IFFLA 2015

Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

APRIL 8-12, 2015 - ArcLight Hollywood

Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30 pm - Opening Night Gala

HARAAMKHOR - Directed by: Shlok Sharma - 90 min
Innocent young love is put on a collision course with the messy reality of budding adulthood in Shlok Sharma’s unforgettable feature debut. Young student Kamal is infatuated with his 15-year-old classmate Sandhya, and together with his best friend Mintu devises countless imaginative schemes to win her affection. But Sandhya has a troubling infatuation of her own: she is carrying on an affair with her teacher, Shyam (another masterful performance by Nawazuddin Siddiqui). When the two young boys catch on to this illicit arrangement, events are set into motion that could lead to tragedy for all involved.

Thursday, April 9 at 7:30 pm

MISS INDIA AMERICA - Directed by: Ravi Kapoor - 93 min
Recent Orange County high school graduate Lily has it all figured out. She’ll become a doctor like her father, marry her longtime boyfriend Karim, have children, and live happily ever after. When Karim deviates from Lily’s plan by leaving her for the reigning Miss India National, for the first time in her life, Lily doesn’t know what to do. But that quickly passes when she sets sight on a new goal: becoming Miss India National herself!

Thursday, April 9 at 7:45 pm

TITLI - Directed by: Kanu Behl - 124 min
Born into abject poverty, Titli, the youngest of three brothers, takes a bride without telling her about his patriarchal family’s criminal life. However, after the bride refuses to consummate their marriage, another secret unravels: her longstanding illicit affair. Desperate to break free from the only existence he has known, Titli—meaning “butterfly”—orchestrates a dubious plan to leave home, grappling with the choice between intergenerational loyalty and an uncertain future on his own. Hard life lessons are not to be learned in the hallowed halls of school, but rather in the jagged boundary lines of his slum.

Thursday, April 9 at 9:30 pm

FOUR COLORS (CHAURANGA) - Directed by: Bikas Ranjan Mishra - 88 min
Bikas Ranjan Mishra announces himself as a powerful new voice in Indian cinema with his debut feature, an intricately designed portrait of a rural Indian village slowly poisoning itself. Based on true events, Mishra’s film takes a critical look at the village’s patriarchal power dynamic and the unjust caste system that tragically condemns a young boy simply for writing a love letter.

Friday, April 10 at 7:00 pm

LABOUR OF LOVE - Directed by: Aditya Vikram Sengupta - 84 min
Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s lyrical portrait of one day in a married couple’s life began its festival run with a win for Best Debut Director in Venice, and has since become one of the most celebrated Indian films on the international circuit.  With his  debut feature, Sengupta displays the bold vision and masterful control of an auteur.

Friday, April 10 at 7:15 pm

SHORTS 1

Friday, April 10 at 9:15 pm

KILLA - Directed by: Avinash Arun - 105 min
Forced to leave the family home in Pune because of his mother’s work, young Chinu struggles to fit in with the kids in the coastal countryside of Konkan. Smart, quiet, and still mourning the death of his father, Chinu befriends some boys at school after sharing his answers in math class. Meanwhile, his mother also bends the rules in order to get by in her new surroundings. Soon both find change and friendship are never quite as easy as they seem.

Friday, April 10 at 9:30 pm

JAI HO - Directed by: Umesh Aggarwal - 85 min
While his two Oscar wins for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE officially introduced A.R. Rahman to American audiences, he had been a household name for fans of Indian film and music the world over for nearly two decades. For the first time, composer, singer-songwriter, and producer Rahman opens his life and story for the screen. From humble beginnings to a career that includes more than 120 film scores, Rahman talks about his work and life experiences in unprecedented personal terms.

Preceded by TWO (1964) - Directed by: Satyajit Ray - 12 min
Commissioned by US public television to make an English language film in a Bengali setting as part of a trilogy of Indian films, Satyajit Ray chose instead to forego any dialogue in this eloquent fable which is filled with gripping dramatic tension and fierce emotion.

