CALIFORNIA NOIR
Noir classics from The Golden State - New, old, and unexpected!
Director: Billy Wilder
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Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck
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Runtime: 108 min., USA
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Language: English
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DOUBLE INDEMNITY 1944
Has dialogue ever been more perfectly hard-boiled? Has a femme fatale ever been as deliciously wicked as Barbara Stanwyck? And has 1940s Los Angeles ever looked so seductively sordid? Working with cowriter Raymond Chandler, director Billy Wilder launched himself onto the Hollywood A-list with this epitome of film-noir fatalism from James M. Cain’s pulp novel. When slick salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) walks into the swank home of dissatisfied housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck), he intends to sell insurance, but he winds up becoming entangled with her in a far more sinister way. Featuring scene-stealing supporting work from Edward G. Robinson and the chiaroscuro of cinematographer John F. Seitz, Double Indemnity is one of the most entertainingly perverse stories ever told and the standard by which all noir must be measured.
Friday, November 1
Sunday, November 3
INHERENT VICE 2014
In this Oscar-nominated adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon neo-noir novel, stoner private eye Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix, in an industrial-strength mullet) winds his way through three interrelated cases in 1970 Los Angeles after an ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) turns up at his door. Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, and Martin Short round out the amazing cast.
Saturday, November 9
Sunday, November 10
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson​
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Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin​
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Runtime: 148 min., USA
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Language: English
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THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI 1948
Baffling murders, fascinating plot twists and remarkable camera work all contribute to this spellbinding, time-honored film noir written, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Hired to work on a yacht belonging to the disabled husband of femme fatale Rita Hayworth, Welles plays an innocent man drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue and murder. The subject of great controversy and scandal upon its initial release, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI shocked 1948 audiences by presenting Hayworth with her flaming red hair cut short and dyed champagne blonde. Decades later, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is considered vintage Welles, his famous hall of mirrors climax hailed as one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history.
Friday, November 15
Sunday, November 17
Director: Orson Welles​
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Starring: Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane​
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Runtime: 92 min., USA
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Language: English
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EXPERIMENT IN TERROR 1962
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by Blake Edwards’ hyper-stylish and genuinely disturbing thriller about a master criminal who coerces a young woman (Lee Remick) and her teenage sister (Stefanie Powers) into helping him pull off a complex bank job. With Glenn Ford as the harried FBI man who tries to put a stop to it. This film is a virtual blueprint for David Lynch’s noir inflected work: the music, the angles, the performance styles, and more. (AFS)
Friday, November 22
Sunday, November 24
Director: Blake Edwards​
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Starring: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers​
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Runtime: 115 min., France
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Language: French w/ English subtitles
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WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT 1988
Zemeckis’s wondrous riff on Chinatown, set in 1940s Hollywood, features utterly convincing, Oscar-winning special effects mixing animation and live-action and a layered, sophisticated screenplay. Using the long-festering feud between Tinseltown’s animated toons (who exist in this world as real actors) and its flesh-and-blood humans as a clever metaphor for industry racism, the film follows private dick Eddie Valiant (a remarkable, very game Hoskins), who finds himself falling deeper into danger by reluctantly protecting and defending big-time star Roger Rabbit, who’s been accused of murder. Visually extravagant yet written with a sharp eye for small details, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the rare blockbuster that’s also a quirky, personal, movie-mad homage, and it works brilliantly on every level. (Museum of the Moving Image)
Saturday, November 30
Sunday, December 1
Director: Robert Zemeckis​
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Starring: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy​
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Runtime: 104 min., USA
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Language: English
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