Belcourt Theatre is in the midst of the 2020 edition of Noir Fest. What is noir? Sweat on the brow of a hardened criminal cornered by the law? The plodding of desperate feet against wet concrete? A sliver of light splashed across the faces of two star-crossed lovers engaged in a final embrace? The two-faced dame holding a smoking gun just as easily as she holds the cigarette between her lips? Well sure, it’s all of these things, but it’s also so much more.
Noir Fest’s previous iterations at the Belcourt (in 2008 and 2011) centered on cornerstones of the genre from America, France, and England. While this latest installment features a number of familiar titles, the thrust of the series is towards the more granular, je ne sais quoi qualities of the genre. Focusing on the darkness of tone, the shattered mirror of post-war America reflecting on itself, and illuminating the moral complexities of new wars at home, some of these films might not immediately look the part, but they most certainly feel it.
Featuring 10 pairings throughout January and early February, the Belcourt shines a Venetian-blinded spotlight on this dynamic, modern and groundbreaking genre whose ripples can be felt throughout cinema to this day. Belcourt will also be hosting an introductory seminar on the stylistic and tonal foundations of noir, as well as a deeper dive into the genre, along with a number of film introductions to help make sense of it all.
This Week’s Features
SAT-SUN, JAN 18-19 The Postman Always Rings Twice– Drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) arrives at a quiet California roadside restaurant where he meets and falls for drop-dead gorgeous Cora (Lana Turner), the wife of restaurant owner Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). After Frank maneuvers his way into a job at the joint, he and Cora begin a deadly love affair and cook up plans to end her marriage and start a new life together. After a few botched attempts at a clean break, they’re forced to put their honeymoon on hold after being rerouted into the arms of a D.A. hot to convict and a corrupt lawyer with designs on Cora. Frank and Cora thought they packed just enough luck to avoid what should be unavoidable, but the duo failed to account for the possible intervention of a formidable force that doesn’t need a badge.
SUN, JAN 19 | TUE, JAN 21 Leave Her To Heaven- Successful young novelist Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) accepts an invitation to vacation and write on a friend’s remote ranch. On a train bound for New Mexico, he meets stunning Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney), a devoted daddy’s girl en-route to scatter her late father’s ashes. Ellen sees much of her beloved father in Richard and the two quickly marry knowing very little about the other. As Richard settles down with Ellen, he realizes she’s more complex than initially expected, with a fit of pathological jealousy she directs at anyone and anything Richard cares for.
A rare example of a noir filmed in Technicolor, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN won the Oscar for Best Color Cinematography for Leon Shamroy and was selected in 2018 for preservation by the Library of Congress.
WED, JAN 22 | SAT, JAN 25 White Heat- Maladjusted gang leader Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is prone to bouts of homicidal psychosis. His unchecked delinquency is only matched by the strength of the blinding headaches and semi-epileptic seizures that incapacitate him. He’s historically relied on his beloved mother Ma Jarrett to make everything better, which only highlights wife Verna’s (Virginia Mayo) womanly inadequacies and inability to distract Cody from a near incestuous attachment to his mother. Cody’s right-hand man Big Ed (Steve Cochran) is restless and angling for the gang’s leadership while nursing designs on Cody’s wife Verna. When a job goes south, Cody manages to dodge murder charges and serves time for a lesser crime. In prison, he’s befriended by ‘Vic Pardo’—the alias of undercover police detective Hank Fallon—and with Vic’s help, he plots a seemingly perfect heist, determined to make it to the top of the world.
THU, JAN 23 | SAT, JAN 25 Odds Against Tomorrow- Bigoted, white ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) teams up with Dave Burke (Ed Begley), a dishonorably discharged former cop, to rob a bank in upstate New York. Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte), a jazz musician with a gambling problem, reluctantly joins Slater and Burke after a hoodlum named Bacco threatens Johnny’s family over unpaid debts. Everything that can go wrong with the heist does so, and racially generated friction boils over as Burke and Johnny must choose the greater threat to their lives—the prejudice that divides them or the authorities nipping at their heels. Produced by Harry Belafonte’s HarBel Productions and written by blacklisted scribe Abe Polonsky. With Shelley Winters and noir gem Gloria Grahame and featuring an atmospheric score by Modern Jazz Quartet pianist John Lewis.
