Michael's Movies: Film Events

2012-10-20 Noir City DC: The 2012 Film Noir Festival afi.com

• DEADLINE – U.S.A.
  60th Anniversary!
  One of the most exciting and elegiac movies ever made about the fourth estate, as relevant today as when writer/director (and former reporter) Richard Brooks made it. Humphrey Bogart is Ed Hutcheson, veteran editor of the New York Day, which is about to be sold to its main competitor. With only hours left before the presses stop, "Hutch" decides to go out in a blaze of glory, taking down the city's biggest racketeer. An eerily prescient eulogy for old-school journalism. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR/SCR Richard Brooks; PROD Sol C. Siegel. US, 1952, b&w, 87 min.
  
• KEY LARGO
  WWII vet Humphrey Bogart visits the Florida Keys, intending to pay his respects to the widow of a buddy who didn't make it back. But the widow is Lauren Bacall, and there's a hurricane about to roll in, and with it an ill wind that blows mobster Edward G. Robinson their way. Written and directed by John Huston — at the top of his game — with a script assist courtesy of dab hand Richard Brooks. Rounding out the stellar cast are Lionel Barrymore as Bacall's wheelchair-bound father and boozy chantoozie Claire Trevor, Robinson's mistreated moll, giving an Oscar-winning performance.
  DIR/SCR John Huston; SCR Richard Brooks, based on the play by Maxwell Anderson; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1948, b&w, 100 min.
  
• DARK PASSAGE
  65th Anniversary!
  This is Bogart and Bacall's darkest duet, a bizarre ramble through nocturnal 1940s San Francisco, as an escaped con pursues the real culprit in his wife's murder. Startling use of the subjective-eye camera focuses on the mid-20th century city in all its noir glory. Screenplay and direction by Delmer Daves, based on the novel by David Goodis. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR/SCR Delmer Daves, based on the novel by David Goodis; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1947, b&w, 106 min.
  
• THE GREAT GATSBY (1949)
  New 35mm Print!
  Resurrected at long last! This version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel has been buried for decades, to make way for remakes. Thanks to our friends at Universal Pictures, Alan Ladd's noir-styled take on the timeless tale of shady success and unrequited love is again available, in a brand new print made exclusively for Noir City! Screenplay by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum, from a play by Owen Davis, based on Fitzgerald's novel. Directed by Elliott Nugent. Not on DVD! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Elliott Nugent; SCR Cyril Hume, based on the play by Owen Davis and the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald; SCR/PROD Richard Maibaum. US, 1949, b&w, 91 min.
  
• UNDERWORLD
  Live musical accompaniment by Alloy Orchestra
  85th Anniversary!
  This was the film that launched Josef von Sternberg's career. Ben Hecht, who wrote the screenplay, won the first ever Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story (among his uncredited collaborators were Howard Hawks and von Sternberg). "Bull" Weed (George Bancroft) is the high-living kingpin of Prohibition Chicago. When a rival gangster (Fred Kohler) puts the moves on Weed's girl (Evelyn Brent), the criminal code demands retaliation. A favorite of audiences and critics alike, UNDERWORLD is credited as the first gangster film, and the model for the popular genre.
  DIR Josef von Sternberg; SCR Ben Hecht, Robert N. Lee, Charles Furthman, George Marion, Jr. US, 1927, b&w, 80 min. Silent with live accompaniment.
  
• THIS GUN FOR HIRE
  70th Anniversary!
  Alan Ladd skyrocketed into stardom playing vengeful assassin Philip Raven in this stylish adaptation of Graham Greene's classic novel of espionage, transposed to the California coast. Veronica Lake sizzles in her first of seven onscreen pairings with Ladd, and noir favorites Laird Cregar and Marc Lawrence lend memorable support. Directed by Frank Tuttle, from a screenplay by W. R. Burnett (THE ASPHALT JUNGLE) and Albert Maltz (THE NAKED CITY). (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Frank Tuttle; SCR Albert Maltz, W. R. Burnett, based on the novel by Graham Greene. US, 1942, b&w, 81 min.
  
• CROSSFIRE
  65th Anniversary!
  Just back from WWII, a troop of Army soldiers kills time in Washington, DC, but one of them is suspected of a hate crime— the killing of a Jewish man after a chance encounter. Robert Young is the seen-it-all police detective; Robert Mitchum, at his blasé best, plays a cool-headed sergeant conducting his own investigation in parallel — and at times in conflict — with the cops. Robert Ryan's portrayal of the bigoted, cracked-up killer earned him his only Oscar nomination.
  DIR Edward Dmytryk; SCR John Paxton, based on the novel by Richard Brooks; PROD Adrian Scott. US, 1947, b&w, 86 min.
  
• THIEVES' HIGHWAY
  A perennial favorite, presented in a pristine 35mm print!
  WWII vet Richard Conte drives to San Francisco to sell a load of apples — and get revenge on the crooked broker (Lee J. Cobb) who crippled his father. Shot on location in the city's once-thriving Embarcadero produce district, and featuring a terrific performance by Valentina Cortese. Screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides, from his novel "Thieves' Market." (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Jules Dassin; SCR A. I. Bezzerides, based on his novel; PROD Robert Bassler. US, 1949, b&w, 94 min.
  
• THE BREAKING POINT
  Preserved 35mm Print!
  John Garfield gives perhaps his greatest performance as world-weary fishing boat skipper Harry Morgan in this superb and darkly noir adaptation of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not," one of the best, if unjustly neglected, films of the noir era. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Michael Curtiz; SCR Ranald MacDougall, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway; PROD Jerry Wald. US, 1950, b&w, 97 min.
  
• BRUTE FORCE
  65th Anniversary!
  "Men caged on the inside…Driven by the thought of their women on the loose!" Jules Dassin's hard-hitting prison drama remains a touchstone of the genre, with desperation-driven intensity that explodes into a chaotic breakout-cum-battle royale. Suffering under the heel of sadistic cell block guard Hume Cronyn, inmate Burt Lancaster bides his time and plans his escape. The screenplay is by future director Richard Brooks; William Daniels' photography and Miklós Rózsa's music imbue the atmosphere with an artful foreboding.
  DIR Jules Dassin; SCR Richard Brooks, story by Robert Patterson; PROD Mark Hellinger. US, 1947, b&w, 98 min.
  