Saturday, April 11 at 1:00 pm

ELIZABETH EKADASHI - Directed by: Paresh Mokashi - 90 min
In the village of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, a precocious little street preacher named Dnyanesh and his younger sister Zendu proudly stroll through the streets with their prized possession: a gleaming yellow bicycle they’ve named ‘Elizabeth.’ Though neither child has grown tall enough to actually ride Elizabeth, they pamper her and keep her close as a reminder of their late father, who handcrafted the bicycle especially for them. The kids live in poverty with their mother and grandmother and hard times strike when the bank repossesses mom’s knitting machine – the family’s sole source of income. When it looks as if Elizabeth must be sold in order to reclaim the machine, Dnyanesh and Zendu sneak out to the streets and devise a plan to raise the money on their own.

Saturday, April 11 at 2:45 pm

TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR - Directed by: Jim Goldblum and Adam Weber - 84 min
For nearly 50 years, some 3000 Indian street and folk artist families have lived in the colony of Kathputli in Delhi. Surrounded by overcharged construction changing the face of India’s capital, the slum has fallen into the grasp of developers eager to build towering luxury apartments and a mall. Now, some of the country’s most talented puppeteers, magicians, acrobats, and performers of traditional arts are facing not only the destruction of their homes, but the loss of a way of life that has been passed down for generations.

Saturday, April 11 at 3:15 pm

THE CROW'S EGG - Directed by: M. Manikandan - 99 min
Director M. Manikandan’s debut feature is at once a charming, bittersweet family film and a stinging satire of corporate misbehavior, all drawn from the simple tale of two brothers who just want to have their first taste of pizza. The boys – known as Little Crow’s Egg and Big Crow’s Egg (named after the snack they pluck daily from a nearby tree) – become infatuated with the tasty-looking dish when a new restaurant opens nearby, constantly barraging them with tantalizing advertisements. But the boys live in the Chennai slums with their struggling mother and aging grandmother and the cost of pizza is far more than they can afford.

Saturday, April 11 at 5:30 pm

SHORTS 2

Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 pm

ONE CRAZY THING - Directed by: Amit Gupta - 90 min
Former television star Jay is haunted by the sex tape that destroyed his life and turned his unknown actress girlfriend into an A-list Hollywood celebrity. Following his rise to fame on a popular soap opera and then plunge to viral notoriety because of the scandalous tape, Jay now cowers in obscurity as the manager of his family’s Indian restaurant in London. His acting career is nonexistent, his family is irredeemably disgraced, and he constantly fears being recognized by any of the millions of viewers of his very public mistake. When Jay falls for the exciting and artistic Hannah, an American musician studying in London, he realizes he must confront the errors of his past, rather than hiding from his future.

Saturday, April 11 at 8:00 pm

AMMA & APPA - Directed by: Franziska Schönenberger and Jayakrishnan Subramanian - 89 min
Franziska, a Bavarian German woman working as a journalist in India, and Jayakrishnan, a young Tamil artist, met in Mumbai and fell in love. Soon they were engaged and eager to spend their lives together, but a major hurdle stood in their way: Jay’s traditional parents, who were determined to arrange a marriage for their son. The young couple decides to document Franziska’s first visit to Jay’s home in Tamil Nadu and so we have AMMA & APPA, a delightfully funny and keenly observed documentary about the changing nature of love and marriage in today’s world.

Saturday, April 11 at 9:30 pm - Bollywood by Night

TAAL - Directed by: Subhash Ghai - 179 min
While visiting Himachal Pradesh with his wealthy father, London based Manav meets Mansi, the daughter of a traditional folk singer. With some perseverance on Manav’s part, the two fall in love. Despite his promise of marriage, the difference in social status between the families is not easily overcome. After a particularly humiliating visit to Mumbai, Mansi calls off the romance. A chance meeting with Vikrant, a famous music producer, shoots Mansi to international fame. Yet Manav patiently waits, insisting the two will one day be united in marriage.

