COLCOA 2017 - FILM NOIR SERIES

FILM NOIR SERIES AT COLCOA 2017
Friday, APRIL 28 - Directors Guild of America Theatre

Friday is dedicated to thrillers at COLCOA. This year, four films represent the Film Noir genre, symbol of the mutual influence of French and American cinemas.

Friday, April 28 - 1:20 PM – Renoir Theater

LE CERCLE ROUGE 

Film Noir • Special Presentation • Colcoa Classic Series

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Jean-Pierre Melville, the filmmaker who transformed the crime thriller into high art, COLCOA is proud to present his most acclaimed picture, Le Cercle Rouge (1970). With a formidable cast including Alain Delon, Yves Montand, and Bourvil, the boilerplate plot involves a suave criminal mastermind, a vicious escaped convict, a washed-out ex-cop with a knack for hitting bulls-eyes before he started hitting the bottle, and a relentlessly nasty, cat-loving detective methodically hunting them down before they can knock off a prominent jewelry store on Place Vendome. Ostensibly a heist movie, what elevates it is the Melvillian flourishes – finely-honed visuals, poignant fatalism, and an explicit code of honor and loyalty. In Melville’s universe, a Gauloise cigarette is as essential as a gun, and which side of the law you’re on is less important than whether or not you betray trust. Another signature touch, balletic precision, is on glorious display in the film’s 20-minute show-stopping robbery sequence. Presented with the World Premiere of Melville’s restored first film, 24 hours of a Clown’s Life.

Friday, April 28 - 5:30 PM – Truffaut Theater

THE EAVESDROPPER (La Mécanique de l’ombre) 

Thriller • North American Premiere

Cleverly evoking the era of analogue espionage while referencing more recent political events in France, this slow burning thriller takes a man wallowing on the outskirts of society and plunges him deep into the murky heart of power politics, high intrigue, and murder. François Cluzet plays Duval, former accountant, former alcoholic, current burnout with no job prospects. Desperate to get his life back on track, he accepts an unusual offer of employment. Everyday he is to come to a non-descript room, where he will transcribe cassette tapes of intercepted phone calls using an old typewriter. His mysterious employer Clément explains that this ensures that there will be no chance for the material to be digitally compromised. Most of the work is dehumanizing drudgery, but when the tapes reveal something Duval knows he shouldn’t know, he suddenly understands why he has been sworn to secrecy. It’s clear he’s a cog in someone’s machinations, but whose? As the walls begin to close in, Duval’s own paranoia is the only thing of which he can be certain. Co-written and directed by Thomas Kruithof.

Friday, April 28 - 7:30 PM – Truffaut Theater

CORPORATE 

Drama, Thriller • North American Premiere

This tightrope thriller takes a deep dive into the murky waters of corporate hierarchy to expose a high stakes game where the profit motive is eclipsed only by the prime directive : saving your own skin.Céline Sallette plays it cool as Emilie Tesson-Hansen, a woman who knows the rules of the game. As the head of Human Resources of a major conglomerate, she has mastered a calibrated femininity to match the ruthlessness and cold ambition expected from the higher-ups. When executive Stéphane Froncart (Lambert Wilson) devises a secret cost-cutting plan, he knows he can count on Emilie to implement it. What he doesn’t count on are the deadly consequences, and the resulting formal investigation into company practices launched by labor inspector Marie Borrel. Emilie recognizes herself in Marie, but where Emilie is guarded, Marie is spontaneous, even provocative. This spurs Emilie to question her role as a good company soldier, but as Stéphane tries to direct Marie’s probe in Emilie’s direction, she is torn between the welfare of her fellow employees and the prime directive. Co-written and directed by Nicolas Silhol. Screening followed by a discussion with actor Lambert Wilson.  

Friday, April 28  – 10:30 PM – Truffaut Theater

ARÈS (Le Convoi)

Fantasy, Thriller • North American Premiere • After 10

This testosterone-fueled dystopian thriller is set in a demi-apocalyptic Paris of 2035. Disillusioned masses huddle in polluted shantytowns at the feet of monuments. Multi-national conglomerates control the government, including the police. As a diversion from the misery and poverty, much of the population turns to the Arena, a televised spectacle of ultraviolent gladiatorial contests. Competing pharmaceutical companies openly dope Arena fighters as a means of advertising their performance enhancing products. Ares, played by hunky Swede Ola Rapace (Skyfall), is a former contender long past his prime, but when his sister is arrested on trumped up charges, this badass with a heart of gold agrees to be a guinea pig for the latest wonder drug. If it works, he might win enough fights to buy her freedom. Only trouble is, no one has ever taken the drug and lived. Co-written and directed by Jean-Baptiste Benes.

Also Recommended in the COLCOA TELEVISION program : THE FROZEN DEAD, BARON NOIR, MIDNIGHT SUN, TRANSFER 

FRENCH FILM NOIR

American Cinémathèque at the AERO Theatre - June 19-22

THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT: RARE FRENCH FILM NOIR, 1948-1963
Presented by the American Cinematheque and Midcentury Productions, with the support of the French Film & TV Office, French Consulate.

