NOIR CITY Film Festival - Film Noir Foundation

NOIR CITY 16 - January 26-February 4, 2018 - Castro Theatre

The Film Noir Foundation Presents

NOIR CITY: INTERNATIONAL II

The 18th Annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival

America doesn't have a monopoly on swaggering gangsters, larcenous lovers, surly ex-cons, corrupt cops, and scheming femmes fatales. Six years after the first NOIR CITY: INTERNATIONAL—the Film Noir Foundation is at it again: presenting an array of classic films from around the globe, a wide-ranging, thematically cohesive immersion in a sordid world of sinister and sexy affairs—including the world premieres of two new restorations by the Film Noir Foundation! Yes, "It's a Bitter Little World"— but for ten days and nights at the majestic Castro Theatre, NOIR CITY is cinema paradiso! As always, the festival is programmed and hosted by Eddie Muller, internationally renowned "Czar of Noir" and host of the popular Turner Classic Movies series Noir Alley.

For veteran cinephiles, it's a chance to again experience cherished cinematic masterpieces in a bona fide movie palace. For those just starting their cinematic journey, NOIR CITY is the perfect introduction to a wide world of international filmmakers and stars, on the big screen, larger than life. The 10-day excursion travels through hot-blooded nightclubs of the Mexican cabareteras, neon-streaked alleys of Japanese yakuza thrillers, the stylish Parisian underworld, Italian palazzos hiding crimes of every social strata, a Kafkaesque Prague as envisioned by the Czech New Wave — even a rare serial killer film set in Nazi Germany made by Hollywood's finest director of film noir, Robert Siodmak. Tour guides include some of the world's most revered filmmakers: Michelangelo Antonioni, Andzrej Wajda, Julien Duvivier, Jean-Pierre Melville, Roberto Gavaldón, Jirí Weiss, and Masahiro Shinoda.

"Now, more than ever, it's essential to resist the dread and paranoia of contemporary times by looking beyond our differences," says Muller. "Let's appreciate the noir ethos for the creativity it inspires and the warning flares it long ago flashed on screens worldwide. Noir has no national boundaries. It's the same story, everywhere."

Friday, Jan 24 ARGENTINA

THE BEAST MUST DIE / LA BESTIA DEBE MORIR 7:30
THE BLACK VAMPIRE / EL VAMPIRO NEGRO 9:45

Saturday, Jan 25, Matinée FRANCE

PANIC / PANIQUE 1:30
RAZZIA / RAZZIA SUR LA CHNOUF 3:30

Saturday, Jan 25, Evening FRANCE

FINGER MAN / LE DOULOS 7:00
ANY NUMBER CAN WIN / MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL 9:15

Sunday, Jan 26 SOUTH KOREA

THE HOUSEMAID / HANYO 2:00, 7:00
BLACK HAIR / GEOMEUN MEORI 4:20, 9:00

Monday, Jan 27 ITALY

STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR / CRONACA DI UN AMORE 7:00
THE FACTS OF MURDER / UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO 9:00

Tuesday, Jan 28 CZECHOSLOVAKIA

…AND THE FIFTH HORSEMAN IS FEAR / ...A PÁTY JEZDEC JE STRACH 7:00
90 DEGREES IN THE SHADE / TRICET JEDNA VE STINU 9:00

Wednesday, Jan 29 ENGLAND

THE LONG HAUL 7:00
NEVER LET GO 9:00

Thursday, Jan 30 JAPAN

PALE FLOWER / KAWAITA HANA 7:00
RUSTY KNIFE / SABITA NAIFU 9:00

Friday, Jan 31 WEST GERMANY

THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT / NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM 7:00
BLACK GRAVEL / SCHWARZER KIES 9:00

Saturday, Feb 1, Matinée MEXICO

ANOTHER DAWN / DISTINTO AMANECER 1:30
TWILIGHT / CREPÚSCULO 3:40

Saturday, Feb 1, Evening MEXICO

NIGHT FALLS / LA NOCHE AVANZA 7:30
SALÓN MÉXICO 9:15

Sunday, Feb 2 SWEDEN / POLAND

A WOMAN'S FACE / EN KVINNAS ANSIKTE 2:00, 7:00
ASHES AND DIAMONDS / POPIOL I DIAMENT 4:00, 9:00

All you need to know about the NOIR CITY Film Festival —enjoy!

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UPCOMING NOIR CITY DATES

NOIR CITY (San Francisco): TBD
NOIR CITY: Seattle: TBD
NOIR CITY: Hollywood: TBD
NOIR CITY: Austin: TBD
NOIR CITY: Boston: TBD
NOIR CITY: Chicago: TBD
NOIR CITY: Detroit: TBD
NOIR CITY: D.C.: October 15-28

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Film Noir Foundation - Restoration

RECENT FNF ARGENTINE RESTORATIONS

The Film Noir Foundation premiered two new restorations at NOIR CITY 18, both little-known 1950s noir gems from Argentine director Román Viñoly Barreto: La bestia debe morir (1952) and El vampiro negro (1953). Both restorations were completed in 2019 by the FNF's preservation partner, UCLA Film & Television Archive, with support provided from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust (The HFPA Trust).