Sunday, April 12 at 12:30 pm

REPEAT SCREENING

Sunday, April 12 at 2:00 pm

SECRET SCREENING (only for passholders)

Sunday, April 12 at 3:00 pm

TIGERS - Directed by: Danis Tanović - 90 min
Ayan is a frustrated pharmaceutical salesman in Pakistan who can never get his doctor clients to prescribe his products because they are from local manufacturers and not from the ubiquitous multi-national brands. Newly married and eager to build his career, he finally gets hired by a prominent Western company looking to gain a bigger foothold in the country by selling baby formula. Through his salesmanship and drive, Ayan builds his network and reputation in the company. However, it all comes crashing down when a doctor shows him the real cost of his product to the families that use it.

Sunday, April 12 at 6:00 pm - Closing Night Gala

DHANAK (RAINBOW) - Directed by: Nagesh Kukunoor - 103 min
Fresh from his award-winning premiere at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival, Nagesh Kukunoor arrives at IFFLA with this stunning tale of a brother and sister who embark on a journey across Rajasthan in an attempt to meet the great Shah Rukh Khan. Pari is the responsible older sister to Chotu, a high-spirited blind boy on the brink of his ninth birthday. Chotu wants nothing more than to have his vision back and Pari — inspired by a message she sees on a Shah Rukh Khan poster — promises him he’ll get it before his birthday arrives. When the two learn that Shah Rukh Khan is filming only a few hundred kilometers from their village, they sneak away from home and set out to meet the superstar.

Iranian Cinéma 2015

UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinéma

April 25 - May 16, 2015

Billy Wilder Theater

Leila Hatami in What's the Time in Your World?

The UCLA Film Archive is pleased to once again explore the diverse currents of Iranian cinema with its annual series highlighting recent and classic films from Iran and the Iranian diaspora. In the wake of Asghar Farhadi’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar win for A Separation in 2011, the depth and breadth of Iranian cinema today continues to amaze even as the challenges faced by its filmmakers remain of concern. While established masters continue to make their unique voices heard, including writer-director Rakhshan Banietemad, whose award-winning Tales opens this year’s series, newer filmmakers continue to captivate. Farhadi’s influence can be felt in a number of outstanding, tightly-wound contemporary dramas by emerging directors (Melbourne, I’m Not Angry), while others are charting radically different paths visually and narratively (Fish & Cat, 316).  It’s a heady mix that makes this a particularly fascinating moment to be surveying the landscape of this always invigorating national cinema. As in recent years, it is anticipated that some filmmakers will appear in person to discuss their work.

Saturday, April 25 at 7:30 PM

 

Tales (قصه‌ها) - Director: Rakhshan Banietemad - 91 min
Co-writer-director Rakhshan Banietemad’s return to fiction filmmaking, greeted with the Best Screenplay award at Venice, is a tour-de-force portrait of a people and a society at the breaking point.  In a series of interlocking short stories, Banietemad takes up the lives of characters from some of her previous films Gilenah (2005), The Blue-Veil (1995) to find them still struggling for some degree of personal freedom and dignity.  The film’s pervading sense of despair makes it all the more poignant when some do manage to find it, even if in fleeting glimpses in the night.

Sunday, April 26 at 3:00 PM

 

I'm Not Angry! (!عصبانی نیستم) - Director: Reza Dormishian - 110 min

The title of director Reza Dormishian’s second feature echoes the prescribed mantra given to Navid (Mohammadzadeh) by his psychiatrist (along with antidepressants) to recite when events feel overwhelmed.  For Navid, a university student expelled for political activity, however, his explosive rage has deeper sources.  Jarring in tone and visually arresting, I’m Not Angry captures the seething frustrations of a generation with a blunt frankness that led to its being pulled from competition at the Fajr Film Festival.

 

Sunday, April 26 at 7:00 PM

 

 

 

Fish & Cat  (ماهی و گربه) - Director: Shahram Mokri - 134 min

Selected for New Directors/New Films in 2014, Fish & Cat heralds the emergence of a fresh and original new voice in Iranian cinema.  Shot entirely in a single, black and white bravura camera take, writer-director Shahram Mokri’s second feature plays mind-bending games with time and place while a pair of potential serial killer cannibals stalk a group of camping students at a lake.  Thoroughly creepy, but never (really) gory, Fish & Cat reveals an absurdist, apocalyptic edge in the end that suggests more the influence of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, than American horror films.

