Results tagged “filmnoir”

Cliff Mass says the inversion that's producing our film-noir quality fog will stick around through the weekend. If you want to skip the pea soupers, head to the hills. Mass reports that it was 66 degrees and clear on top of Tiger Mountain yesterday, and nearly 70 at Paradise on Rainier. By the way, weather groupies, Mass is signing his book at the UW Bookstore at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Tonight's show deserves special attention because Reign of Terror is, to our knowledge, the only noir film set during the French revolution. NoirFan62 says:

The great Anthony Mann takes a film that would probably play mostly as a colorful, sweeping, epic piece dealing with the French revolution and turns it, with the help of cinematographer John Alton, into a dark, shadowy and claustrophobic film noir/adventure/spy/suspense tale period piece featuring excellent performances from a cast that includes Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart and Arlene Dahl.

We especially like that a guy named Richard Basehart plays Robespierre, who's threatening to turn France into a dictatorship -- unless his little black book betrays him.

SIFF Cinema's Noir City Festival has a double-feature not many of you have seen before: Moonrise / Night Has a Thousand Eyes. The festival benefits the Film Noir Foundation, whose mission is to find and preserve noir titles in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged.

Not so long ago--even into the 1980s--it seemed certain that the Western would stand the test of time as quintessential American cinematic form. After all, the story of cowboys, outlaws and Indians on the great rolling plains between the coasts and the travails of those courageous families crossing the country in covered wagons is as much a part of our creation story as defeating the British; Independence and Manifest Destiny go hand-in-hand, and John Wayne, with his swaggering bravado, not only represented the embodiment of American masculinity, but his unwavering devotion to righteousness (even, perhaps especially, when begotten by violence) spoke to the American sense of our own virtue and uniqueness. Even when the Italians got their hands on the genre, and Clint Eastwood gave the cowboy a dark edge, that moral ambiguity never really changed the fundamental sense that there is a right and wrong; the innocents, after all, are still innocent. The change that Sergio Leone wrought was simply one of transforming the West into a wide open space into which the damned could escape their demons, even in death. The figure of the dying cowboy, gut-shot, riding into the sunset slumping atop his steed is still an image of freedom and hope.

We can guarantee that when you think of French New Wave cinema, a sultry feeling of cool washes over you. Suddenly, even if you can't name one French New Wave film, you're driven to wander forlornly down moodily lit city streets wondering where your lover has gone while an ultra-cool soundtrack plays in the background and your lover is trapped, desperately trying to reach you.