Noir City in Rain City

July 1, 2007 at 9:31 pm | In Film Noir, Robyn Hitchcock, SIFF, