August Film Club #2

 Our sixth and final film of our Summer Series is another Billy Wilder film, the excellent Double Indemnity.

Double Indemnity is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's novel of the same name, which ran as an eight-part serial in Liberty magazine in 1936. The film stars an insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who plots with a woman (Barbara Stanwyck) to kill her husband in order to claim a life insurance payment, arousing the suspicion of claims manager Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson). The title refers to a "double indemnity" clause which doubles life insurance payouts when death occurs in a statistically rare manner.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Widely regarded as a classic, Double Indemnity is often cited as having set the standard for film noir and as one of the greatest films of all time. It currently holds a 97 % fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded 4/4 stars, added it to his list of the Great Movies and said this in his review, "Wilder’s “Double Indemnity” was one of the earlier films noir. The photography by John Seitz helped develop the noir style of sharp-edged shadows and shots, strange angles and lonely Edward Hopper settings. It’s the right fit for the hard urban atmosphere and dialogue created by Cain, Chandler, and the other writers Edmund Wilson called “the boys in the back room.” Few other directors have made so many films that were so taut, savvy, cynical and, in many different ways and tones, funny. “Double Indemnity” was his third film as a director. That early in his career, he was already cocky enough to begin a thriller with the lines, “I killed him for money — and for a woman. I didn’t get the money. And I didn’t get the woman.”

We will be meeting Thursday, August 27 @ 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKrrAa2o9Eg

Hope to see you there!

August Film Club #1

 Happy August everyone. We're moving into our last month of our Summer Series of Film Noir and we have two more films. The first film for August is Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American black comedy film noir directed by Billy Wilder and co-written by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D. M. Marshman Jr. It is named after a major street that runs through Hollywood and western Los Angeles.

The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent film star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted butler, and Nancy Olson, Jack Webb, Lloyd Gough, and Fred Clark appear in supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by silent film stars Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson.

The film currently holds a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, added it to his list of the Great Movies and said this in his review, "Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” is the portrait of a forgotten silent star, living in exile in her grotesque mansion, screening her old films, dreaming of a comeback. But it’s also a love story, and the love keeps it from becoming simply a waxworks or a freak show. Gloria Swanson gives her greatest performance as the silent star Norma Desmond, with her grasping talons, her theatrical mannerisms, her grandiose delusions. William Holden tactfully inhabits the tricky role of the writer half her age, who allows himself to be kept by her. But the performance that holds the film together, that gives it emotional resonance and makes it real in spite of its gothic flamboyance, is by Erich von Stroheim, as Norma’s faithful butler Max. Sunset Boulevard remains the best drama ever made about the movies because it sees through the illusions, even if Norma doesn’t. When the silent star first greets the penniless writer inside her mansion, they have a classic exchange. “You used to be big,” he says. Norma responds with the great line, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

We will be meeting Thursday, August 20 @ 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQWqIA1-kvA

Hope to see you there!

July Film Club #2

 Our second film of the month of July is another Humphrey Bogart offering, John Huston's The Maltese Falcon.

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American film noir written and directed by John Huston, marking Huston's directorial debut. It is the second film adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, following the 1931 version directed by Roy Del Ruth.

The film stars Humphrey Bogart as the hard-boiled private detective Sam Spade, in a role that would cement his status as a Hollywood icon, alongside Mary Astor as the enigmatic and manipulative femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet portray the memorable villains whose shifting alliances and hidden motives drive much of the story’s tension. Set in San Francisco, the plot revolves around the pursuit of a priceless, jewel-encrusted falcon statuette, with each character willing to resort to deceit, betrayal, and even murder to claim it.

The film currently holds a 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, adding it to his list of the Great Movies, said this in his review, "

Among the movies we not only love but treasure, “The Maltese Falcon” stands as a great divide. Consider what was true after its release in 1941 and was not true before:

(1) The movie defined Humphrey Bogart’s performances for the rest of his life; his hard-boiled Sam Spade rescued him from a decade of middling roles in B gangster movies and positioned him for “Casablanca,” “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “The African Queen” and his other classics.

(2) It was the first film directed by John Huston, who for more than 40 years would be a prolific maker of movies that were muscular, stylish and daring.