La bestia debe morir is an adaptation of Nicholas Blake's celebrated 1938 novel The Beast Must Die. Blake was actually a pseudonym of Irish poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis. The book was noted for an unusual structure combining a first-person narrative of murderous revenge with a whodunit plot more familiar to fans of Blake's Sherlockian British detective, Nigel Strangeways. The Argentine film, adapted for the screen by Viñoly Barreto and actor Narciso Ibáñez Menta, relegates Strangeways to a bit part, moving the noir-revenge narrative front and center. Spanish-born Ibáñez Menta was renowned in the '40s and '50s for horror and fantasy films, but in this full-fledged noir he portrays a writer hell-bent on uncovering the identity of the hit-and-run driver who killed his son … and murdering him.

"Until this discovery, most cinephiles believed that Claude Chabrol had made the first adaptation of Blake's novel in 1969," said FNF president Eddie Muller. "But largely thanks to my colleague Fernando Martín Peña, who introduced me to the film, this version of The Beast Must Die will now be recognized as the first—and with all due respect to Chabrol—the best screen version of the novel. It certainly has all the elements of a classic noir, and Viñoly Barreto directs it with great storytelling skill and visual style."
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El vampiro negro (The Black Vampire) is an inspired reimagining of Fritz Lang's classic M, transposed from Berlin to Buenos Aires. It was made by essentially the same creative team that made La bestia debe morir a year earlier, including cinematographer Alberto Etchebehere, who not only provides spectacular imagery that may surpass the nocturnal style of Lang's original and the 1951 American remake directed by Joseph Losey—but he co-wrote the script with Viñoly Barreto. Famed actress Olga Zubarry, known as the "Argentine Marilyn Monroe," stars as a cabaret performer whose child is kidnapped by the murderer (Nathán Pinzón) preying on the city's children.

The FNF previously funded a preservation print of El vampiro negro that screened at several NOIR CITY festivals in 2014, but according to Muller, "We realized the film was so unique, and so compelling, it had to be completely restored, including fixes to the damaged original negative."

Both restorations debuted opening night of NOIR CITY 18, January 24, 2020, as a double bill of lost classics from Argentina.

The restorations of La bestia debe morir and El vampiro negro were screened as part of the FNF's 2020 NOIR CITY film festival programs in San Francisco, Seattle, and Hollywood until the COVID-19 curtain came down in March 2020 postponing festivals in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and D.C.

Four of the Film Noir Foundation's restorations have been released on Blu-ray/DVD through the FNF's partnership with Flicker Alley, which to date has distributed its restored versions of Woman on the Run (1950), Too Late for Tears (1949), and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) and Trapped (1949). Other FNF restoration titles in the Blu-ray/DVD pipeline include two Argentine films Los tallos amargos / The Bitter Stems (1956) and La bestia debe morir / The Beast Must Die (1952) scheduled for release by Flicker Alley in late 2021, and Repeat Performance (1947) scheduled for release in 2022.

NOIR CITY patrons and FNF donors have made it possible over the years for the FNF to restore those titles listed above in addition to Cry Danger (1951), The Prowler (1951), Try and Get Me! (1951), High Tide (1947), and The Guilty (1947), as well as funding our many 35mm preservations. DONATE HERE and be a film noir savior.

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NOIR CITY Magazine - Digital Version

For access to the best writing on noir available today, and to enjoy one of the most cutting-edge interactive multimedia cinema publications in the world, subscribe to NOIR CITY Magazine. Start by:

NOIR CITY Annual #13

2021's NOIR CITY Annual 13, the best of the best from the Film Noir Foundation's 2020 NOIR CITY Magazine issues, is available for pre-order now—essays, profiles, interviews, and appreciations of classic and modern noir films from today's top writers: Imogen Sara Smith, Jake Hinkson, Ray Banks, Christa Faust, Nora Fiore, Nick Feldman, Alan K. Rode, Steve Kronenberg, Brian Light, Sharon Knolle, Farran Smith Nehme, Danilo Castro, Ben Terrall, Ethan Iverson, Vince Keenan, and Eddie Muller. Book layout and design by Michael Kronenberg with an article by the designer on the celebrated comic writer Tom King. And, as with any purchase from the FNF, when you buy NOIR CITY Annual 13, you'll be helping fund the non-profit foundation's film restoration efforts. We expect NOIR CITY Annual 13 to be available for shipment later this month!

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EXTRA! EXTRA! Get Your Noir News Here!

For the latest in noir news from small screen to big screen and beyond, visit our news area. We'll keep you updated on Film Noir Foundation projects and events, film festivals and noir-related happenings in other mediums on our news page, as well as noir and neo-noir titles released on DVD and Blu-ray. Our NOW PLAYING section will keep you up-to-date on noir-tinged entertainment. Check our monthly tv listings for noir and neo-noir films coming up on Turner Classic Movies.

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FNF VIDEO ARCHIVES

Our Video Archives feature an expanding catalog of noir-related video, ranging from exclusive interviews, to festival guest appearances, to short films inspired by film noir.

ASK EDDIE

The Film Noir Foundation has launched a monthly live stream on our Facebook page in which Eddie answers questions submitted by our e‑mail subscribers. Join our mailing list to submit your questions and get news of upcoming broadcasts. October broadcasts are scheduled for Thursday, October 14, 21, and 28 at 7:00 pm PT on Facebook. Broadcasts are available on our YouTube channel the following day.

→ View our list of films screened at NOIR CITY 1-17 here.