6 Films to Celebrate NOIRVEMBER!
The Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas, inspired by the annual, social media-based celebration of the same name started by film critic Marya E. Gates in 2010, are spending November with cinema’s most hardboiled detectives, seedy cityscapes, and enough low-key lighting to make anyone a suspect.
We have a little bit about each film in Noirvember, curated by ArtsQuest Cinema Committee member Adrianna Gober, below. As to why we’re delving into these twisted, shadowy worlds, well, we’ll let Adrianna tell you: “Film noir is foundational. Its distinct visual style, narrative conventions and character archetypes, and tendency toward lurid twists and turns have endured through decades of cinema, influencing countless filmmakers and films across a diverse span of genres. However, this might not be obvious to every filmgoer. This series aims to honor the tremendous legacy of film noir and just how thrilling, inventive, and jaw-droppingly shocking classic American film noir could be, featuring a selection of deeply influential films guaranteed to excite hardcore noir fans and genre newcomers alike.”
The Maltese Falcon
Wednesday, November 3 (7:30pm)
When one hears that the star of a movie had to provide his own wardrobe and came up with some of his own lines, one doesn’t automatically think American cinema classic. But those are Humphrey Bogart’s own clothes and, inspired by a passage in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the actor suggested the seminal line “the stuff that dreams are made of”. Kicking off Noirvember with The Maltese Falcon feels like the right move considering that protagonist Sam Spade, first conceived by writer Dashiell Hammett in 1930, is widely cited as a crystalizing figure in the development of the private detective character that came to dominate American film noir.
Kiss Me Deadly
Sunday, November 7 (6:30pm)
How do you go wrong with a film singled out by a 1955 federal commission as that year’s number one menace to American youth? Arguably the most hard-boiled of the detectives in Noirvember, Mike Hammer – the creation of the legendary Mickey Spillane – smashes through the buttoned-up social norms of the 1950s and right into one of the wildest film endings on record.
Double Indemnity
Wednesday, November 10 (7:30pm)
A film that has regularly appeared on the American Film Institute’s best American films list, Double Indemnity was also considered by Billy Wilder to be the best film the revered director ever made. The film’s look, conceived by Wilder and cinematographer John F. Seitz, drew on Wilder’s roots in German expressionism and set a palette for noir that gave it its grit and mystery.
Gun Crazy
Sunday, November 14 (6:30pm)
Now here we have a film that employed Al J. Jennings as a technical adviser. Why is that significant? Well, this is a film with a 17-page bank robbery sequence and Jennings, 85 at the time, used to rob banks in the Old West. See you there.
Detour
Wednesday, November 17
The first “B” movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, Detour’s legend continues to grow after coming out of Hollywood’s Poverty Row in 1945. Noted critic Richard Corliss ranked the film’s antagonist at #6 on his 2007 “25 Greatest Villains” list, saying simply: “Hell truly is other people – if the person is Vera”.
The Naked City
Sunday, November 21 (6:30pm)
Don’t know this one? Believe it or not, The Naked City is the only Noirvember film to win at the Oscars (Double Indemnity lost all 7 it was nominated for). Winning for Best Cinematography and Best Editing, The Naked City’s visual style was inspired by New York photographer Arthur ‘Weegee’ Fellig, who published a book of photographs detailing early 1940s New York life titled Naked City. Some argue that Italian neorealism played more of a part in the cinematography but, either way, The Naked City needs to be seen on the big screen and you now have that opportunity.
