Valentine’s Day always warms my black, black heart, because it means the Noir City Film Festival has returned to Seattle and its new home at the gorgeous SIFF Cinema Downtown Theater. My pal Eddie Muller, kingpin of the Film Noir Foundation and host of TCM’s Noir Alley, will be master of ceremonies on opening weekend, then he’ll hand off the baton to me for the remainder of the screenings.
This year the program shines the spotlight on musicians. The emphasis, given the classic noir timeframe, is naturally on jazz, but country and rock and roll are also on the playlist. Plenty of real-life musicians—Louis Armstrong! Ella Fitzgerald! Sammy Davis Jr! Elvis!—will appear on the big screen, along with noir mainstays like Robert Mitchum, Dan Duryea, and Ida Lupino.
Seattle’s shorter, all-digital fest means we don’t get every title screened at the just-wrapped mothership Noir City event in Oakland.1 More’s the pity; I would love to see the gonzo Blues in the Night (1941) in the theater, and some of the curios are passing us by. But the fifteen films we’re showing are definitely worth coming out for. As for my attempts to say anything meaningful about jazz … we’ll see. I am in the process of consulting experts.
Here’s the full lineup, with the films introduced by yours truly in BOLD. If you’re in town, swing by and swing.
Friday, February 13 – Black Angel (1946)
Saturday, February 14 – Nora Prentiss (1946) / The Man I Love (1946) / Gilda (1946)
Sunday, February 15 – A Man Called Adam (1966) / Young Man with a Horn (1950) / The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Monday, February 16 – Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955) / Love Me or Leave Me (1955)
Tuesday, February 17 – Sweet Smell of Success (1957) / King Creole (1958)
Wednesday, February 18 – Thunder Road (1958) / To Have and Have Not (1944)
Thursday, February 19 – Kansas City (1996) / Round Midnight (1986)
As mentioned in my year-end post, this year’s Miss Noir City is Elizabeth Bougerol, lead singer of The Hot Sardines, who blew the roof off Benaroya Hall at their New Year’s Eve show with the Seattle Symphony. Miz Elizabeth cohosted the entire Oakland fest with Eddie and performed as well.
Round Midnight will always be my favorite jazz movie for the live musical performances from Billy Higgins and Dexter Gordon, and the short scene where Tony Williams tells Wayne Shorter to do a bit from the Red Shoes for Billy Higgins; kudos to Bertrand Tavernier for leaving that in. Enjoy Noir City Vince!