FRIDAY JUNE 19 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
THE TRUTH

LA VERITÉ

1960, Sony Repertory, 127 min, France/Italy, Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot

                

Brigitte Bardot tops her amazing work with Godard and Vadim in this scorching portrait of amour fou. She stars as Dominique, a hedonistic free spirit on trial for the murder of her lover, musician Sami Frey. Clouzot breaks ground in his fearless look at private insecurities, revealing what supposedly constitutes a “sordid” lifestyle, and why it is so threatening to bourgeois society. Co-written by Clouzot and his wife, Véra (star of Les Diaboliques). Winner of the 1961 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. In French with English subtitles.

 

    
LOVE IS MY PROFESSION

EN CAS DE MALHEUR

1958, 105 min, France/Italy, Dir: Claude Autant-Lara

                

Distinguished lawyer Jean Gabin defends Brigitte Bardot, a prostitute who has committed a robbery. After he gets her acquitted, she becomes his mistress. Alas, Gabin’s efforts to teach Bardot some class run into trouble in the form of her other lover - a handsome young student (Franco Interlenghi) with a murderous temper. With Edwige Feuillère. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon. In French with English subtitles.

SATURDAY JUNE 20 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
CLASSE TOUS RISQUES

1959, Rialto Films, 108 min, France/Italy, Dir: Claude Sautet

                

Lino Ventura delivers an awesome performance (maybe his best) as Davos, a gangster in the twilight of his career, on the run from the mob with his wife and family. Jean-Paul Belmondo (hot off his star turn in Breathless) co-stars as a young hood who comes to Ventura’s aid. Brilliantly scripted by Jose Giovanni, based on a story he had heard in prison. “In addition to its crisp action sequences, the film has an excellent sense of place, showing us Paris, Nice and the small villages and French countryside between. … One of the things that makes CLASSE TOUS RISQUES distinctive are the palpable emotional connections it makes with its characters. Though he is the hardest of hard cases, Davos cares deeply about his family, and the feelings of regret, sadness and desperation that cross his face are just one of the factors that make this film the classic it is.” - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. In French with English subtitles.

UN TEMOIN DANS LA VILLE

1959, Gaumont, 86 min, France/Italy, Dir: Édouard Molinaro

                

France's greatest character lead in the 1960s and ’70s, Lino Ventura, has his breakout role here as a revenge murderer who, finding that his “perfect crime” was witnessed by a cab driver, must try to eliminate him. As events unfold, Ventura finds that he is as much hunted as hunter. Stunning night photography from Henri Decaë (Bob le Flambeur, Elevator to the Gallows), and an evocative score featuring jazz greats Kenny Clarke and Kenny Dorham. In French with English subtitles.

SUNDAY JUNE 21 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
DEADLIER THAN THE MALE    

VOICI LE TEMPS DES ASSASSINS

1956, Pathe International, 113 min, France, Dir: Julien Duvivier

                 

While the other French femmes fatales are “hot,” none of them approach the coiled ferocity of Danièle Delorme here, driven to a life of ruthless scheming by her hardscrabble youth. Matching her step for step are Jean Gabin, the target of her desperate, malevolent plans; Germain Kerjean as his cold-hearted mother; Gerard Blain as his clueless surrogate son; and Luciene Bogart as Delorme’s drug-addicted mother. Featuring superb camerawork by Armand Thiraud (Clouzot's frequent collaborator), DEADLIER THAN THE MALE is arguably the definitive French film noir. In French with English subtitles.

CHAIR DE POULE

1963, 107 min, France/Italy, Dir: Julien Duvivier

                

Legendary director Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko) was nearing the end of his illustrious career, but he saved one of the best for last in this taut tale of fate, lust and enveloping entrapment. Robert Hossein is a thief on the lam who jumps from frying pan into the fire when he holes up at a highway truck stop and is quickly embroiled in the grasping schemes of a hard-bitten, voluptuous vixen (Catherine Rouvel) who will stop at nothing to get what she wants! Costarring Jean Sorel and Jacques Bertrand, with photography from Léonce-Henri Burel, longtime right-hand man of Robert Bresson. In French with English subtitles.

MONDAY JUNE 22 at 7:30pm - Double Feature
LE SEPTIÈME JURÉ

1962, Pathé International, 96 min, France, Dir: Georges Lautner

                

Dependable character actor Bernard Blier is given his chance to shine in a lead role here as Grégoire Duval, a man facing a predicament: After accidentally killing a local strumpet, he finds himself on a jury that must decide the fate of a man who he alone knows is innocent. As Duval comes to realize the depths of provincial perniciousness, this sordid story takes a strange and tragic turn. With Danièle Delorme as Duval’s icy, manipulative wife. In French with English subtitles.

DÉDÉE D'ANVERS

1948, 95 min, France, Dir: Yves Allégret

                

Bursting through the echoes of “poetic realism” contained within its narrative, this underworld drama showcases the emergence of Simone Signoret, a hooker with a hankering for a better life. The original femme fatale, Signoret is both luminous and complex, presaging a series of follow-up performances in similarly themed films over the next half-decade. A trio of indelible actors (Marcelo Pagliero, Marcel Dalio, Bernard Blier) provides Dédée with ecstasy, agony and sympathy, respectively. In French with English subtitles.

 

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.