Noirvember
A collection of the best in noir—femme fatales, smoking guns, and light through the blinds. Our Noirvember series includes films by Orson Welles, André de Toth, Ida Lupino, and Alain Robbe-Grillet, as well as two detective films starring the great Jean Gabin.
Streaming on Filmatique during the month of November.
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The Stranger, Orson Welles (1946)
The Stranger, Orson Welles / USA, 1946
Government agent Wilson tracks down a high-ranking Nazi officer who has managed to craft a new identity for himself in a quaint Connecticut town, marrying the daughter of a local judge. Having directed two undisputed masterpieces—Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons—here Orson Welles delves into the suspense film, crafting a baroque postwar thriller. Circulated in poor versions for decades, this edition of The Stranger was mastered in HD from an original 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress. Nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
The Chase, Arthur D. Ripley / USA, 1946
Chuck Scott is a down-on-his-luck veteran who lands a job as a chauffeur to a sadistic millionaire. After stealing his boss's suffering wife away to Havana, she is fatally stabbed in a crowded nightclub and Scott is accused of murder. Now he must flee the shadowy streets of Cuba to prove his innocence.
Adapting a novel by Cornell Woolrich (Rear Window), The Chase's screenwriter Philip Yordan introduced a number of twists—a third-act surprise transforms what might have been a conventional story of an ill-fated love into something truly mind-bending and surreal.
Pitfall, André de Toth (1948)
Pitfall, André de Toth / USA, 1948
John Forbes is an ex-vet living the American dream—he has a great job as an insurance executive and lives in a beautiful home with his loving wife and son. But like many returning servicemen, John exhibits a certain restlessness. Chasing excitement, he embarks on an affair that leads to a complicated web of intrigue, jealousy and murder.
Considered one of the greatest film noirs of all time, this version of André de Toth's Pitfall was mastered in HD from a 35mm dupe negative preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Native Son, Jean Rollin (1975)
Native Son, Jean Rollin / France, 1975
One of the most controversial novels of its day, Richard Wright's Native Son (first published in 1940) exposed the injustices of urban African-American life witnessed through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, whose violent tendencies and moral confusion were the natural result of a lifetime of deprivation. In prison for murder and sentenced to death, Thomas reflects on the circumstances that led to his fate.
Starring Richard Wright as Bigger Thomas, Native Son was heavily censored by regional boards upon its initial US release. This new restoration combines a complete 16mm print of the original Argentinian release and an incomplete 35mm duplicate negative of the uncensored cut—the most complete version of Native Son ever shown in the United States.
Preceded by a special introduction by film historians Eddie Muller and Jacqueline Najima Stewart.
The Hitch-Hiker, Ida Lupino (1953)
The Hitch-Hiker, Ida Lupino / USA, 1953
Inspired by a true-life murder spree, in The Hitch-Hiker two men on a camping trip are held captive by a homicidal drifter who forces them, at gunpoint, to embark on a grim joyride across the Mexican desert.
Beyond its obvious cultural significance as the only classic film noir directed by a woman, Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker is laden with tension: one of the most nightmarish motion pictures of the 1950s.
Black Gravel, Helmut Käutner (1961)
Black Gravel, Helmut Käutner / Germany, 1961
In this gripping Cold War noir, tensions simmer between residents of a small German village and the soldiers of a U.S. military base. Postwar economic hardship has transformed the town of Sohnen into a vice district where women serve as entertainment for the GIs, while the men struggle for survival in the black market.
Recalling such white-knuckle thrillers as The Wages of Fear and Thieves’ Highway, Helmut Käutner's Black Gravel was initially criticized for its honest depiction of lingering antisemitism in Germany. Restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.
Maigret Sets a Trap, Jean Delannoy (1958)
Maigret Sets a Trap, Jean Delannoy / France, 1958
Inspector Maigret tries to trap a killer and discovers why a happily married, wealthy, and talented man should want to bump off women at night. Jean Gabin is perfect as Georges Simenon's secure and steady sleuth, and old-hand Jean Delannoy expertly keeps up the pace and suspense in this enjoyable whodunnit.
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case, Jean Delannoy (1959)