A RARE NOIR IS GOOD TO FIND 2 is the second international noir festival presented at the Roxie Theater by Mid-Century Productions, beginning on Cinco de Mayo (May 5), running to May 8. Last seen in San Francisco at the Fall 2016 series of lost French film noir, renegade programmer Don Malcolm now stakes territory across three continents. “As astonishing as it is to know that there are hundreds of French noirs await rediscovery on American movie screens,” Malcolm says, “it’s even more amazing to see just how prominent film noir was in just about every significant filmmaking nation in the years following World War II.”
LISTINGS SUMMARY
A RARE NOIR IS GOOD TO FIND 2
The Roxie Theater, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA - (415) 863-1087
ONLINE DETAILS AND TICKET SALES WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON, AT:
http://midcenturyproductions.com
http://www.roxie.com
Friday, May 5
CAIRO STATION (1958, Egypt)
CAMINO DEL INFIERNO (1951, Mexico)
Saturday, May 6
IN THE NAME OF THE LAW (1950, Italy)
MADNESS RULES (1947, Switzerland)
ODD MAN OUT (1947, Great Britain)
PETLA (1958, Poland)
Sunday, May 7
STRANGE ENCOUNTER (1958, Brazil)
KRAKATIT (1948, Czechoslovakia)
BITTER RICE (1949, Italy)
SEAGULLS ARE DYING IN THE HARBOR (1955, Belgium)
Monday, May 8
CASH CALLS HELL (1966, Japan)
THE HOUSEMAID (1960, Korea)
In 2017, RARE NOIR 2 honors two acclaimed international classics that have just received their “gold star” from the Criterion Collection (recent DVD/Blu-Ray releases). ODD MAN OUT (playing Saturday May 6) and BITTER RICE (playing Sunday May 7) “give us a standard with which to gauge the quality of the films that we’ll surround them with,” says Malcolm. “And, as terrific as those two films are, I’m convinced that audiences will be even more astonished by each of the other ten films in the series.”
Two pungent stories of excessive love open RARE NOIR 2 on Cinco de Mayo: CAIRO STATION (1958), a lurid slice of life set in Egypt’s iconic railroad station, and CAMINO DEL INFIERNO (1951), a story of star-crossed love featuring Pedro Armendariz and notorious femme fatale Leticia Palma— “another example of further treasures awaiting us as we rediscover Mexican noir,” Malcolm notes.
Saturday’s four films take us to Italy—IN THE NAME OF THE LAW (1950), from underrated director Pietro Germi, a Mafia tale that plays like a tense, bleak western; Switzerland—MADNESS RULES (1947), a murder mystery set in a mental hospital; Great Britain—the aforementioned ODD MAN OUT (1947), with James Mason’s stalwart performance as a wounded IRA leader; and, finally, Poland—PETLA (1958), a European version of THE LOST WEEKEND that is tougher, bleaker, and more unsparing about alcoholism.
But things are just heating up, for Sunday raises the stakes higher—starting with the mysterious STRANGE ENCOUNTER (1958), from Brazilian director Walter Hugo Khouri (“a fascinating cross between art film and B-noir,” says Malcolm) and reaching a peak of surrealist mania with its matinee companion KRAKATIT (1948), from Czech director Otakar Vavra, about a scientist who enters a hellish underworld once he invents an explosive that sinister technocrats and alluring princesses can’t wait to get hold of.
That evening, Italy’s epic BITTER RICE (1949) showcases European actors reaching for international stardom (Vittorio Gassman, Silvana Mangano) in a sprawling hybrid of noir and neo-realism; it’s followed by the one-of-a-kind SEAGULLS ARE DYING IN THE HARBOR (1955, from Belgium), where man’s divided nature is brilliantly exposed in the story of a man on the run estranged by the devastating changes brought on by the urban destruction of World War II (“pungent and lyrical simultaneously,” Malcolm enthuses, “a truly one-of-a-kind experience”).
And, as noted above, Monday’s closing night brings us bleak 60s dynamism in Japan’s CASH CALLS HELL (1966--“the last great classic noir” according to Malcolm), where an ex-con is sucked into a lethal cat-and-mouse revenge scheme involving payback for a botched heist. And, last but by no means least, Korean directors Ki-Young Kim’s disturbing “melo-horro” noir THE HOUSEMAID (1960), a cautionary tale about the deep perils of “keeping up appearances.” It is a lineup of non-stop intensity, consummate strangeness, incredible twists, and superb performances from actors “you’ve mostly never heard of,” Malcolm smiles. More proof that film noir produced some of the most challenging and ground-breaking work, and did so all around the world in the twenty years following World War II.
“Film noir, particularly in its international manifestation, is a mapping of the world’s ongoing cultural PTSD after World War II,” Malcolm notes. “It continues to astonish me that this is so, and I think audiences will be amazed at what they see. And they should know that there’s still a lot more where this has come from!”
It’s another ground-breaking festival from the man who won’t stop until he’s unearthed all of the world’s forgotten cinematic treasures. Take the plunge once again on May 5, and immerse yourself in another chapter of the story of how “the world went dark.”