• NAKED ALIBI
  New 35mm Print!
  A murder suspect (Gene Barry), released for lack of evidence, vows vengeance on the cops who brutalized him. When one of those cops turns up dead, his partner (Sterling Hayden) hunts down the "innocent" man to prove him guilty. Both end up in thrall to border town bad girl Gloria Grahame, whose unique sexiness is on full display in this ultra-rare potboiler! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Jerry Hopper; SCR Lawrence Roman, based on the story "Cry Copper" by J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater; PROD Ross Hunter. US, 1954, b&w, 86 min.
  
• THE NAKED CITY
  Preserved 35mm Print!
  "There are eight million stories in the Naked City," as the narrator immortally states at the close of this breathtakingly vivid film — and this is one of them. Master noir craftsman Jules Dassin and newspaperman-cum-producer Mark Hellinger's dazzling police procedural was shot entirely on location in New York City. As influenced by Italian neorealism as American crime fiction, this double Academy Award winner remains a benchmark for naturalism in noir, living and breathing in the promises and perils of the Big Apple, from its lowest depths to its highest skyscrapers. (Courtesy of The Criterion Collection)
  DIR Jules Dassin; SCR Albert Maltz, Malvin Wald, based on his story; PROD Mark Hellinger. US, 1948, b&w, 96 min.
  
• THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
  Footloose Irish sailor Orson Welles gets mixed up in murder with crooked and disabled lawyer Everett Sloane and his sultry wife Rita Hayworth (then Mrs. Welles). Byzantine plot complications and baroque visuals ensue, including would-be lovers discussing a murder plot as a shark in an aquarium swims behind them, topped off by the justly legendary hall-of-mirrors shootout finale.
  DIR/SCR/PROD Orson Welles; SCR based on the novel "If I Die Before I Wake" by Sherwood King. US, 1948, b&w, 87 min.
  
• 99 RIVER STREET
  John Payne is a washed-up boxer framed for the murder of his wife. Evelyn Keyes is his sexy gal-pal, using all her wiles to bust the set-up. A damn near perfect 1950s crime saga, perhaps the signature film of director Phil Karlson. The dynamite screenplay is by Robert Smith. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Phil Karlson; SCR Robert Smith, based on the story by George Zuckerman. US, 1953, b&w, 83 min.
  
• GILDA
  Rita Hayworth created her Hollywood "Love Goddess" legend in this tailor-made romantic drama, the first of several sex-charged pairings with costar Glenn Ford. The amazing sexual symbolism slipped past the censors (and most viewers) at the time; today the film is regarded as one of the greatest examples of a director "working around" the Production Code. (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Charles Vidor; SCR Marion Parsonnet, Jo Eisinger, based on the story by E. A. Ellington; PROD Virginia Van Upp. US, 1946, b&w, 110 min.
  
• THREE STRANGERS
  New 35mm Print!
  Noir strays into the supernatural realm in this fantastic tale of three strangers (Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Geraldine Fitzgerald) whose fates entwine with a mysterious Chinese idol and a winning lottery ticket. Deeply cynical, gloriously atmospheric. Never on DVD, almost lost in 35mm format, this forgotten classic is proudly presented in a brand new Film Noir Foundation-funded preservation print! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Jean Negulesco; SCR John Huston, Howard Koch; PROD Wolfgang Reinhardt. US, 1946, b&w, 92 min.
  
• T-MEN
  65th Anniversary!
  Director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton— king of chiaroscuro — pull out all the stops in relating the intensely exciting and shockingly brutal tale of U.S. Treasury agents, led by the redoubtable Dennis O'Keefe, going undercover to infiltrate a cadre of counterfeiters. Great character bits from Charles McGraw and Wallace Ford in a vivid script by crime scribe John C. Higgins. One of the most artfully arresting visual spectacles of the original film noir era! (Courtesy of The Film Noir Foundation)
  DIR Anthony Mann; SCR John C. Higgins, story by Virginia Kellogg; PROD Aubrey Schenck. US, 1947, b&w, 92 min.
  

2012-02-03 Bigger Than Life: The Films of Nicholas Ray afi.com

---

2011-10-15 Noir City DC: the 2011 Film Noir Festival afi.com

Noir City DC returns! This year's edition includes canonical titles THE MALTESE FALCON, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and LAURA; many fan favorites from this year's Noir City Film Festival (noircity.com) at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco, including CRASHOUT, THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME and BEWARE MY LOVELY; and several excellent lesser-known rarities, including HIGH WALL, LOOPHOLE and THE HUNTED, recently preserved by the Film Noir Foundation.

---

2011-04-23 A Season of Rohmer. 04/23-06/30 afi.com

Wiki. Rohmer
Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) changed the course of contemporary filmmaking with his eloquent, elegant and probing films focused on small moral dilemmas in the everyday lives of middle-class people. Born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer (Eric Rohmer was his nom de plume), he remained quiet about his own life but crafted beautifully wordy and witty scenarios for his protagonists. The most literary of the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, Rohmer's trademark comedies of manners are, in fact, as much about his characters' linguistic habits as they are about their lives, loves and entanglements. Frequently compared to Jane Austen or Henry James, Rohmer's oeuvre is arguably closer to Stendhal: intense analysis of the tiniest situations, a light tone of detachment and, of course, the clever dialogue. "A Rohmer film is a flavor that, once tasted, cannot be mistaken." – Roger Ebert.