 

Monday, April 27 at 7:30 PM

 

 

My Name is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns 

(من نگهدار جمالی  وسترن میسازم) - Director: Kamran Heidari - 65 min

Utterly unexpected and thoroughly charming, director Kamran Heidari’s debut documentary about an amateur filmmaker in southwestern Iran explodes preconceived notions and illuminates the universal power of popular culture.  Since he was a teen, Negahdar Jamali has obsessively made low-budget westerns modeled on his idols John Ford and Sergio Leone in the arid plains surrounding his hometown of Shiraz.  Ignored by the official film ministry and harangued by his long-suffering wife, Jamali perseveres with a dreamer’s passion.

 

Friday, May 1 at 7:30 PM

 

 

 

Today (امروز) - Director: Reza Mirkarimi - 88 min 

Iran’s official submission for Oscar consideration this year, writer-director Reza Mirkarimi’s tense, powerful drama unfolds over a single day in a hospital maternity ward after a taciturn cab driver allows himself to be drawn into the personal crisis of a distraught woman who jumps into his backseat.  Mirkarimi keeps his character’s true motivations obscured at every turn as circumstances shift, suspicions mount and the hypocrisy of certain social and cultural taboos are exposed.

 

Saturday, May 2 at 7:30 PM 

 

Red Carpet (رد کارپت) - Director: Reza Attaran - 80 min 

One of Iran’s most famous comedians, Reza Attaran takes on Hollywood and the international media in this, ultimately, gentle satire set against the real glitz of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.  Attaran himself plays a naive, struggling actor who journeys from Tehran to film’s annual epicenter to get his screenplay to Steven Spielberg.  While the film is shot in the style of Borat (2006)—sans the crassness—Attaran’s escalating comic provocations render him more like a Persian Rupert Pupkin.

 

Wednesday, May 6 at 7:30 PM  

 

 

What's the Time in Your World? (در دنیای تو ساعت چند است؟) - Director: Safi Yazdanian - 101 min 

 

Leila Hatami stars as Goli, a woman who returns to her hometown after decades living abroad to find a strange amnesia clouding her memory.  She is met at the airport by Farhad (Ali Mosaffa), a mysterious local merchant she does not know, but who seems to know everything about her.  He becomes her empathetic guide to the transformed town as well as her own past leading her on a journey of self-discovery suffused with romantic melancholy.

 

Friday, May 8 at 7:30 PM  

 

 

Red Rose (گل سرخ) - Director: Sepideh Farsi - 87 min

Paris-based writer-director Sepideh Farsi ingeniously employs a single setting to dramatize the vicissitudes of political idealism in intimate and deeply personal ways.  As the Green Revolution explodes around him, Ali, a damaged veteran of protests decades ago, holes up in his apartment but events come to him when a young woman seeks shelter from the police.  He lets her in and, over the days and weeks of unrest to come, they start an intense, dangerous, high-wire relationship that challenges them both in unpredictable ways.

 

Sunday, May 10 at 7:00 PM  

 

 

316 (۳۱۶) - Director: Payman Haghani - 72 min

Just as Amelie (2001) assumed its heroine’s unique perspective to speak to the general nature of France and Frenchness, writer-director Payman Haghani (A Man Who Ate His Cherries) reflects on recent Iranian experience through one woman’s singular passion for shoes.  As she recalls her life in voiceover, from a childhood interrupted by revolution and war, through adulthood, motherhood and old age, Haghani fills the screen with playful, inventive, striking images framed entirely around people’s footwear.  The result is as beguiling as it is moving.

 

Preceded by Pink Nail Polish (لهستانی ناخن صورتی) - Director: Zhinous Pedram - 6 min

Slowly, cautiously, with a mounting anticipation, a young girl makes her way out into world in director Zhinous Pedram’s lovely, beautifully shot paean to the adventure of girlhood.

