NOIR NIGHTS
Femme Fatales & Fedoras: Film Course
Showtimes | 5:00pm
Film noir, what critic Roger Ebert once called “the most American film genre,” is known for low-key lighting as dark as a killer’s heart, camera angles more skewed than a gumshoe’s moral compass, and weaving plots as convoluted as was to circumvent the production code.
Join us for a film series of dimly lit alleys, ambivalent motivations, and hapless, hard-drinking men and women who would just as soon kill you as love you.
Your Subscription will Include:
Entry to all 6 film screenings, insightful pre and post film discussions with film professor, Dr. Mocha J. Herrup, popcorn, and a soft drink.
Upcoming Film
February 23
CHINATOWN (Roman Polanski, 1974)
A classic noir shot in broad daylight, updated for the Watergate generation, Polanski’s thriller stars Jack Nicholas as a private eye uncovering corruption in 1930s Los Angeles, a desert town where water equals power. For his richly intricate screenplay, Robert Towne researched historic power struggles over the water supply to Los Angeles, creating in tycoon Noah Cross – played by old-guard film director John Huston – one of cinema’s most disturbing villains.
The Nights
February 23
CHINATOWN (Roman Polanski, 1974)
A classic noir shot in broad daylight, updated for the Watergate generation, Polanski’s thriller stars Jack Nicholas as a private eye uncovering corruption in 1930s Los Angeles, a desert town where water equals power. For his richly intricate screenplay, Robert Towne researched historic power struggles over the water supply to Los Angeles, creating in tycoon Noah Cross – played by old-guard film director John Huston – one of cinema’s most disturbing villains.
April 13
LAURA (Otto Preminger, 1944)
NYPD detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is called in to investigate the brutal murder of the Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), a Manhattan advertising executive who is murdered just before she is set to marry her playboy fiancé (Vincent Price). Under the spell of the beautiful Laura’s portrait, the detective finds himself falling in love with the dead woman. This Preminger classic noir greatly influenced David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and its story of a detective hauntingly fascinated by a woman named Laura.
June 22
TOUCH OF EVIL (Orson, Welles, 1958)
With its story of murder, marijuana and police corruption, Touch of Evil is considered among the last of the 1940s/50s cycle of crime thrillers known as film noir. Welles’ vivid turn as corpulent bent cop Quinlan provided one of the genre’s most memorable villains. Charlton Heston (starring here as Mexican border cop Mike Vargas) was apparently instrumental in persuading B-movie producer Albert Zugsmith to hire Orson Welles – who hadn’t directed in Hollywood for a decade – to make the film.
March 23
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Double Indemnity was one of the original handful of cynical American thrillers which, when released en masse in France after the war, gave rise to the term film noir. This shady cycle often featured treacherous women (femmes fatales) duping guileless men. Few of these were more alluring than Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), who ensnares policy salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) in her scheme to do away with her husband and claim the insurance payout.
May 18
IN A LONELY PLACE (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
The emotionally charged In a Lonely Place is a brilliant, turbulent mix of suspenseful noir and devastating melodrama, fueled by the powerhouse performances of Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Graham. An uncompromising tale of two people desperate to love yet struggling with their demons and each other, this is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, and a benchmark in the career of the classic Hollywood auteur Nicholas Ray.