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

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THE BLACK VAMPIRE
Serial Killers
Argentina
[EL VAMPIRO NEGRO] In NOIR CITY's first festival of international noir in 2014, the Film Noir Foundation preserved and presented this virtually unknown third remake of M, Fritz Lang's seminal 1931 thriller. EL VAMPIRO NEGRO is a revisionist take on the tale, made in Buenos Aires in 1953. Argentine beauty Olga Zubarry stars as a cabaret performer trying to protect her young daughter (Gogó) from a mysterious murderer while parrying the advances of the prosecutor (Roberto Escalada) pursuing the killer. Popular comedic actor Nathán Pinzón gives an against-type performance as the disturbed pedophile hiding in plain sight. The moody cinematography of Anibal González Paz makes this film every bit as noir as the versions directed by Lang and Joseph Losey (1951). The script — co-written by THE BEAST MUST DIE's multi-talented cinematographer, Alberto Etchebehere — is a proto-feminist reimagining of the tale, focusing on the lives of female characters ignored in the earlier films. EL VAMPIRO NEGRO is a major cinema rediscovery and NOIR CITY is proud to now present a pristine digital restoration of this remarkable film, which should lead to a worldwide appraisal of the films of Uruguayan-Argentine writer-director Román Viñoly Barreto.


PANIC (1946)
Femmes Fatale
France
[PANIQUE] When a woman is murdered in a small French town, the killers target the perfect fall guy — Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), an antisocial oddball with a taste for rare meats and runny cheese, whom the townsfolk already find irritating. Compounding matters, Hire harbors unrequited love for the local femme fatale (Viviane Romance), who happens to be the killer's lover and accomplice. The conspirators manipulate local opinion against Hire, and when evidence turns up in his apartment confirming the town's suspicions, things get violent. Adapting a 1933 novel by Georges Simenon, arguably the 20th century's greatest writer of crime fiction, director Julien Duvivier creates a provocative film aimed squarely at countrymen who succumbed to the fear and paranoia sown by the occupying Nazis. This was the first film Duvivier made in liberated France after his self-exile in Hollywood, and its stinging critique of French collaborationists nearly derailed his career. Michel Simon, one of France's most beloved actors, offers a memorable portrayal of an outcast who runs afoul of the town's irrational mob mentality. Duvivier maintained that PANIQUE was his finest film. It's one that, unfortunately, never goes out of date and never loses its impact.


RAZZIA
Gangsters and the Underworld
France
[RAZZIA SUR LA CHNOUF] Notorious criminal Henri "le Nantais" Ferre (Jean Gabin) returns to Paris from the United States, summoned by Parisian crime boss Paul Liski (Marcel Dalio), who charges Henri with supervising a drug trade beset by disappearing product and unreliable agents. As cover, Henri is made manager of Le Troquet, an underworld bistro whose sexy cashier Lisette (Magali Noël) promptly falls for him. The staff includes a pair of dour hit men, Roger and Bibi (Lino Ventura and Albert Rémy). Suave and efficient, Henri navigates a dangerous trade rife with betrayals and backstabbing, while the police nip at his heels. Gabin is at his impeccable and imperious best as an old-school gangster, a connoisseur of charcuterie and Cabernet, trying to bring discipline to a louche demimonde of dope smokers and needle-pushers. Based on the novel by popular crime writer Auguste Le Breton ("Rififi"), the film's French title roughly translates as "Dope Raid," and it depicts narcotic use in a way not seen in Hollywood movies. Future Oscar-winner Lila Kedrova turns in a mournful performance as Léa, a sad and sexy heroin addict.

