Film Noir and Neo Noir in the Theaters
NOIR CITY Returns to
Rain City
The Film Noir Foundation brings NOIR CITY back to Seattle, February 24 through March 1 at the SIFF Cinema at the Uptown. This year's program, The Stuff Bad Dreams Are Made Of, will give noir lovers a chance discover some rarities rescued from oblivion, as well as chance to see some better known noirs the way they should be seen, up on the big screen. FNF president Eddie Muller will be there to guide the audience through the dark streets of NOIR CITY. We'll post more on the festival once the line-up is announced. Series passes are now available online.
Restored Noir Double Feature
Los Angelinos, get ready for a double shot of classic noir. The FNF's own Alan K. Rode will host the UCLA Film & Television Archive's screenings of Joseph Lewis's The Big Combo (1955) and Andre de Toth Pitfall (1948) on February 8 at the Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles. In The Big Combo, police dick Leonard Diamond (Cornell Wilde) obsessively tries to get the goods on mob boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) whose suicidal girlfriend Susan (Jean Wallace) Diamond secretly loves. In Pitfall, bored family man and insurance agent John Forbes (Dick Powell) finds himself sucked into a dangerous world of illicit sex and violence after he initiates an affair with Mona Stevens (Lizbeth Scott), who's mixed up in an insurance case that he's investigating. For program notes and ticket information visit the Archive's website.
FILM SERIES
British Noir
The Mostly British Film Festival returns to the Vogue from February 2 through 9 with 28 new and classic films from the UK, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. There is something for everyone especially Noir fans who will be treated to London Boulevard, a Neo Noir incorporating atmospheric use of color, gritty streets and a femme fatale. Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley sizzle in this San Francisco premiere. A double feature of British Noir pairs Gumshoe (1971)--a witty pastiche of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler against a background of a Britain now long faded--with Stormy Monday, a dark tale of a ruthless American businessman's attempt to buy up a block of businesses in an economically depressed part of England. You'll want to see the stars--Albert Finney in Gumshoe; Tommy Lee Jones and Melanie Griffith in Monday—embody the tenseness and anger of classic Noir. Go here for full program notes and ticket information.
African Noir at the PFA
Djo Munga's critically acclaimed Congolese neo-noir Viva Riva (2010) will return to the big screen at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive on Sunday, February 12 as part of their African Film Festival 2012. This film details, with plenty of twists and turns, the attempts of the anti-hero, Riva (Patash Bay) to both seduce femme fatale Nora (Manie Malone), the mistress of a crime lord, and to get his hands on a stash of petrol that could make him and his partner a fortune on the black market. First time director Munga also penned the screenplay. For full program notes and ticket information, visit the PFA's website.
BEYOND THE CINEMA
Worth a Second Look
Nicholas Anez's Celluloid Adventures 2: Artistic Triumph…Box-Office Bombs (Midnight Marquee Press, Inc.) presents insightful looks at films that were duds in the box office and coolly received by critics at the time, but are worthy of a critical reassessment. Each essay explores one film's production history, source material when applicable, the contemporary critical reception, and a look at the finished product, the film itself. Included in the book are three examinations of film noirs, all of which performed badly in the box office, but are now considered classics of the genre, André De Toth's Pitfall (1948), Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place (1950), and J. Lee Thompson's Cape Fear (1962).
Above, the cover of the current issue of the Film Noir Foundation's quarterly electronic magazine, NOIR CITY (formerly the NOIR CITY SENTINEL). For extended coverage of the FNF's screenings, festivals, and other activities as well as articles on noir-related events, film reviews, and more, subscribe to our quarterly electronic magazine, NOIR CITY. Start by adding your name to our mailing list and then making a donation to the FNF of $20 or more. Peruse samples of our articles here.
Keep Us Posted!
Keep us posted on noir news and events in your area! Email Anne Hockens, Film Noir Foundation news and events editor.
The Film Noir Foundation can be found on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. If you haven't signed up, maybe you should. Maybe you'll meet someone who will betray you and leave you for dead on the internet. At the least, you'll have access to a vast repository of noir posters and photos.
In Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011), an enigmatic Hollywood stunt driver (Ryan Gosling) also moonlights as a wheel man. When he accepts an offer to drive during a million dollar heist, a miasma of greed and betrayal soon engulfs him. Critics compared Gosling existential anti-hero to the likes of those portrayed by Clint Eastwood, Steven McQueen and Alain Delon. It's now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both formats include five behind the scenes featurettes. The Blu-ray also includes a UV copy and special BD-Live content.
