those 19 films

[fflo]

I made it.  I've got Detour on now, tho I've seen it a few times already.  That's the last of them.

So much to think about.  Many times it would've been nice to be in a lobby afterwards, talking with somebody about what we just saw.  Better yet, maybe someday someone will actually want to attend a noir fest with me, cuz they want to watch the movies as much as cuz they want to be with me.

I'm putting the line-up in comments, for reference.

Comments

[fflo.livejournal.com]

THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT
Serial Killers
Political Noir
West Germany
[NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM] The murder of a Hamburg barmaid seems an open-and-shut case until a recently demobilized Nazi soldier, reassigned to the police force, suspects it's the work of a serial killer. His efforts to bring the murderer to justice run afoul of the Reich, which fears the culprit is Aryan — not the foreigner, gypsy or Jew they would prefer. Director Robert Siodmak, the greatest practitioner of Hollywood noir (CRISS CROSS, THE KILLERS, PHANTOM LADY, et al.), returned to Germany in the 1950s to finish his career. This was the most powerful film of those later years, a subtle yet scathing payback to the Nazis that chased him from his homeland. Based on the true story of murderer Bruno Lüdke, Siodmak creates a tense policier that's also a psychological drama exploring how some of those who did not flee the Reich struggled to maintain their integrity and morality in the face of overwhelming corruption and evil.


FOUR WAYS OUT
Heists
Italy
[LA CITTÀ SI DIFENDE] This is a heist drama, Federico Fellini-style. The Maestro has story and screenplay credit on this nearly forgotten film about a quartet of amateur thieves who successfully execute a daring mid-match robbery at a soccer stadium. They must part ways to evade the police, but escaping their personal demons proves far more difficult. Clearly influenced by THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, this is a humanist crime thriller that's equal parts film noir and neo-realism. It features a young and imperious Gina Lollobrigida amidst an affecting and eccentric array of vulnerable men who are anything but hardened criminals. Pietro Germi's dynamic direction earned LA CITTÀ SI DEFENDI the Best Italian Film award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival.


THE FACTS OF MURDER
Italy
The robbery of a palazzo apartment by a masked thief is treated casually by polizia inspector Dr. Ciccio Ingravallo, until a female witness in a neighboring apartment turns up murdered. Soon enough, improbable coincidences — and suspicious behavior by many of the building's tenants and visitors — set the inspector and his motley crew of cops on a hunt that reveals profound and comical elements of postwar Italian society. Director Pietro Germi's technique is as far from Michelangelo Antonioni as one could imagine; his adaptation of the popular 1946 novel, the most famous Italian mystery of its era, is an engaging miscela of thriller, policier, comedy and social commentary. Germi himself portrays the beleaguered but dogged Dr. Ingravallo, a Columbo prototype ("I'm not a real doctor!"), albeit more roguish with his square jaw, dangling cigarette and tinted specs. A gorgeous score by Carlo Rustichelli supports a marvelous array of players, including the lovely Claudia Cardinale in one of her earliest roles. The resulting film is less a noir than a police procedural — but hugely entertaining by any label.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

LE DOULOS
Heists
France
Ex-con Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani), harboring an unspoken grudge, kills and robs a colleague then hides the loot. But his next job, a burglary, goes haywire; he survives only through the intervention of a mysterious criminal cohort, Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) — who may or may not be a police informant. As the plot thickens, it's impossible to discern who's telling the truth and where their allegiances lie. Jean-Pierre Melville, the kingpin of French crime films, weaves an underworld tale so rife with paranoia and duplicity that viewers are never sure whose story they're watching, or which version of reality is "true." As Melville wryly noted, "All characters are two-faced, all characters are false." As the loose threads come together, the film takes on an inexorable momentum, which can only lead to tragedy. "Le doulos," literally "the hat," is the French equivalent of "stool pigeon," or "finger man." The first of three consecutive films in which Melville deftly used the cool, cruel charm of Belmondo, LE DOULOS is an intriguing puzzle-box of a movie, featuring evocative imagery by cinematographer Nicolas Hayer and Paul Misraki's jaunty jazz score.


STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR
Femmes Fatale
Italy
[CRONACA DI UN AMORE] Wealthy Enrico Fontana (Ferdinand Sarmi) hires a private investigator to probe the background of his beautiful young wife Paola (Lucia Bosè), whom he fears is having an affair. The dogged detective, Carloni (Gino Rossi), tracks Paola's life back to her impoverished hometown, where he learns of a suspicious and fatal incident in her youth. Alerted to Carloni's snooping, Paola reunites with old flame Guido (Massimo Girotti), who shares the same terrible secret. Ironically, it's her husband's jealousy that reignites the passion between Paola and Guido, leading to an unexpected and tragic conclusion. For his first feature film, legendary director Michelangelo Antonioni borrowed plot elements from "The Postman Always Rings Twice" by James M. Cain, using them as a springboard to explore what would become his trademark obsessions — the boredom of the upper class, the impossibility of intimacy and the existential dread lurking beneath daily human interaction. Already in evidence is Antonioni's distinctively artful style (the sleek camerawork is by Enzo Serafin), which deconstructs familiar storytelling tropes, turning a traditionally melodramatic set-up into a cool meditation on ennui and ambiguity.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

DETOUR (1945)
Femmes Fatale
75th Anniversary
United States
The quintessential B noir celebrates its 75th anniversary. A cross-country hitchhiker (Tom Neal) takes the express route to hell after picking up a wicked wastrel (Ann Savage) in a roadside filling station. DETOUR is dominated by the amazing performance of Savage as Vera, a woman made out of emotional ice, picked up hitchhiking on the highway by Neal, a man running away from his past in a car he stole after the driver died. In a bizarre twist, it turns out Vera knew the driver, and she totally dominates poor Neal as she directs his life into patterns he does not want or understand. There has never been a femme fatale like Savage in this extraordinary film, directed by the auteur of the Poverty Row studios, Edgar G. Ulmer. A bargain basement masterpiece!



OBSESSION (1943)
Femmes Fatale
Italy
[OSSESSIONE] This groundbreaking work of Italian neorealism is an earthy and unlicensed adaptation of James M. Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Reviled by the Catholic church and banned by Italy's Fascist government, all prints were destroyed — except one duplicate negative the director hid for decades, allowing OSSESSIONE to survive as Luchino Visconti's first masterpiece. Stars Clara Calamai and Massimo Girotti generate serious heat as the adulterous and eventually murderous couple.