 

Friday, May 15 at 7:30 PM  

 

 

Melbourne (ملبورن) - Director: Nima Javidi - 91 min

Writer-director Nima Javidi’s remarkable debut feature opens as a young couple in Tehran prepares for an imminent trip abroad.  A patient accumulation of familiar detail—the hurried list checking, the small annoyances of packing—hints at their hopeful expectations for the future, which would seem to include the baby sleeping in their back bedroom.  Then everything turns upside down.  Before we know it, Javidi plunges us into one the most nerve-wracking, nail-biting, what-would-you-do ethical thrillers in recent memory.  It’s a ride you don’t want to miss.  

 

Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 PM  - Double Feature

 

 

Still Life (1974, طبیعت بی‌جان‎) - Director: Sohrab Shahid Saless - 93 min

Winner of the Silver Bear at Berlin in 1974, Still Life and its “translucent realism,” in the words of scholar Hamid Dabashi, confirmed Sohrab Shahid Saless as a “leading visionary of his generation.”  Saless’ measured pacing and long takes transform the story of an elderly attendant of an isolated railroad crossing who is forced to retire into a powerful meditation on the larger forces—modernity, tradition culture—that shape the everyday.

 

 

Mohsen Badie: Artisan of Cinéma (2009, محسن بدیع صنعتگر سینما) - Director: Aziz Saati - 45 min

This heartfelt tribute pays homage to Iranian cinema pioneer Mohsen Badie, founder of what Hamid Naficy described as “perhaps the best film lab in Iran.”  Badie’s sons, who took over the lab, and filmmakers such as Bahman Farmanara, recount Badie’s significant contributions to such landmark productions as A Party in Hell (1958), Prince Ehtejab (1974) and Still Life (1974), as well as his own important work as producer, director and cinematographer.

 

 

 

Noir City 2015

17th Annual Film Noir Festival

April 3-19, 2015

Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood

Presented by the American Cinémathèque in collaboration with the Film Noir Foundation. Sponsored by Bogart’s Real English Gin.

Friday April 3 - 7:30 PM - Opening Night Double Feature!

WOMAN ON THE RUN     

1950, Fidelity Pictures, 77 min, USA, Dir: Norman Foster

Witness the resurrection of one of the great forgotten noir films! San Franciscan Frank Johnson disappears after witnessing a gangland killing. Police think his wife (Ann Sheridan) will lead them to her husband, but she never wants to see him again. Enter newspaperman Danny Leggett (Dennis O’Keefe), who charms Mrs. Johnson with stunning and poignant results.

 

THE UNFAITHFUL     

1947, Warner Bros., 109 min, USA, Dir: Vincent Sherman

Ann Sheridan plays a woman whose sexual indiscretion leads to murder and a tangled web of deceit. Isn’t that always the way? Legendary noir scribe David Goodis applies his typically thorny plotting to this reimagining of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Letter, transposed to post-WWII Los Angeles. Featuring Zachary Scott, Lew Ayres and Eve Arden.

 

Saturday April 4 - 5:00 PM - Humphrey Bogart Double Feature!

Introduction by Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation. Discussion between films with Stephen Bogart and This Last Lonely Place director Steve Anderson. Evening concludes with a cocktail reception courtesy of Bogart’s Real English Gin.

DARK PASSAGE

1947, Warner Bros., 106 min, USA, Dir: Delmer Daves

In this third collaboration between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Bogie plays Vincent Parry, a man wrongly accused of murdering his wife, who breaks out of jail to find the killer; Bacall is the woman who helps him hide out and solve the mystery. Working from David Goodis' bleak crime novel, director Delmer Daves employs an innovative subjective camera to adopt Bogart's point of view and creates a minor noir classic.

THIS LAST LONELY PLACE

2014, Santana Productions, 85 min, USA, Dir: Steve Anderson

A twisted, noir-drenched drive through the dark streets and back alleys of Los Angeles. Cabbie Sam Taylor is an Iraq war vet who picks up a shady Beverly Hills investment banker who is obviously running from something. When they pick up Frank's mistress at the Chateau Marmont, things spiral from bad to worse, and quickly. As the long night progresses, deceits come to light… and blood is spilled.

 

Sunday April 5 - 7:30 PM - British Noir Double Feature!