In Alain Corneau's sleek thriller, Love Crime (2010), ruthless executive Christine (Kirstin Scott Thomas) exploits and manipulates her more inhibited assistant, Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). When Christine feels betrayed by Isabelle, she viciously turns on her. At first, it seems she will destroy the younger woman. However, the events that follow reveal Isabelle's previously hidden, and rather remarkable, ferocity and cunning. As with most French thrillers, a desire for logic will only spoil your fun. The film is now available on DVD (no Blu-ray) from MPI Home Video. Sadly, the only extra on the DVD is the film's trailer.
Rowan Joffe's 2010 adaption of Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton Rock makes some notable changes from the book as well as from John Boulting's 1947 big screen version. Joffe keeps the same basic story, a sociopathic gangster (Sam Riley) romances an innocent tea shop waitress (Andrea Riseborough) to silence her knowledge about a murder he committed. However, this version moves the story to 1964, when Brighton was overrun by warring Mods and Rockers. Joffe also alters the motivations and back story of Ida (Helen Mirren), the woman determined to find the killer. It's currently available on DVD (no Blu-ray) from MPI Home Video. Bonus features include the trailer, a featurette, a behind the scenes feature, and interviews with cast and crew.
MGM has finally released Blue Velvet (1986) on Blu-ray and it's about time. Back when David Lynch was a genius, he created this neo-noir about a small-town boy back from college (Kyle MacLachlan) who gets sucked into the dark world festering in the heart of his home town. Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper play his underworld guides. Laura Dern plays his Beatrice. The extras include: newly discovered lost footage; Mysteries of Love documentary; the original Siskel & Ebert review; vignettes; trailer & TV spots; and outtakes.
Turner Classic Movies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have teamed up to release a new line of DVDs as part of the TCM Vault Collection. The series kicked off with the Humphrey Bogart Columbia Pictures Collection, and, in collaboration with the FNF, Film Noir Classics III. Both sets comprise full restored and re-mastered Columbia noir titles previously unreleased on DVD. The Bogart set consists of Love Affair, Tokyo Joe, Knock on Any Door, Sirocco and NOIR CITY 7 fan favorite, The Harder They Fall.
The Noir Classics set includes the rare and wonderful noir The Burglar (1957) (Dir. Paul Wendkos), featuring Dan Duryea and Jane Mansfield, adapted by David Goodis from his own novel. The other films on the set are My Name is Julia Ross, The Mob, Tight Spot, and Drive a Crooked Road. Both sets are available exclusively at TCM’s online store.
The critically acclaimed Congolese neo-noir Viva Riva is now available on DVD from Music Box Films. This film details, with plenty of twists and turns, the attempts of the anti-hero, Riva (Patash Bay), to both seduce femme fatale Nora (Manie Malone), the mistress of a crime lord, and to get his hands on a stash of petrol that could make him and his partner a fortune on the black market. First time director, Djo Munga also penned the screenplay. Sadly, the DVD has no extras and the film is not available on Blu-ray.
Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956), scripted by the renowned pulp writer Jim Thompson, features both one of the best heists in film and one of the best portrayals of men undone by their own fears and illusions. The film comprises notable performances by Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Marie Windsor and
Elisha Cook Jr. The new Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions feature a high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack.
Special features include: new video interviews with producer James B. Harris and film scholar Robert Polito; excerpts of French television interviews with actor Sterling; a restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss; and a new video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien. The booklet includes a reprinted interview with actress Windsor and essay by film historian Haden Guest.
In 1963 Akira Kurosawa adapted one of Ed McBain's bestselling 87th Precinct novels, Kings Ransom. Re-titled High and Low, the film resets the novel from a fictional American big city to Tokyo, but retained the same story and class conflicts. Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune), a wealthy shoe manufacturer, finds himself facing a devastating moral dilemma. A kidnapper (Tsutomu Yamazaki) has taken his chauffer's son, mistaking him for the industrialist's. He demands a cash ransom, the exact amount that Kingo just raised for a hostile takeover of another company. So it's the boy's life or the corporate coup. Available on Blu-ray for the first time on July 26 from 
In Robert Aldrich's apocalyptic film noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955), a vain and corrupt Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) fights to solve the murder of a beautiful hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman) with a mysterious connection to the Mob. The newly restored 
Criterion brings newly restored high-definition digital transfers of two Sam Fuller classics to DVD and Blu-ray. First, Constance Towers stars as a prostitute trying to go straight in The Naked Kiss (1964). She must overcome her past, hidden perversity and small town hypocrisy. Extras include: a video interview with Constance Towers; excerpts from the BBC’s The South Bank Show (1983); two interviews with Fuller from French television; the original theatrical trailer; and illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World).