• THE BAKERY GIRL OF MONCEAU [La Boulangère de Monceau] and SUZANNE'S CAREER [La Carrière de Suzanne]
  Rohmer explored the ironies and agonies of love in these two black-and-white short films, the first two entries in what would become the six-film Moral Tales series. In THE BAKERY GIRL OF MONCEAU, a young man spies the girl of his dreams on the street, but, after losing track of her, goes sweet on a different girl. One future director (Barbet Schroeder) plays the young man, another (Bertrand Tavernier) handles the narration. In SUZANNE'S CAREER, a young woman working her way through school becomes involved in a bizarre love triangle with two moody classmates. Both films, shot on black-and-white 16mm in Paris locations, have a strong cinéma vérité quality.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Barbet Schroeder and Georges Derocles. France, 1963, b&w, 23min/54min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• LA COLLECTIONNEUSE
  Rohmer's first color film, and the first shot by cinematographer Néstor Almendros, who became a regular contributor to Rohmer's work throughout the 1970s. Crashing at a friend's villa in sunny St. Tropez, twentysomethings Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) and Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle) are driven to distraction by their sensuous younger neighbor Haydée (Haydee Politoff). All three are free spirits, but the two men project outsize appetites upon Haydée, imagining that she's a man-eater — a "collector" of sexual encounters. Largely improvised by the leads, the film is notable for its rough-hewn — sometimes nasty — dialogue, unlike other Rohmer works.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Georges de Beauregard, Barbet Schroeder. France, 1967, color, 89 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S [Ma Nuit Chez Maud]
  It's love at first sight for devout Catholic Jean-Louis Trintignant when he spies a pretty blonde woman in a nearby pew during Mass, the kind of woman he always imagined he would marry. But then at a friend's cocktail party he meets Maud, a beautiful brunette, worldly, wise and divorced, with whom he strikes up a lively conversation. A sudden snowstorm conspires to keep the two together overnight, allowing their conversation to continue, and while the subjects may include Blaise Pascal and the existence of God, the subtext is all seduction. Oscar Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Pierre Cottrell, Barbet Schroeder. France, 1969, b&w, 110 min. In French with English subtitles
  
• CLAIRE'S KNEE [Le Genou de Claire]
  The well-ordered life of Jean-Claude Brialy, a young diplomat, recently engaged — takes an unexpected turn when he experiences a coup de foudre of amour fou for teenager Claire (Laurence de Monaghan), and, specifically, her lovely knees, which he longs to caress. He confides his secret desires to his novelist friend Aurora Cornu, who listens patiently and bemusedly, Brialy's fantasies firing her own imagination and inspiring her new novel. The characters' intertwined imaginings and fumbling, doubling fantasies fill their summer days and nights in one of Rohmer's most comedic and best-loved films. Named Best Film of 1971, National Society of Film Critics.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Pierre Cottrell, Barbet Schroeder. France, 1970, color, 105 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON [L'Amour l'Après-Midi]
  Married businessman Bernard Verley falls into a flirtation with sexy young bohemian Zouzou, complicated by the fact that she wants more than just a friendship or a relationship — she wants to bear his child. The final chapter in the Moral Tales series recaps many of the themes and explorations of the preceding entries, and pushes the furthest into the idea of one's dream life as a parallel, perhaps necessary, world to the one we live in. "Rohmer, a specialist in the eroticism of non-sexual affairs, is a superb lapidary craftsman, who works on a very small scale. This movie is, in its way, just about perfect." – The New Yorker. Recently remade by Chris Rock as I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Pierre Cottrell, Barbet Schroeder. France, 1972, color, 97 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• THE AVIATOR'S WIFE [La Femme de l'Aviateur]
  Serious-minded law student Philippe Marlaud fears the worst when he spots his girlfriend Marie Riviere leaving her apartment in the company of her ex, handsome pilot Mathieu Carriere. Intent on discovering the truth, Marlaud becomes an amateur sleuth, trailing the man around Paris. During his surveillance he attracts the attention of curious teenager Anne-Laure Meury, who winds up tagging along, a Watson to his Holmes. "A thoroughly delightful experience. It is also a theory of cinema as a precarious balancing act between fantasy and reality, between mythology and sociology, and above all, between dreaming and awakening." – Andrew Sarris, film critic.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Margaret Ménégoz. France, 1981, color, 104 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• A GOOD MARRIAGE [Le Beau Mariage]
  "Can anyone refrain from building castles in Spain?" Stung by the inevitable disappointment of affairs with married men, art student Béatrice Romand resolves to find a husband of her own. Dashing lawyer André Dussollier is understandably surprised to learn he has been selected for that role after just one meeting with Romand at a party, where they were introduced by mischievous matchmaker Arielle Dombasle.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Margaret Ménégoz. France, 1982, color, 97 min. In French with English subtitles.
• PAULINE AT THE BEACH [Pauline à la Plage]
  "He who talks too much will damage himself." Teenager Pauline (Amanda Langlet) is thrilled to spend her summer holiday in the company of her chic, recently divorced older cousin, Marion (Arielle Dombasle). At first swept up in the whirl of her cousin's dates, parties and romantic intrigues, in time Pauline gains a more clear-eyed perspective on the folly of it all. Best Film of 1984, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics; Silver Bear, Best Director, 1983 Berlin Film Festival.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Margaret Ménégoz. France, 1983, color, 94 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• FULL MOON IN PARIS [Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune]
  "He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind." Beautiful interior decorator Pascale Ogier has a live-in boyfriend at her home in the country but enjoys a carefree single life when she stays at her apartment in Paris. Can she continue to have it both ways? And is that even what she really wants? Best Film of 1985, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics; Silver Lion for Best Actress (Ogier), 1984 Venice Film Festival.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Margaret Ménégoz. France, 1984, color, 100 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• BOYFRIENDS AND GIRLFRIENDS [L'Ami de Mon Amie]
  "The friends of my friends are my friends." Best friends Lea (Sophie Renoir) and Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet) get caught up in romantic game-playing after Lea takes a liking to Alexandre (Francois-Eric Gendron), whom Blanche has a crush on, and decides that Blanche would be perfect for Lea's boyfriend, Fabien (Eric Viellard), whom she has grown tired of. The film's deceptively breezy tone disguises a more serious-minded examination of love and friendship in Rohmer's final installment of the Comedies and Proverbs series.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; PROD Margaret Menegoz. France, 1987, color, 103 min. In French with English subtitles.
  