 

  

 

THE HIDDEN ROOM

(OBSESSION)

1949, Eagle-Lion Films, 96 min, UK, Dir: Edward Dmytryk

British psychologist Clive Riordan (Robert Newton), fed up with his wife’s philandering, makes her latest lover disappear in a deviously devised “perfect crime.” Made in England by the blacklisted Edward Dmytryk, THE HIDDEN ROOM is an unjustly neglected masterpiece, packed with wit and suspense, anchored by Robert Newton’s brilliant and subtle performance as the vengeful cuckold. Costarring Sally Gray and Phil Brown.

 

 

 

THE SLEEPING TIGER

1954, Astor Pictures, 89 min, UK, Dir: Joseph Losey

Psychologist Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) boards a criminal youth (Dirk Bogarde) in his home, in order to test his methods of behavior modification through psychoanalysis. Just wait until the doctor’s wife (Alexis Smith) gets her hands on the young stud. Losey’s first British-made film is an early example of what would become his métier - characters engaged in wicked sex and class warfare.

 

Thursday April 9 - 7:30 PM

 

THE SUSPECT
1944, Universal, 85 min, USA, Dir: Robert Siodmak                 

Timid tobacconist Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton) develops a friendship with a poor young woman (Ella Raines), igniting his wife’s shrewish jealousy. Despite the Edwardian-era decorum, THE SUSPECT is a classic noir - one of Siodmak’s best - featuring Laughton’s memorable portrait of a repressed and lonely man who will do anything to protect the unexpected joy he’s found too late in his life. Costarring Stanley Ridges and Rosalind Ivins.

 

LADIES IN RETIREMENT

1941, Sony Repertory, 91 min, USA, Dir: Charles Vidor

Ida Lupino scores as a timid housekeeper who becomes enmeshed in murder and madness. Ida tends to an aged actress (Isobel Elsom) and persuades her to take in her two eccentric sisters (Elsa Lanchester and Edith Barrett). All bets are off when a mysterious stranger (future Lupino spouse Louis Hayward) arrives to stir the pot further. There is nothing retiring about this suspenseful Victorian noir, which has been unjustly overlooked and underappreciated.

 

Friday April 10 - 7:30 PM - Cornell Woolrich Double Feature!

  

 

THE CHASE

1946, 86 min, USA, Dir: Arthur Ripley

Scripted by Philip Yordan, from the novel The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich. In this hallucinatory adaptation, Robert Cummings plays a drifter hired as a chauffeur by two Florida crooks (Steve Cochran and Peter Lorre). He falls for Cochran’s dishy wife (Michelle Morgan) with dire, unpredictable results. As close to Lynch-ian as movies got in the 1940s.

THE LEOPARD MAN

1943, Warner Bros., 66 min, USA, Dir: Jacques Tourneur

This seminal adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s novel Black Alibi is brilliantly realized by Tourneur and legendary producer Val Lewton. Dennis O'Keefe hires a supposedly tame leopard to hype his girlfriend's nightclub act. The felonious feline escapes as a wave of murderous terror envelops a small New Mexico town. A groundbreaking visualization of dark suspense that remains one of the earliest and finest screen adaptations of Woolrich’s work.

 

Saturday April 11 - 7:30 PM

 

 

THE UNDERWORLD STORY

1950, Warner Bros., 90 min, USA, Dir: Cy Enfield

Another unjustly neglected noir by director Cy Enfield, in which the always entertaining Dan Duryea plays a cynical reporter who digs dangerously close to a corrupt publisher’s family secrets. Costarring Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm and Howard da Silva, and featuring dazzling cinematography by the great Stanley Cortez (NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS).

ABANDONED

1949, Universal, 78 min, USA, Dir: Joseph M. Newman

Gale Storm plays a naive young woman who’s come to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Shunned by the police, she’s assisted by an intrepid reporter (Dennis O’Keefe), who smells a story when he gets wind of an underground racket in black-market babies. Featuring film noir favorites Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki, and the screen debut of future star Jeff Chandler. NOT ON DVD.

 

Sunday April 12 - 7:30 PM - Barbara Stanwyck Double Feature!