A desperate press agent (Tony Curtis) stoops to new depths to help an egotistical columnist (Burt Lancaster in an emotionally repugnant, but brilliant, performance) break up his sister's romance, in Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Suitably noirish cinematography by James Wong Howe and an acidic script by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman combine with an excellent cast to deliver a remarkable film. Criterion’s release on DVD and Blu-ray boast a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition. Extras include: audio commentary by film scholar James Naremore; two 
documentaries- Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away (1986); and James Wong Howe: Cinematographer (1973); a video interview with film critic and historian Neil Gabler; a video interview with filmmaker James Mangold and the original theatrical trailer. The supplementary booklet includes an essay by critic Gary Giddins; two short stories and notes on the film by Ernest Lehman; and an excerpt from Mackendrick’s On Film-making.
In Shock Corridor (1963), a reporter (Peter Breck) fakes insanity to investigate a murder committed in an asylum. While there, he meets a variety of inmates including a group of menacing nymphomaniacs and a black man who’s a white supremacist. Extras include a new video interview with co-star Constance Towers, excerpts from the documentary The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera (1966); the original theatrical trailer; and illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes. 
COLLAPSE
Now available from Amazon on demand, Andre de Toth's Pitfall (1948) plays effectively with noir expectations, leaving the audience to savor some unexpected twists. Dick Powell stars as a married insurance executive who strays when he meets a beautiful dame, Mona Stevens (Lizbeth Scott). When her thieving boyfriend and a private dick (Raymond Burr), who's obsessed with her, enter the picture, things get even seamier.
In Robert Siodmak's The File on Thelma Jordon (1950), Barbara Stanwyck plays Thelma who, as Miss Stanwyck is wont to do, seduces a married Assistant District Attorney (Corey Wendell) and pulls him into her dangerous world of crime. After he manipulates a trial to save her from prison, Thelma's boyfriend, a jewel thief, reenters the scene. Things, of course, go badly. Artiflix is now offering this rare film noir on demand, in the DVD-R format, via Amazon.com.
The Warner Archive is now offering two tense film noirs by director Andrew L. Stone, Julie (1956) and Cry Terror! (1958). The first features Doris Day as the eponymous heroine, a stewardess stalked by her psychotic estranged husband (Louis Jordan) whom she suspects murdered her first husband. The second thriller stars James Mason as a an electronics experts manipulated by an old army buddy (Rod Steiger) into making a bomb. He soon finds himself embroiled in a blackmail plot and his family held hostage by psychopaths.
+ MORE WARNER ARCHIVE RELEASES
The Warner Archive has released three more RKO film noirs. First up, Richard Fleischer's Follow Me Quietly (1949). Flesicher called it "the film that, above all, increased my knowledge of the trade. I learned how to organize a film." A cop (William Lundigan) hunts for an elusive strangler, who only strikes on rainy nights. Future noir master Anthony Mann co-wrote the screenplay. 
Next, Charles McGraw stars as Killer Red Kluger in Felix E. Feist's The Threat (1949). His performance in the film earned him a seven-year contract with RKO. Red breaks out of jail, kidnaps the three people he holds responsible for his death penalty conviction and takes them to his Mohjave Desert hideout. He plans a suitably sadistic end for each victim, a cop (Michael O'Shea), the D.A. (Frank Conroy) and an ex-girlfriend (Virginia Grey). 
Last but not least, two noir icons, Charles McGraw and Robert Mitchum, go to war in Tay Garnett's One Minute to Zero (1952). An idealistic young UN official (Ann Blyth) discovers the horrors of war when she falls for Colonel Steve Janowski (Mitchum), the officer in charge of evacuating citizens from Korea. McGraw co-stars as a tough as nails infantry sergeant serving under Janowski. 
The Warner Archive has made available on demand Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach (1947). A shell shocked coast guardsman (Robert Ryan) falls for a married woman (Joan Bennett) trapped in a loveless marriage to a renowned artist that she accidently blinded during a drunken fight. He begins to suspect that her husband (Charles Bickford) may actually be able to see. The noir trappings of the story overlay a solid marital drama. 
Michael Curtiz's The Breaking Point (1950) faithfully retells the story of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. Charter-boat skipper Harry Morgan (John Garfield) will do anything to save his boat from creditors, even smuggle illegal aliens. Things get ugly when he attempts to double cross a gangster that hires him to spirit away a group of thieves hot off a racetrack heist. Patricia Neal co-stars as the sultry moll who tries to seduce the married Morgan. The Warner Archive has made this rarely seen noir available 
Available from the 
Warner Brothers has added two Fritz Lang film noirs to their Archive Collection. First, an all star cast headlines Lang’s While the City Sleeps (1956). While three editors (George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell and James Craig) vie for control over a multi-media news company, a serial killer is terrorizing the women of their city. The new owner of the conglomerate (Vincent Price) decides that whoever can uncover the identity of the killer, can run the company. Ace newspaper reporter Edward Mobley (Dana Andrews) neglects love for duty while ferreting out the guilty man for his editor. Ida Lupino, Rhonda Flemming and Sally Forrest admirably fill out the female side of the story.
The second Lang feature offered by the Warner Archive is Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). A newspaper owner, Austin Spencer, persuades his future son-in-law, writer Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) to frame himself for the recent murder of a stripper by using circumstantial evidence. At the last minute, Spencer will save him from conviction, by providing evidence of his innocence, proving the fallibility of the judicial system. Spencer plans to use the near miscarriage of justice to launch a campaign against the death penalty. After successfully setting himself up for the killing, fate steps in and Garrett finds that he’s unable to prove himself innocent after all. Will he die for a crime he didn’t commit?
The Warner Archive 
Joseph Losey's 1951 noir masterpiece, The Prowler, is finally available on DVD from VCI. The source of the digital transfer is the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s restoration, funded by the FNF and the Stanford Theatre Foundation. The lonely wife (Evelyn Keyes) of a nighttime DJ falls for the beat cop (Van Heflin) who responds to her report of a prowler. Unknown to her, he finds a murderous way to get rid of the husband. The extras include a "Making of..." documentary; audio commentary by the FNF’s Alan K. Rode and Eddie Muller; a documentary about the FNF's preservation partnership with UCLA ; Bertrand Tavernier’s video critique of the film; the theatrical trailer; and an interactive version of the film's press book. Order now!
Neo-noir meets nuclear physics in Tony Krantz's The Big Bang (2011), a post-modern riff on Murder, My Sweet with a little Kiss Me Deadly thrown in for good measure. A boxer fresh out of the big house hires L.A. private eye Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) to find his old flame. The missing person case takes him through the seediest parts of the city and Ned soon finds himself embroiled in a plot to recreate The Big Bang in New Mexico. Extras on the Blu-ray and DVD release from Anchor Bay include: filmmakers' commentary, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and extended scenes. 
Norman Foster's Woman on the Run (1950) is also available from Artfilx on demand. Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) desperately searches for her husband, the only eyewitness to a gangland murder. She fears that their troubled marriage may be the real reason he fled. She wants not only to persuade him to cooperate with the police, but also to be treated for a dangerous heart condition. She enlists the help of newspaperman, Danny Leggett (Dennis O'Keefe) to track him down. Can she find him before it is too late? Shot on location in San Francisco and Carmel by cinematographer Hal Mohr. 
If you want to watch a good gangster film, turn to the French. Vincent Cassel's often over the top acting style works perfectly for his portrayal of legendary bank robber Mesrine in director Jean-François Richet's eponymous four hour epic. Mesrine successfully pulled off thirty two heists and escaped from four high security prisons during his criminal career. The audacious robber was popular with the press and even managed to publish his autobiography, L'Instinct de Mort, while in prison. The film played theatrically into two parts: Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008) which covers 1956-1969 and Mesrine: Public Enemy (2008) which covers 1972-1979. The DVDs and Blu-rays, from Music Box Films Home Entertainment, include a making of documentary. Street Date: February 22 for Killer Instinct and March 29 for Public Enemy.
David Michôd’s exceptional Animal Kingdom (2010) proves once again, if you want a good neo-noir, turn to the Australians. Young Joshua, James Frecheville in an impressive debut, moves in with his grandmother and his three uncles after his mother overdoses. His grandmother, Jacki Weaver in one of the greatest performances this year, ferociously loves her bank robbing sons, including the increasingly paranoid Uncle Pope (Ben Mendelsohn). Joshua must learn to adapt if he is to survive in his ruthless extended family. Special Features on the Sony Classics DVD and Blu-ray include: a director’s commentary track; a "Making of" featurette; and a Q&A with David Michôd, Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville.SITE DESIGN:Ted Whipple/Incite Design / HEADER PHOTO: David M. Allen