TUESDAY, FEB. 20
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 21
THURSDAY, FEB. 22
6:00 PM
6:00 PM
6:00 PM
BLACK TUESDAY
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
THE HUMAN BEAST LA BÊTE HUMAINE
AWOL for almost twenty years, this brutal and breakneck hostage yarn is powered by one of Edward G. Robinson’s most vicious performances. Gangster Vince Canelli (Eddie G.) makes a daring prison break on the day of his execution, holing up with a group of horrified hostages. Who will survive?
A landmark in the history of crime movies and the progenitor of all heist films that followed. John Huston’s film had an immediate and lasting impact on crime movies and literature. It subverted the Production Code by making its criminals working professionals with whom audiences empathized. Vivid and note-perfect.
8:00 PM
8:30 PM
8:30 PM
THE HOLE LE TROU
FOUR WAYS OUT LA CITTÀ SI DIFENDE
Fritz Lang • USA • 1954 • DCP
Adapted from ex-con José Giovanni’s novel, Becker’s masterpiece is a focus on process. The use of sound brings hypnotic intensity to scenes of the prisoners digging their way from their cell to the tunnels below. Jean-Pierre Melville declared Le Trou, “the greatest French film of all time.”
The heist drama, Federico Fellini-style. The Maestro has story and screenplay credit on this nearly forgotten film about a quartet of amateur thieves who successfully execute a daring mid-match robbery at a soccer stadium. They must separate to evade the police, but escaping their personal demons proves far more difficult.
Hugo Fregonese • USA • 1954 • 35mm
Jacques Becker • France • 1960 • DCP
John Huston • USA • 1950 • DCP
Pietro Germi • Italy • 1951 • 35mm
Jean Renoir • France • 1938 • DCP Adapting Émile Zola’s novel about a working-class man whose “hereditary flaw” causes psychotic episodes, director Renoir tells the bleak story with unsentimental empathy. When the man falls for the wife of a railway official, herself damaged by abuse and exploitation, they are on track for inevitable tragedy.
HUMAN DESIRE
Reteamed with Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame gives a bruised and beleaguered performance as the abused woman who wonders if murdering her loutish husband (Broderick Crawford) is the only way out of her domestic hell. DP Burnett Guffey adds noir panache to Lang’s cruel and suffocating depiction of the eternal noir triangle.
February 16–22, 2024 • SIFF Cinema Egyptian 805 East Pine St. Seattle • Tickets at SIFF.NET/NOIR Concept by Eddie Muller | Photo-Illustration by Bill Selby | Photography by Jason Mitchell | Models: Imogen Sara Smith & Eddie Muller | Gems: Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry