The Cinematheque hosts this year's film noir event from August 3 to September 4
Annual round-up features 12 masterpieces of the era, opening with The Maltese Falcon
SPONSORED POST BY The Cinematheque
Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
The Cinematheque’s annual film noir season, which explores a deliriously dark period of American cinema, takes place from August 3 to September 4.
The 2023 edition of the event is a 12-film gallery of Tinseltown crime pictures spanning the length of the classic noir cycle—from its earliest archetype (1941’s The Maltese Falcon, boasting a fresh restoration) to its final outpost (1959’s Odds Against Tomorrow).
Some films, such as The Big Combo and The Killing, are circling back to The Cinematheque for the first time in many years; while others (think The Naked City, Angel Face, and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers) are new to the film noir series. The spotlight is also on Oscar-winning actress Gloria Grahame, whose centenary is honoured with a trio of her films.
Dig into the genre even more with the Cinematheque’s sophomore “Deep Focus” event, August 5, starting at noon—an interactive lecture series on understanding film noir. Cohosts Chelsea Birks and Christine Evans will guide you through the history, cultural influences, and aesthetic markers of the genre, after which participants can hone their analytical skills by watching and discussing Fritz Lang’s 1953 film The Big Heat (1953). (Also screening August 3, 6, and 11, it features a notorious scene involving Gloria Grahame as a gun moll and Lee Marvin as a psychopathic gangster.)
Gloria Grahame in The Big Heat (1953).
Another highlight will be John Huston’s directorial debut The Maltese Falcon, screening on August 3, 5, 7 and 15. Tickets for the opening night showing on August 3 include admittance to a courtyard shindig at 6 pm featuring vinyl jazz, tasty treats, Luppolo beer, and a first shot at scoring The Cinematheque’s 2023 noir merch.
The Maltese Falcon established the now-legendary Bogie persona: a snarling, cynical anti-hero whose tough guy exterior masks the bittersweet soul underneath. Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade, a San Francisco private eye caught up in a deadly search for a missing Maltese Falcon statuette.
Plus, catch B-movie stylist Joseph H. Lewis’s The Big Combo on August 5 or 10 at 6:30 pm, a dark and violent late noir that features a police detective obsessed with thwarting the relationship between a sadistic crime boss and a young society woman.
More information on the film noir lineup can be found here.
Post sponsored by The Cinematheque.
The Big Combo (1955).