 

 

WITNESS TO MURDER

1954, Park Circus/UA, 83 min, USA, Dir: Roy Rowland

This distaff version of REAR WINDOW (released before the Hitchcock classic) stars Barbara Stanwyck as an independent career woman who watches neighbor George Sanders strangle a victim in his swanky digs. It's the word of a single woman against that of a renowned author (and closet Nazi) - so guess who the LAPD believes? Featuring the chiaroscuro camerawork of noir shadow-meister John Alton.

JEOPARDY

1953, Warner Bros., 69 min, USA, Dir: John Sturges

Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan play a vacationing couple whose fishing trip to Baja turns into a nightmare when the husband is trapped under a rotting pier with the tide rising. Their only hope is a fugitive killer (Ralph Meeker), whose aid comes at a high cost for the terrified, if resourceful, wife. A suspense gem directed and played with all the stops out, especially when Stanwyck and Meeker go toe-to-toe!

 

Wednesday April 15 - 7:30 PM - Jacques Tourneur Double Feature!

 

 

CIRCLE OF DANGER

1951, Warner Bros., 86 min, UK, Dir: Jacques Tourneur

Ray Milland journeys to Scotland to unravel the truth of his brother's strange death as a commando during World War II. This suspenseful British-made adaptation of Philip MacDonald’s novel is expertly helmed by Tourneur and produced with Hitchcockian aplomb by Joan Harrison. Also starring the alluring Patricia Roc, Hugh Sinclair and Naunton Wayne.

BERLIN EXPRESS

1948, Warner Bros., 87 min, USA, Dir: Jacques Tourneur

Robert Ryan, Merle Oberon and Paul Lukas head an international cast in the first Hollywood film shot on location in Allied-occupied postwar Germany. An ad-hoc cadre of allied officials, headed by train to a peace conference, suddenly become detectives when Germany’s most outspoken peace activist goes missing. A solid thriller, and a remarkable historical document of its time.

 

Thursday April 16 - 7:30 PM

 

RIDE THE PINK HORSE     

1947, Universal, 101 min, USA, Dir: Robert Montgomery

In this adaptation of the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, a surly vet (director/actor Robert Montgomery) ventures into a New Mexico resort town during fiesta to settle a score with a vacationing mobster. A strange, oddly paced film that plays as much like a Japanese samurai movie as film noir. With Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix and Andrea King.

THE FALLEN SPARROW

1943, Warner Bros., 94 min, USA, Dir: Richard Wallace

Scripted by Warren Duff, from the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. This convoluted but compelling story, told in creepy Val Lewton style, stars John Garfield as a Spanish Civil War veteran being driven crazy by stateside fascists. Is porcelain-gorgeous Maureen O’Hara his only ally … or his enemy? Stunning photography by RKO’s in-house noir master, Nicholas Musuraca. With Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison and Martha O’Driscoll.

 

Friday April 17 - 7:30 PM - Argentine Noir Triple Feature!

 

 

EL VAMPIRO NEGRO

THE BLACK VAMPIRE

1953, Argentine Sono Films, 90 min, Argentina, Dir: Román Viñoly

This stunning reimagining of Fritz Lang’s classic M has been rediscovered by the Film Noir Foundation and subtitled in English for the first time. Olga Zubarry, Argentina’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, plays a chanteuse and single mother who is the sole eyewitness to the child killer stalking the streets of Buenos Aires. Will her daughter be the next victim? Featuring stunning cinematography by Anibal González Paz. A major cinema discovery! In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT ON DVD.

 

NO ABRAS NUNCA ESA PUERTA and SI MUERO ANTES DE DESPERTAR

NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR and IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE

1952, Argentine Estudios San Miguel, 151 min, Argentina, Dir: Carlos Hugo Christensen

Be here for the U.S. premiere of this stunning anthology film adapted from the short stories of noir master Cornell Woolrich. Originally conceived by its makers as a single film, the titles were released separately. Tonight marks the first time they have been screened in a single, unified presentation, in newly struck prints funded by the Film Noir Foundation, complete with - for the first time ever - English subtitles. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT ON DVD.