• SUMMER [Le Rayon Vert]
  "Ah for the days/That set our hearts ablaze." Parisian secretary Marie Riviere, newly single and at loose ends, has high hopes that taking a summer vacation with a friend will help her get her groove back — hopes that are dashed when her friend cancels at the last minute. Her family invites her to Ireland but she doesn't want to go. She meets friends in Cherbourg but feels like a fifth wheel. Then she goes to be alone in the Alps, which is worse, so back to Paris. But what at first seems like a series of setbacks turns out to be serendipity in disguise, as Rivière discovers an improvisatory equilibrium she didn't know she had. Golden Lion and FIPRESCI Prize, 1986 Venice Film Festival. A Film Desk release.
  DIR/SCR Eric Rohmer; SCR Marie Rivière; PROD Margaret Ménégoz. France, 1986, color, 98 min. In French with English subtitles.

---

2011-04-23 Poetry of the Past: The Visionary Films of Frantisek Vlacil. 04/23-06/29 afi.com

The films of Czech director Frantisek Vlacil (1924-1999) include one of the key precursors of the Czech New Wave in the 1960s (THE WHITE DOVE), a medieval epic considered by many to be the greatest film in Czech history (MARKETA LAZAROVA), and the first Czechoslovak film to examine the controversial displacement and deportation of Germans from the country after World War II (ADELHEID). For a filmmaker of such accomplishments, his work is not nearly as well known internationally as it should be, especially when compared to his more celebrated peers Milos Forman and Jirí Menzel. AFI Silver is proud to present this landmark retrospective of one of world cinema's great unknown talents, whose command of cinematic language, visual sensibility and inspired and insightful handling of historical allegory place him at the front ranks of film artists.
Special thanks to: National Film Archive, Prague; Bionaut Films; British Film Institute/Geoff Andrew and Julie Pearce; Czech Centre London/Renata Clark; Czech Center New York/Pavla Niklova and Radka Krizek; Film Society of Lincoln Center/Richard Peña and Scott Foundas; Czech Embassy in Washington, DC/Barbara Karpetova and Jana Ravova; and Irena Kovarova.

• THE WHITE DOVE [Holubice]
  In Vlácil's parable-like debut feature, a wheelchair-bound boy in Prague shoots a homing pigeon for target practice, then, chided by his artist neighbor, nurses the bird back to health. Meanwhile, a girl on the Baltic coast awaits her pet's return. Intensely imagistic, the nearly dialogue-free film includes a thrilling action sequence staged between the recovering pigeon and a neighborhood cat. Jan Curíks's stunning black-and-white cinematography favors high-contrast compositions between sea and sand, cityscape and sky. One of the key films in the emerging cinematic sensibility of the 1960s that would coalesce into the Czech New Wave by the decade's end.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Pavel Kopta. Czechoslovakia, 1960, b&w, 76 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• THE DEVIL'S TRAP [Dáblova past]
  The first of Vlácil's three Middle Ages historical-allegorical epics is set in a Bohemian village in the late 16th century. While the farmers struggle with the summertime drought, the local miller, using his knowledge of the land and the rudiments of science, has discovered and tapped an underground aquifer, and enjoys prosperity. His success is the object of envy in the village, and after a property dispute with the local government escalates into a feud, an Inquisition priest is sent to investigate allegations of diabolical dealings behind the miller's seemingly miraculous success.
  DIR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Frantisek A. Dvorák, Milos Václav Kratochvíl. Czechoslovakia, 1962, b&w, 85 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• MARKETA LAZAROVA
  In 13th-century middle Europe, a young woman (Magda Valaryova) becomes embroiled in clan warfare, fought between adherents of the traditional, pagan belief system and those caught up in the fervor of the new faith, Christianity. Stylistically, the film combines seemingly contrary qualities: the stark black-and-white visuals of castles and forests are evocatively "ancient" while the free camera movement and highly engineered sound design signify New Wave technique; similarly, the story, based on Vladislav Vancura's 1931 experimental novel, is by turns earthy and ethereal, naturalistic and hallucinatory. Named the best Czech film of all time in a 1998 poll.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacill; SCR Frantisek Pavlícek, based on the novel by Vladislav Vancura; PROD Josef Ouzky. Czechoslovakia, 1967, b&w, 162 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• VALLEY OF THE BEES [Udolí vcel]
  Falling out with his father over the older man's plans to marry a beautiful younger woman, headstrong youngster Ondrej (Petr Cepek) is sent away to apprentice with a strict order of Teutonic knights on the Baltic coast. Years later the grown-up Ondrej deserts the knights to return to his home village in Bohemia with revenge in mind, pursued by his pious mentor Armin (Jan Kacer), who hopes to stop him before it's too late. The examination of religious intolerance and political oppression in this adventure set in the Middle Ages undoubtedly contained allegorical resonance for contemporary Czechoslovak audiences, as it will for today's viewers.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Vladimír Korner; PROD Vera Kadlecova. Czechoslovakia, 1968, b&w, 97 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• ADELHEID
  In the reclaimed Sudetenland after World War II, former RAF airman Viktor Chotovický (Petr Cepek) gets assigned to inventory and administer a large estate formerly owned by a Nazi war criminal. The former owner's daughter, Adelheid (Emma Cerná), is assigned to Cepek as a servant. A strange love affair grows between the two, against a backdrop of the bloody expulsion of Germans by the Czechoslovak government in the period after the war. Vlácil's was the first film, and remains one of the few, to address this controversial chapter in Czechoslovak history.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Vladimir Korner. Czechoslovakia, 1970, b&w/color, 99 min. In Czech and German with English subtitles.
  
