phenix City Story (1955); Harold Clurman’s Deadline at Dawn (1946); Richard Fleischer’s Armored Car Robbery (1950); Don Siegel Crime in the Streets (1956); Gerald Mayer’s Dial 1119 (1950); and Vincent Sherman’s Backfire (1950). The only extras are trailers for Dial 1119 and Cornered.