(3) It contained the first screen appearance of Sydney Greenstreet, who went on, in “Casablanca” and many other films, to become one of the most striking character actors in movie history.

(4) It was the first pairing of Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, and so well did they work together that they made nine other movies, including “Casablanca” in 1942 and “The Mask of Dimitrios” (1944), in which they were not supporting actors but actually the stars.

(5) And some film histories consider “The Maltese Falcon” the first film noir. It put down the foundations for that native American genre of mean streets, knife-edged heroes, dark shadows and tough dames."

We will be meeting Thursday, July 23 @ 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-BPuqhW9U

Hope to see you there!

July Film Club #1

It's July! Summer is in full swing and we're onto our 3rd film in our series. Our first July film in our Noir Series is The Big Sleep.

The Big Sleep is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks. William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay, which adapts Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story that begins with blackmail and leads to multiple murders.

The film currently holds a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, adding it to his list of the Great Movies, said this in his review, "It is one of the great film noirs, a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces Chandler’s ability, on the page, to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares. Howard Hawks is one of the great American directors of pure movies (“His Girl Friday,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “Red River,” “Rio Bravo”), and a hero of auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in many different kinds of genre material."

We will be meeting Thursday, July 16 @ 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-K49CUaeto

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #2

 Our second film for the month of June comes to us from the master of suspense himself, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. 

Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and adapted by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde from the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. 

The story concerns two strangers who meet on a train, one of whom is a psychopath who suggests that they "exchange" murders so that neither will be caught. The film initially received mixed reviews, but has since been regarded much more favorably.

The film currently holds a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars, adding it to his list of the Great Movies, saying this in his review, "The abiding terror in Alfred Hitchcock’s life was that he would be accused of a crime he did not commit. This fear is at the heart of many of his best films, including “Strangers on a Train”. The movie is usually ranked among Hitchcock’s best, and its appeal is probably the linking of an ingenious plot with insinuating creepiness. It is a plot made of ingenuity and amorality, based on the first novel by Patricia Highsmith, who in her Ripley novels and elsewhere was fascinated by brainy criminals who functioned not out of passion but from careful calculation, and usually got away with their crimes. Strangers on a Train is not a psychological study, however, but a first-rate thriller with odd little kinks now and then."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 25 @ 5:30 pm

Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1iSS5r0OVE

Hope to see you there!

June Film Club #1

To kick off our Summer Series: Film Noir, we will be watching Carol Reed's The Third Man

The Third Man is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway. Set in post-World War II Allied-occupied Vienna, the film centres on American writer Holly Martins, who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime, only to learn that he has died. Martins stays in Vienna to investigate Lime's death, becoming infatuated with Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt.

It currently holds a 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Roger Ebert who awarded it 4/4 stars, adding it to his list of The Great Movies, said this in his review, "The Third Man reflects the optimism of Americans and the bone-weariness of Europe after the war. It’s a story about grownups and children: Adults like Calloway, who has seen at first hand the results of Lime’s crimes, and children like the trusting Holly, who believes in the simplified good and evil of his Western novels. Of all the movies I have seen, this one most completely embodies the romance of going to the movies."

We will be meeting Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 pm.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9yyDEDGlr0

Hope to see you there!

Summer Series: Film Noir

Hey everyone! Summer is upon us and with that comes the Film Club Summer Series!

Each summer, our Film Club alternates between exploring the work of influential directors and diving into a cinematic genre. Following last year's spotlight on the Coen Brothers, we're turning our attention to one of film's most enduring and influential styles: Film Noir. Join us as we journey through a world of shadowy streets, hard-boiled detectives, dangerous schemes, and moral ambiguity, exploring classic noir films and their lasting impact on cinema. 

(Keep an eye out each month for posts and booklets specific to each film.)

Here's our lineup for the summer (click the title for a trailer):

June 18 @ 5:30- The Third Man

June 25 @ 5:30- Strangers on a Train

July 16 @ 5:30- The Big Sleep

July 23 @ 5:30- The Maltese Falcon

Aug 20 @ 5:30- Sunset Boulevard

Aug 27 @ 5:30- Double Indemnity