The Roots of Noir
We conclude this series, presented in conjunction with The Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibit “Edward Hopper.” Included are films that reflect Hopper’s admiration for the film noir genre and other American crime films that fed into the noir movement of the 1940s.
LITTLE CAESAR
1931, Mervyn LeRoy, USA, 80 min.
With Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
The most iconic of all gangster films, LITTLE CAESAR features Edward G. Robinson in a legendary, ferocious performance as Cesare “Rico” Bandello, a smalltime hood who rises to the top of the Chicago underworld and then tumbles down again to one of the most memorable death scenes in screen history. The film’s raw style still packs a punch, and its vision of the urban landscape--gas stations, hash houses, billboards--had much to offer to Hopper. 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, May 3, 5:30 pm
Monday, May 5, 6:00 pm
THE THIRD MAN
1949, Carol Reed, UK, 104 min.
With Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
Reed’s classic thriller, scripted by Graham Greene and featuring a legendary performance by Orson Welles, was voted the greatest British film of all time in a 1999 BFI poll. Joseph Cotten plays a naïve American pulp writer plunged into the intrigue of postwar Vienna, a black-market mecca haunted by the specter of his recently buried friend, the mysterious Harry Lime. Original director’s cut. 35mm. (MR)