August 1–22, 2019

Film Noir 2019

Looking for decency, honesty, integrity? Paragons of virtue? Exemplary tales of moral uplift? Well, chump, you’ve come to the wrong dark, stinking alley! It’ll be seductive spider ladies, cynical anti-heroes, and sordid acts of crime – not to mention sensational cinematic style – tarnishing the silver screen in August as The Cinematheque embarks on its annual summer season of the sleazy, fatalistic nightmare known as Film Noir. This year’s celebration of classic American cinema’s most depraved and downbeat film movement showcases ten hard-boiled treasures, each an important noir essential or a ripe-for-rediscovery rarity. Among the highlights: the first major restoration of Edgar G. Ulmer’s gloriously bleak Detour, a B‑movie landmark which distills noir to its archetypal elements; a new restoration of noir maestro Robert Siodmak’s The Killers, also one of the noir style’s defining works; and two pictures, both also newly restored, by actress and filmmaker Ida Lupino, the only woman to direct noir in the classic period. In fact, no fewer than seven of the ten films in this year’s program will screen in pristine new restorations. All offer dangers – and pleasures – of the uncommonly cruel, venal, and treacherous variety. And that, bub, is no hooey.

In a parallel program, our August calendar also features a select retrospective of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville, the influential director whose très cool neo-noir thrillers, including Bob le flambeur and Le Samouraï, epitomized French crime cinema.

Want even more noir? Don’t miss Orson Welles’s A Touch of Evil, Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, screening in July, in our series High and Low: From Pulp to Poetry.”


Make Mine a Double!Joint Opening Night: Film Noir + Jean-Pierre Melville: Master of French Noir 

Thursday, August 1
6:00 pm – Reception + Refreshments
7:00 pm – Detour (Film Noir) 
8:40 pm – Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville: Master of French Noir)

Acknowledgments

Opening Night complimentary wine and cheese generously provided by the Consulate General of France in Vancouver.

S French Consulate2020
Media

List of Programmed Films

Date Film Title Director(s) Year Country
2019-Aug Detour Edgar G. Ulmer 1945 USA
2019-Aug The Killers Robert Siodmak 1946 USA
2019-Aug This Gun for Hire Frank Tuttle 1942 USA
2019-Aug Scarlet Street Fritz Lang 1945 USA
2019-Aug The Hitch-Hiker Ida Lupino 1953 USA
2019-Aug The Bigamist Ida Lupino 1953 USA
2019-Aug Mildred Pierce Michael Curtiz 1945 USA
2019-Aug Woman on the Run Norman Foster 1950 USA
2019-Aug The Big Heat Fritz Lang 1953 USA
2019-Aug Too Late for Tears Byron Haskin 1949 USA