• SIRIUS
  After running afoul of government censors for the controversial topics and critical views expressed in VALLEY OF THE BEES and ADELHEID, Vlácil was unable to direct features for a number of years, eventually making a return with this featurette-length children's film, which, despite the diminished circumstances of its scope and genre, displays an allegorical potency on par with his previous work. A 12-year-old boy named Frantisek enjoys idyllic country days playing with his beloved wolfhound Sirius. The presence of World War II only gradually comes into focus, after the German army, rooting out subversives, imposes stricter rules on the locals. They also begin commandeering all service animals - training dogs for attack purposes - forcing Frantisek to face a terrible choice.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Kamil Pixa, Jan Stibral. Czechoslovakia, 1975, color, 50 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• SMOKE ON THE POTATO FIELDS [Dý m bramborové nate]
  Rudolf Hrusínsky (star of Juraj Herz's THE CREMATOR and Jirí Menzel's CAPRICIOUS SUMMER) plays Dr. Meluzin, a man, recently separated from his wife, who returns to rural Czechoslovakia after many years living in France. Nostalgic for the country of his youth, he forms a bond with an unmarried young pregnant woman who has been kicked out by her mother.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Vaclav Ny vlt. Czechoslovakia, 1977, color, 95 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• SHADOWS OF A HOT SUMMER [Stíny horké ho lé ta]
  A Moravian farmhouse in the days following the end of WWII is occupied by a retreating band of Ukranian guerillas, who until recently were resistance fighters battling the Nazis. Faced with their abusive and criminal behavior, the peaceful farmer must choose between acquiescence and standing up to the occupiers. Notable for the intensity of its violence and an extraordinary score by Vlácil's regular collaborator, Zdenek Liska, "a composer who matched the director's unorthodox eye with an extraordinary ear for unexpected tonal coloring and unconventional instrumentation; here it's part-Morricone, part Central European pastoral." – Michael Brooke, Sight & Sound
  DIR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Jirí Krizan. Czechoslovakia, 1978, color, 100 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• SERPENT'S POISON [Hadí jed]
  Her mother dead, 18-year-old Vladka (Ilona Svobodová) travels to a remote village in the dead of winter to find the father she has never met. The happiness of their initial meeting gives way to the daughter's disappointment and concern over the hardworking man's (Josef Vinklár, giving an extraordinary performance) alcoholism. Vlácil and cinematographer Frantisek Uldrich return to black and white photography for the first time since 1968's VALLEY OF THE BEES, the stark images and wintry landscapes reflecting the characters' desperation and spiritual isolation.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Irena Charvátová. Czechoslovakia, 1981, b&w, 80 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• THE SHADOW OF THE FERN [Stín kapradiny]
  Caught poaching a deer, two callow teenagers shoot the gamekeeper and flee farther into the forest, imagining a life of escape and adventure for themselves outside the law. But they are in a trap of their own devising, from which there can be no escape. Vlácil's hallucinatory nightmare of pursuit and persecution was based on a novel by Josef Capek, Czech folklore and, perhaps, Jan Nemec's 1964 classic DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil; SCR Vladimír Körner, Jan Otcenásek, based on a novel by Josef Capek. Czechoslovakia, 1984, color, 90 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• SENTIMENT
  Tomas Hejtmanek's tribute to Vlácil is based on interviews taped with him before he died, which are here reenacted by the actor Jirí Kodet in the role of the director. Kodet provides a remarkable characterization and the film is intercut with footage of the locations where Vlácil shot MARKETA LAZAROVA, VALLEY OF THE BEES and ADELHEID. Extracts from the soundtracks are sometimes re-used with new images filmed in striking black and white by Jaromír Kacer. There are also appearances by Frantisek Velecky , Jan Kacer and Emma Cerná against the locations where the films were originally shot. (Courtesy Czech Centre London)
  DIR/SCR/PROD Tomas Hejtmanek; SCR Jirí Soukup. Czech Republic, 2003, b&w/color, 76 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• GLASS SKIES [Sklenená oblaka]
  A young boy and an old man share dreams of flight in Vlácil's poetic and visually dazzling short film, a prize winner at the 1958 Venice Film Festival.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil. Czechoslovakia, 1958, color, 18 min. In Czech with English subtitles.
  
• ART NOUVEAU PRAGUE [Praha secesní lé ta 1895-1914]
  A sumptuous survey of the art and architecture of Prague from the turn of the 20th century.
  DIR/SCR Frantisek Vlacil. Czechoslovakia, 1974, color, 30 min. In Czech with English subtitles.

---

2010-11-24 Directed by Victor Fleming. 11/24 - 12/19 - 1

Best remembered now as the director of two timeless classics from 1939, THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND, director Victor Fleming's body of work demands reconsideration. During the wildcatting silent film era, Fleming worked his way up from set driver to cameraman, eventually becoming one of Douglas Fairbanks' key collaborators and lifelong friends. He directed a string of hits in both the late silent and early sound era--transitioning from one medium to the other much more nimbly than other directors--and guided several young stars in important career-making performances: Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Henry Fonda, Judy Garland and, especially, Clark Gable, who was still an unknown when cast in RED DUST and the only man who could play Rhett Butler just a few years later in GONE WITH THE WIND.
This ten-film retrospective includes a wide-ranging selection of Fleming's most significant work, both well-known classics and half-forgotten gems, each title in the series serving to help round out the legacy of one of Hollywood's most important directors.

