Parlez vous French noir?
Three years ago I discovered French film noir thanks to Don Malcolm and his annual "The French Had a Name for It" film festival in San Francisco. Don heads MidCentury Productions and since 2014 MCP has presented yearly - and, lately, more frequent - noir screenings at the city's Roxie Theater. This month brings "French 6," the last in MCP's series of French noir fests 'til further notice.
Le dernier tournant (1939), the postman always rings... |
My introduction to French noir came with "The French Had a Name for It 3" in November 2016. It was there that I watched the rarely seen first film version of James M. Cain's scorching 1934 pulp sensation, The Postman Always Rings Twice. This was Pierre Chenal's 1939 adaptation, Le dernier tournant (The Last Turn), which, though lacking the glitter and gloss of MGM's 1946 version with Lana Turner and John Garfield, wanted for nothing in the way of style, a script faithful to Cain's book, and a superb cast, top to bottom. It was also at "French 3" that I saw the 1939 Marcel Carne/Jean Gabin masterpiece Le jour se leve (Daybreak) on the big screen for the first time and was introduced to the eccentric and edgy films of actor/director Robert Hossein. I was hooked.
In 2018, MidCentury staged two more French noir programs, a one day "Midsummer Nightmare" on Bastille Day and "French 5" in November with a program focused on films of the "frenetic '50s."
This year MCP presented "The French Had a Name for It 5-1/2" in May, an invigorating three day, mid-year shot of darkest Gallic noir...and now it's time for "The French Had a Name for It 6."
Jane Fonda and Alain Delon in Les Felins (1964) |
The Villa Torre Clementina on the French Riviera |
Click here for the full 4-day, 15-film program for "The French Had a Name for It 6." If you're goin' to San Francisco between November 14 and 18, be sure to be check it out, there's not a day that should be missed.
Once "French 6" comes to a close, Don Malcolm and MidCentury Productions will have screened 101 French noirs at the Roxie in the past five years. According to the company website "The French Had a Name for It" will then go on hiatus "for a while." A very short while, I'm hoping...
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I've never seen LES FELINS, but--based on Delon's early 1960s work--I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy it. The whole French noir program sounds like a blast, too! Someone recently mused on Twitter about whether BLADE RUNNER was the sci fi noir. My response was that it was preceded by the French--Jean-Luc's Godard's ALPHAVILLE was made in 1965! Will it be one of the movies shown?
ReplyDeleteI think you'd like Les Felins, Rick. If you've seen Purple Noon, that was also a Clement/Delon collaboration, the first and and an excellent adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Alphaville isn't on the schedule this year, but Godard's Le Petit Soldat is.
DeleteAny fest that shows Les felins is all right by me <3
ReplyDeleteWish you were here!
DeleteI have been wanting to see Les Felins for ages. Purple Noon was excellent!
ReplyDeleteLes Felins is definitely worth seeking out, John. And Purple Noon, yes, great!
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