The French Crime Wave: Film Noir & Thrillers, 1937-2000
Four weeks! 39 Movies!
The French not only coined the term Film Noir (a play on Série Noire, a popular line of pulp crime novels) to define a certain kind of Hollywood thriller, but also had their own Golden Age of Noir, and a tradition of crime movies that continues to this day.
This festival of 39 prime examples opens with the late ex-pat Jules Dassin’s classic heist picture Rififi, which kick-started a whole new cycle of French Noir, and includes both classics and rarities by such masters of the genre as Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob le flambeur, Le Cercle rouge, Un flic), Jacques Becker (Touchez pas au grisbi), Henri-Georges Clouzot (Diabolique, Wages of Fear), Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face), René Clément (Purple Noon), Louis Malle (Elevator to the Gallows), Claude Chabrol (La Cérémonie), and François Truffaut (Mississippi Mermaid, The Bride Wore Black). Among the many stars showcased are the five great hommes durs (tough guys) of the genre — Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, Yves Montand, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Alain Delon — and such femmes fatales as Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, and Brigitte Bardot. The festival concludes with a one-week run of Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player.
Link: www.filmforum.org
Photo Credit: Poster of Eyes Without A Face by G. Franju
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Written on Jul. 10, 08
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