---

2010-11-24 Directed by Victor Fleming. 11/24 - 12/19 - 2

THE WIZARD OF OZ
#3 on AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals
#10 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." THE WIZARD OF OZ is one of the all-time best-loved classics in American movies. But the expensive and ambitious 1939 musical fantasy had a troubled production history, including on-set mishaps and eleventh-hour script changes (and nonchanges--the film's most enduring song, "Over the Rainbow," [#1 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs] was nearly dropped!). Credit for the film's ultimate, lasting success can be shared across the board: a sharp script credited to Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf; the vision of producer Mervyn LeRoy and (uncredited) Arthur Freed, about to begin his brilliant career overseeing MGM's musicals; the wonderful songs of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg; and the outstanding cast of 16-year-old MGM prodigy Judy Garland, vaudeville vets Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and John Lahr as her enchanting pals, and ace character actors Frank Morgan as the Wizard and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. But the man who made all of it ring true--the music, magic, action and emotion--was director Victor Fleming.
DIR Victor Fleming; SCR Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf based on the book by L. Frank Baum; PROD Mervyn LeRoy. US, 1939, b&w/color, 101 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-11-24 Directed by Victor Fleming. 11/24 - 12/19 - 3

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
*In Person: Michael Sragow will introduce the 9:15 show on December 3; arrive early to purchase his book in the lobby before the show!
Ripe for rediscovery, this too-little-seen version of Robert Louis Stevenson's macabre classic ranks among the very best. Spencer Tracy lets it all hang out as the upstanding doctor with the id-driven alter ego, with Lana Turner as his society fiancee and Ingrid Bergman as the cockney barmaid that Mr. Hyde prefers. "Fleming's swagger and seductiveness translate into an interestingly brusque, rough-'em-up tough- love view of male-female relations. The sheer nastiness of Tracy's Hyde is mesmerizingly scary." -- Molly Haskell
DIR/PROD Victor Fleming; SCR John Lee Mahin based on the novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. US, 1941, b&w, 113 min. NOT RATED

RED DUST
*In Person: Michael Sragow will introduce the 12:45 show on December 4; copies of his book will be available for purchase (and autographs!) in the lobby before and after the show!
Hard-working rubber plantation owner Clark Gable initially doesn't take a shine to Saigon hooker Jean Harlow, who's hitched a ride upriver with Gable's shiftless employee Donald Crisp. But just as he starts to warm to her wisecracking charm, surveyor Gene Raymond arrives with his society wife, Mary Astor, in tow. Gable falls hard for Astor, but Harlow's not giving up so easily. Shot on jungle sets previously used for TARZAN, this racy, pre-Code picture became the smash hit that propelled Clark Gable to stardom. "Harlow [delivers] her zingy wisecracks with a wonderful dirty humor. Directed by Fleming in a racy, action-packed style." -- Pauline Kael
DIR Victor Fleming; SCR John Lee Mahin, based on the play by Wilson Collison; PROD Hunt Stromberg, Irving Thalberg. US, 1932, b&w, 83 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-11-24 Directed by Victor Fleming. 11/24 - 12/19 - 4

THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE
New 35mm Print!
Henry Fonda (in his screen debut) works as a deckhand on an Erie Canal boat in order to save enough money to buy a farm and settle down. When he meets ship's cook Janet Gaynor, he thinks he's found just the woman to settle down with. But Gaynor likes her exciting life on the canal, and her hardnosed boss, Charles Bickford, isn't about to let her go.
DIR Victor Fleming; SCR Edwin J. Burke, based on the play by Marc Connelly and Frank B. Elser, based on the novel "Rome Haul" by Walter D. Edmonds; PROD Winfield R. Sheehan. US, 1935, b&w, 91 min. NOT RATED

THE VIRGINIAN
New 35mm Print!
"Has an enduring charm. Cooper's first all-talking picture in which, with the help of director Fleming, he found the laconic, straight-arrow character that he was to represent through much of his later career. The relationship between Cooper and Arlen, much like the later friendship of Newman and Redford, gives the film its emotional resonance." -- Pauline Kael
In the Old Wyoming Territory, ranch hand Gary Cooper and best buddy Richard Arlen become rivals for the affection of schoolteacher Mary Brian. After Arlen falls in with Walter Huston's gang of cattle rustlers, Cooper must make the tough call to hang his old pal. One of the archetypical Westerns, based on the novel by Owen Wister, directed with gusto and grit by Fleming. "The essential expression of Western gallantry and nobility, without any fake heroism or sentimentality." -- Michael Sragow. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
DIR Victor Fleming; SCR Howard Estabrook, Grover Jones, Keene Thompson, Edward E. Paramore Jr., based on the novel by Owen Wister; PROD Louis D. Lighton. US, 1929, b&w, 91 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-11-24 Directed by Victor Fleming. 11/24 - 12/19 - 5

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS
Spoiled rich kid Freddie Bartholomew falls from an ocean liner into the briny deep and certain doom until rescued by Portuguese fisherman Spencer Tracy. Put to work on Tracy's fishing schooner for the next few months until they return to harbor, the pampered Bartholomew initially thinks his luck's gone from bad to worse, but under Tracy's patient and wise tutelage, he learns the value of hard work, responsibility and true friendship. Best Actor Oscar for Tracy, who'd win again the following year for BOYS TOWN. "Unashamedly emotional and profoundly moving...Fleming's most personal film and, as a work that he directed in its entirety, it is also his greatest achievement." -- Peter Bogdanovich
DIR Victor Fleming; SCR John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly, Dale Van Every, based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling; PROD Louis D. Lighton. US, 1937, b&w, 115 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-19 'Fair Game' at AFI Silver imdb.com

Doug Liman
Valerie Plame
Joseph Wilson

Doug Liman	Valerie Plame		Valerie Plame, Joseph Wilson

		Joseph Wilson

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 1

This edition of Noir City DC features a cavalcade of noir stars, including Robert Mitchum, Sterling Hayden, and Burt Lancaster, and femmes fatales Rhonda Fleming, Marie Windsor and Kim Novak; seminal works by great noir directors Anthony Mann, Jacques Tourneur and André de Toth; a tribute to the dynamic work of unsung director Andrew L. Stone; plus cult classics and rarities that can't be seen anywhere else. Once again, film noir scholar Foster Hirsch of the Film Noir Foundation will lead discussions on some of the genre's greatest achievements.
The Film Noir Foundation
The Film Noir Foundation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. The Foundation's mission is to find and preserve films in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged, and to ensure that high-quality prints of these classic films remain in circulation for theatrical exhibition to future generations.
SPECIAL THANKS TO EDDIE MULLER AND FOSTER HIRSCH FOR MAKING THIS SERIES POSSIBLE.