 

Saturday April 18 - 7:00 PM - Closing Weekend Party! 

 

 

THE GUILTY

1947, Monogram Pictures, 71 min, USA, Dir: John Reinhardt

Two war buddies (Don Castle and Wally Cassel) fall for twin sisters (both played by Bonita Granville). When one sister turns up dead, the boys are dogged by a suspicious police inspector (Regis Toomey). Working with only three sets and virtually no budget, director Reinhardt and DP Henry Sharp evoke the dreadful, dead-of-night ambiance that was the domain of prolific noir scribe Cornell Woolrich. NOT ON DVD.

 

Sunday April 19 - 5:00 PM - Proto-Noir Marathon!

 

 

 

THE NINTH GUEST
1934, Sony Repertory, 65 min. Dir. Roy William Neill
A spine-tingling “locked-room” mystery about eight guests invited to spend a night in a penthouse apartment. The trapped ensemble is compelled by a disembodied host to deduce the identity of the ninth guest by morning … or else! Stylishly directed by the underrated Roy Neill (THE BLACK ROOM, THE SCARLET CLAW), this rare horror-mystery stars Donald Cook, Genevieve Tobin, Vince Barnett and Samuel S. Hinds. NOT ON DVD.

 

LET US LIVE
1939, Sony Repertory, 68 min. Dir. John Brahm
Compelling proto-noir concerning a pair of innocent taxi drivers (Henry Fonda and Alan Baxter) railroaded to the death house for a robbery-homicide. An early standout performance by Fonda receives stellar support from co-star Maureen O’Sullivan, along with a well-crafted script (by Anthony Veiller and Allen Rivkin), photography (Lucien Ballard) and superior direction by noir maestro John Brahm.

 

HEAT LIGHTNING
1934, Warner Bros., 63 min. Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
A startling, existential pre-Code gem with a feminist slant, about two sisters (the brilliant Ann Dvorak and Aline MacMahon) who run a Mojave Desert filling station/tourist stop and become trapped by their past and a pair of gunmen (Preston Foster and Lyle Talbot) on the lam. This fast-paced, noir-stained predecessor to THE PETRIFIED FOREST was adapted from a George Abbott play and still packs a wallop. With Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh and Ruth Donnelly.

 

SAFE IN HELL
1931, Warner Bros., 73 min. Dir. William A. Wellman
Only Darryl F. Zanuck and Wild Bill Wellman could have conjured up this lurid pre-Code thriller. New Orleans prostitute Dorothy MacKaill is accused of murdering the pimp who turned her out. To avoid extradition, she is smuggled to a wayward Caribbean isle by her boyfriend (Donald Cook) and ends up being targeted as the singular object of lust by a group of international criminals and assorted lowlifes inhabiting a sleazy seaside hotel.

 

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

The 20th Annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

MARCH 13 - 19 at the CREST in Westwood

 

The Crest Theater, in association with Emerging Pictures is excited to present this year's selection for the 20th annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Through their RENDEZ-VOUZ NEAR YOU programming, in partnership with Unifrance Films and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, we are proud to offer a first time look at some of France's most profound modern cinema.

 

SCREENING SCHEDULE: 

 

Gaby Baby Doll (2014) - 88 min - Directed by Sophie Letourneur

Friday, March 13 at 4:30 pm

Tuesday, March 17 at 7:30 pm

In the Courtyard (Dans la cour, 2014) - 97 min - Directed by Pierre Salvadori 
 

Saturday, March 14 at 2:30 pm

Tuesday, March 17 at 4:30 pm

 

It's Tough Being Loved By Jerks (C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons, 2008) - 110 min - Directed by Daniel Leconte

Sunday, March 15 at 8:00 pm

Wednesday, March 18 at 7:30 pm

 

Eat Your Bones (Mange tes morts, 2014) - 94 min - Directed by Jean-Charles Hue

Monday, March 16 at 4:30 pm

Thursday, March 19 at 7:30 pm

 

Stubborn (Une histoire américaine, 2015) - 85 min - Directed by Armel Hostiou

Monday, March 16 at 7:30 pm

Wednesday, March 18 at 4:30 pm