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ANY NUMBER CAN WIN
Gambling
Gangsters and the Underworld
Heists
France
[MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL] Aging crook Charles (Jean Gabin), recently paroled from prison, postpones a quiet retirement for one last high-stakes job — the robbery of a Cannes casino. The key to his plan is the advance work of cocky petty thief Francis Verlot (Alain Delon), whom Charles fears may enjoy his masquerade as a roguish playboy a bit too much. When the night of the "big grab" comes, will Francis be able to execute his grueling part of the daring two-man robbery? Screenwriter Jacques Audiard, hugely popular in France for his slangy pulp novels, and the prolific writer Albert Simonin adapted the story from a novel by San Francisco-based ne'er-do-well Zekial Marko (ONCE A THIEF). The France–United States co-production was a smash hit thanks to its teaming of France's greatest star, Gabin, with a handsome young challenger to his throne, Delon. The films works on every level; not only as a bravura heist movie, but also as a compelling tale of the experienced, aging pro trying to collaborate with an arrogant, virile, younger version of himself. The terrific early-'60s jazz score by Michel Magne even produced a hit instrumental single in the U.S., "Any Number Can Win," recorded by Jimmy Smith.


LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN
Technicolor Noir
United States
75th Anniversary
Don't let the lush Technicolor gloss fool you — this big-budget melodrama is black at the core, as perverse and malignant as it got in the 1940s. Novelist Cornel Wilde falls for gorgeous socialite Gene Tierney, but has no idea what horrors lurk behind those gleaming emerald eyes. Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price round out the cast; the title is taken from a line in another classic tale of jealousy, obsession and murder most foul: Shakespeare's "Hamlet."


THE HOUSEMAID (1960)
Femmes Fatale
South Korea
[HANYO] A hardworking middle-class family struggles to make ends meet. Mr. Kim (Kim Jin-kyu) gives music lessons to factory workers; his wife (Ju Jeung-nyeo) is an at-home seamstress. They've just moved with their two children into a bigger house, and Mrs. Kim wants help managing the household chores. A love letter from one of his students leads Mr. Kim to a fateful decision — hiring Myung-sook (Lee Eun-shim), a young woman whose strange, provocative behavior turns their drab domestic life into a delirious nightmare of repressed desires, unleashed. This film is relentless, claustrophobic and unpredictable — a wicked combination of soap opera, noir and horror — as amusing as it is shocking. Considered within its homeland to be one of the greatest Korean films ever made, THE HOUSEMAID was unknown in the rest of the world for more than 40 years, until it was rediscovered through the efforts of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project and the Korean Film Archive. Says critic Kyung Hyun Kim: "So limpid and nimble are the jokes, so sarcastic the caricature of the nuclear family, so plain the passions and desires that play across the surfaces of THE HOUSEMAID, that one might be tempted to think it was made in a society as liberal as Weimar Germany, not one usually governed by brutal dictatorships."

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PALE FLOWER
Gambling
Femmes Fatale
Gangsters and the Underworld
Japan
[KAWAITA HANA] Aging yakuza soldier Muraki (Ryô Ikebe), released from prison, returns to an underworld he barely recognizes. Rival gangs have joined forces, and his skills and fealty no longer seem necessary or appreciated. His loyal girlfriend now feels like a domestic dead-end. Adrift as a modern-day ronin, Muraki encounters the beguiling and mysterious Saeko (Mariko Kaga) in a gambling den. Before long, her reckless craving for excitement pushes them to dangerous extremes they seem unable, or unwilling, to resist. From this simple premise director Masahiro Shinoda crafts an electrifying masterpiece of existential noir, a film so sleek and sensual in its imagery, editing and soundtrack it's almost impossible to believe it was made in 1964. Ryô Ikebe and Marika Kaga bring so much smoldering heat to their roles, you may not realize they never share a moment of physical intimacy — as if sex could equal the roaring adrenalin rush their mind games provide. Who will get pushed over the edge?


RUSTY KNIFE
Gangsters and the Underworld
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Japan
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[SABITA NAIFU] Udaka, a city struggling to rebuild after World War II, has been all but taken over by an arrogant yakuza boss following the suicide of a crusading council member years before. But now an anonymous letter suggests the pol's death was murder, setting off a string of cover-up killings. Caught in the middle is ex-con Tachibana (Yûjirô Ishihara), trying to go straight but itching to settle his own soul-crushing score. In the late '50s, the venerable Nikkatsu studio began churning out genre pictures to compete with imported fare from America and France. It revitalized Japanese cinema and gave voice to some of the nation's most talented filmmakers. It also made stars of young performers like RUSTY KNIFE's Yûjirô Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, who in the previous year's I AM WAITING became Japan's James Dean and Natalie Wood. RUSTY KNIFE is emblematic of Nikkatsu's patented blend of crime thriller and "wild youth" drama, directed with panache by Toshio Masuda, in the first year of a career that would last until the end of the century.