BORDER INCIDENT
Spectacular cinematography by noir master John Alton transforms this procedural exposé of illegal farm workers on the Texas-Mexico border into a noir fever dream. An intense and surprisingly violent "docu-drama," written by crime specialist John C. Higgins and directed by the great Anthony Mann. (Courtesy of Noir City Seattle)
DIR Anthony Mann; SCR John C. Higgins; PROD Nicholas Nayfack. US, 1949, b&w, 94 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 2

STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR
Newspaper reporter John McGuire plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death. A stunning example of cinematic expressionism, cited by many as the first studio film shot in a completely noir style. Peter Lorre virtually reprises the eerily convincing persona he created in Fritz Lang's M, adding an emotion-wringing melancholia to his performance as a paranoid, lost soul. Featuring the astounding art direction of Van Nest Polglase and the brilliant cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca, as well as reportedly uncredited script work by Nathanael West (The Day of the Locust)! (Courtesy of Noir City Los Angeles)
DIR Boris Ingster; SCR Frank Partos; PROD Lee Marcus. US, 1940, b&w, 64 min. NOT RATED

VERTIGO
50th Anniversary Restored Version!
Perennially hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, this is Alfred Hitchcock's supreme achievement, the fullest expression of his cinematic obsessions and the one that goes the furthest in pursuit of them. On a leave of absence after his spell of acrophobia led to the death of a beat cop, Jimmy Stewart's San Francisco detective accepts an unusual PI assignment from old college classmate Tom Helmore: follow wife Kim Novak, not because she's cheating, but because she's possessed! The truth is much more mundane, duplicitous and deadly, with Stewart spiraling first into devastation, then revenge-fueled obsession.
DIR/PROD Alfred Hitchcock; SCR Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor, based on the novel d'Entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. US, 1958, color, 126 min. RATED PG

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 3

CRISS CROSS
"The savage drama of an amazing double double-cross!" This follow-up to the smash hit THE KILLERS reteams director Robert Siodmak with star Burt Lancaster, who once again finds himself on the short side of a deadly love triangle. Lancaster returns to his native Los Angeles and his old neighborhood haunts after a year of wandering and soon bumps into ex-wife Yvonne de Carlo, who seems interested in rekindling their relationship, though she has just married gangster Dan Duryea. Soon the hopelessly still-smitten Lancaster is drawn into Duryea's criminal orbit, planning an armored car heist and scheming to run off with de Carlo but completely unaware that the others may be looking to leave him holding the bag.
DIR Robert Siodmak; SCR Daniel Fuchs, based on the novel by Don Tracy; PROD Michael Kraike. US, 1949, b&w, 88 min. NOT RATED

ACT OF VIOLENCE
Respected family man and successful contractor Van Heflin is a World War II veteran who is building and dedicating a war monument to his fallen comrades. When Robert Ryan arrives in Heflin's sleepy hometown wild-eyed and determined to kill him, it becomes clear that there may be some dark secrets that Heflin would do anything - even kill - to keep. Mary Astor as a lady of the night and Janet Leigh as Heflin's unsuspecting wife round out the superb cast.
DIR Fred Zinnemann; SCR Robert L. Richards; PROD William H. Wright. US, 1948, b&w, 82 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 4

HIGHWAY 301
Director Andrew L. Stone was known primarily for musicals (including the pioneering black showcase STORMY WEATHER, with Lena Horne) before suddenly switching to a solid decade of hardboiled yarns shot largely on authentic locations. This was the first in that vein, and one of the best. Steve Cochran is a cold-blooded outlaw leading the Tri-State Gang on a robbery and murder spree through Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The film combines the popular early-1950s "documentary" approach with flashes of wildly stylized and (for the time) graphic violence. With Virginia Grey (THE THREAT), Gaby Andre and Robert Webber (12 ANGRY MEN) in his feature film debut. (Courtesy of Noir City Los Angeles)
DIR/SCR Andrew L. Stone; PROD Bryan Foy. US, 1950, b&w, 83 min. NOT RATED

SCARLET STREET
Restored 35mm Print!
One of director Fritz Lang's greatest American films and a canonical film noir of the classic, genre-defining 1940s. Walking home from a boozy party at his boss's Manhattan mansion, mild-mannered bank teller Edward G. Robinson surprises himself when he breaks up Dan Duryea's on-street pimp-slapping of Joan Bennett, knocking Duryea cold. Emboldened by Bennett's grateful attentions, he spirals into full-on midlife crisis mode, courting Bennett, entering into an art fraud scheme with the apologetic-but-duplicitous Duryea and skimming from the till at work. This isn't going to end well. 35mm print restored by the Library of Congress.
DIR/PROD Fritz Lang; SCR Dudley Nichols, based on La Chienne by Georges de La Fouchardière and André Mouézy-Éon. US, 1945, b&w, 103 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 5

THE KILLING
Stanley Kubrick was 27 when he directed his third feature, creating one of film noir's most influential works. This film marked a key transition between the end of the classic noir cycle of the '40s and '50s and the neonoir period of the '60s and '70s. Ex-con hard case Sterling Hayden assembles a crew of colorful lowlifes to pull off a daring daytime racetrack heist. Poor judgment, bad luck and a faithless wife conspire to undo their big score, and as things fall apart, this time-fractured puzzle of a story comes together. The screenplay was co-written by Kubrick and pulp great Jim Thompson; the sharp cinematography is by Lucien Ballard.
DIR/SCR Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White; PROD James B. Harris. US, 1956, b&w, 85 min. NOT RATED

PUSHOVER
A cold-blooded guy a hot-blooded blonde!
"Money isn't dirty, just people." Fred MacMurray reprises his DOUBLE INDEMNITY persona as a cop investigating a bank robbery who, after falling for the suspect's girlfriend (Kim Novak in her screen debut), hatches a scheme with her to off her boyfriend and keep the money. The script is by Roy Huggins, creator of TV's THE FUGITIVE, and underrated director Richard Quine displays mastery of the noir conventions.
DIR Richard Quine; SCR Roy Huggins, based on The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh and Rafferty by William S. Ballinger; PROD Jules Schermer. US, 1954, b&w, 88 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 6

CRY DANGER
Restored 35mm Print!
Robert Parrish's directorial debut, one of the wickedest, wittiest revenge yarns of the original film noir era, was recently restored under the auspices of the Film Noir Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. It costars the ravishing Rhonda Fleming and the redoubtable Richard Erdman, one of the great wisecrackers of all time. (Courtesy of Noir City)
DIR Robert Parrish; SCR William Bowers; PROD W.R. Frank, Sam Wiesenthal. US, 1951, b&w, 79 min. NOT RATED

PITFALL
Restored 35mm Print!
This independently produced gem is the most realistic exploration of adultery produced in 1940s Hollywood. Bored suburbanite Dick Powell drifts into a dalliance with hard-luck model Lizabeth Scott, only to find his life and family threatened by an obsessive private eye and a jealous ex-con. Director André De Toth had the gifted Bill Bowers rewrite the script. The result is truly believable noir - a wrenching tale of repressed lust and suburban ennui. Restored print courtesy the UCLA Film and Television Archive. (Courtesy of Noir City)
DIR/SCR André De Toth; SCR Karl Kamb, William Bowers, after the novel by Jay Dratler; PROD Samuel Bischoff. US, 1948, b&w, 86 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 7

CRY TERROR!
A happily married couple (James Mason and Inger Stevens) is caught up in a dangerous web of suspense and intrigue when the husband unintentionally helps a psychopathic criminal (Rod Steiger) build a deadly bomb. He is kidnapped with his wife and daughter by a pair of thugs (Jack Klugman and Angie Dickinson), and things quickly go from bad to worse as this little-seen noir thriller ratchets up the tension to a wrenching level. (Courtesy of NW Film Center)
DIR/SCR/PROD Andrew L. Stone; PROD Virginia L. Stone. US, 1958, b&w, 96 min. NOT RATED

NIGHTFALL
New 35mm Print!
Jacques Tourneur's other great contribution to the noir canon, ten years after OUT OF THE PAST. Jittery Aldo Ray is being followed around sweltering LA by nosy insurance investigator James Gregory, as well as gangsters Brian Keith and Rudy Bond, who know that Ray knows too much about a heist they pulled a year before. When Keith and Bond grab Ray and take him for a ride, the past comes crashing back in a classic noir flashback, transporting the action to wintry Wyoming, where Ray was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also starring Anne Bancroft and Jocelyn Brando (Marlon's sister); cinematography by Burnett Guffey (BONNIE AND CLYDE).
DIR Jacques Tourneur; SCR Stirling Silliphant, based on the story by David Goodis; PROD Ted Richmond. US, 1957, b&w, 78 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 8

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
The only film directed by the great actor Charles Laughton, it has enjoyed cult status across six decades. Blending the frightening mythological power of a Brothers Grimm fable with Southern Gothic creepiness, it's the story of two children guarding their dead father's stash of stolen money from an interloping preacher (Robert Mitchum) and the nightmare that descends upon their family when he marries their mother (Shelley Winters). With expressionistic lighting effects and memorably stylized art design, it's a marvel to look at, and Mitchum, usually the paragon of cool, here gives a flamboyantly over-the-top performance as the psychotic villain.
DIR Charles Laughton; SCR James Agee, based on the novel by Davis Grubb; PROD Paul Gregory. US, 1955, b&w, 93 min. NOT RATED

JULIE
The husband-and-wife team of Andrew and Virginia Stone created this suspenseful 1950s version of GASLIGHT as a vehicle for Doris Day. Here, the vehicle is a jet airliner in which stewardess Day is trapped by her psychotic husband (a truly scary Louis Jourdan). A wild "woman in jeopardy" film, nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar! (Courtesy of Noir City Los Angeles)
DIR/SCR Andrew L. Stone; PROD Martin Melcher. US, 1956, b&w, 99 min. NOT RATED

---

2010-10-16 Noir City DC: The 2010 Film Noir Festival. 10/16-11/03 - 9

THE STEEL TRAP
Stuck-in-a-rut bank manager Joseph Cotten gives in to long-suppressed urges and returns home from work one Friday with $1 million in loot. But he can't shake his sense of middleclass propriety, which complicates his efforts to surprise wife Teresa Wright with a trip to Brazil (and its conveniently flawed extradition treaty), keep secret his recent theft and navigate a series of mishaps with their transcontinental flight from justice. One of unsung noir auteur Andrew L. Stone's most important works, not available on DVD and rarely shown on the big screen. Not to be missed!
DIR/SCR Andrew L. Stone; PROD Bert E. Friedlob. US, 1952, b&w, 85 min. Presented in digital format. NOT RATED

---

2010-08-27 Peaches Christ presents 'All About Evil' at AFI Silver imdb.com

Peaches Christ
Mink Stole

Peaches Christ			With Mink Stole	Mink Stole

---

2010-05-01 C.Baker, F.Hirsch present 'Baby Doll' at AFI Silver imdb.com

Foster Hirsch
Foster Hirsch on Amazon
Carroll Baker

Foster Hirsch, Carroll Baker

			With Todd Hitchhock

---

2008-11-18 'Defenders of Riga' at AFI Silver

Aigars Grauba
Defenders of Riga

Latvian ambassador Andrejs Pildergovcs	Director Aigars Grauba

---

2008-11-16 Declan Recks at AFI Silver

IMDB bio
Eden (2008)

Declan Recks

---

2005-03-31 Arthur Penn at Avon imdb.com

Arthur Penn
An Interview with Arthur Penn
Night Moves (1975)
R.Ebert

---

2005-02-10 Peter Bogdanovich at Avon imdb.com

Peter Bogdanovich
Saint Jack (1979)

---

2004-05-05 Robert Altman at Avon imdb.com

R. Altman
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

---

2001-01-27 Agnieszka Holland at Yale imdb.com

Agnieszka Holland
Europa Europa/Hitlerjunge Salomon(1990)
Interview on The Third Miracle

---