ASHES AND DIAMONDS
Political Noir
Poland
[POPIOL I DIAMENT] At the end of World War II, resistance fighters of the independent Polish Home Army turn from battling the routed Nazis to undermining Soviet Communists bringing a new regime to Poland. After botching the assassination of a Soviet-backed official, young Home Army soldier Maciek Chelmicki (Zbigniew Cybulski) vows to complete the assignment during a "People's Party" victory celebration at a rural hotel. But quandaries of faith and ideology, and the affection of a lovelorn barmaid, send Maciek reeling through a long night of soul-searching … to a violent climax. One of the greatest films made in Poland (or anywhere!), ASHES AND DIAMONDS is a miracle of dynamic filmmaking and artistic courage. It defiantly subverted the 1946 pro-Soviet novel on which it's based, yet was granted Soviet approval — a credit to the complexity of its themes. Parsing the source novel into 24 hours of existential torment for its anti-hero protagonist, director Andrzej Wajda transformed a polemic into full-throttled noir.

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A WOMAN'S FACE (1938)
Femmes Fatale
Sweden
[EN KVINNAS ANSIKTE] Ingrid Bergman may be the most beautiful and talented actress in cinema history, but the closest she came to film noir during her Hollywood career was a pair of films for Alfred Hitchcock (NOTORIOUS and SPELLBOUND). To behold Bergman as a genuinely noir character we reach back into the film vaults of her homeland for this timeless 1938 classic. Anna Holm (Bergman), disfigured from a childhood accident, has become the embittered leader of a gang of blackmailers. After using her ill-gotten payouts to have her face surgically repaired, she leaves her criminal life behind to become a governess for a wealthy family. But some of these upper-crust characters are as rotten as her old gang-mates, who — this being noir — are fated to re-emerge out of her past. The 1941 Hollywood remake, with Joan Crawford in the lead, doesn't hold a candle to this fully wrought Nordic melodrama, with 23-year-old Bergman displaying the range that would soon make her an international superstar.


BLACK GRAVEL
Political Noir
West Germany
[SCHWARZER KIES] Sohnen, a small village in rural postwar Germany, undergoes a nasty transformation when the American military decides it's the perfect spot for a missile base. Even though the locals detest the occupying force, they all angle for ways to personally cash in, legal and otherwise, on the sudden economic boom. Robert Neidhardt (Helmut Wildt), a classic noir character, is squeezing out a living as a trucker in this blackest of markets, playing both sides of the law. His hustling turns horrifying when he's involved in a fatal accident during a run of stolen gravel. Fleeing the law plunges him further into ruthlessness and mayhem. BLACK GRAVEL caused controversy upon its initial release due to its uncompromising depiction of a nation in the grip of bitter defeat, lawlessness and lingering anti-Semitism. Several offending scenes were cut, but its rediscovery as a lost noir classic has resulted in this new, and complete, digital restoration.


... AND THE FIFTH HORSEMAN IS FEAR
Political Noir
Czechoslovakia
[... A PÁTY JEZDEC JE STRACH] Dr. Braun (Miroslav Machácek), a Jew, is forbidden to practice medicine by the Nazis occupying Prague. Instead, he spends unending days cataloging the confiscated possessions of countrymen sent to the death camps. Braun's moment of reckoning comes when a wounded resistance fighter collapses outside his apartment building. Will he offer medical aid? Does he still have the skill? Will prying neighbors, hoping to curry favor, rat him out to the authorities? If paranoia and dread are intrinsic to film noir, Zbyněk Brynych's thriller is 100-proof noir filtered through the modernist lens of the Czech New Wave. As Braun careens desperately through nocturnal Prague in search of contraband morphine, his quest becomes a surreal nightmare blurring the nation's recent subjugation by Nazis with its then-contemporary oppression under the Soviet regime. Jiri Sternwald's discordant jazz score provides a bizarre aural soundscape to this unique and unforgettable cinema experience.

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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.

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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.

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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.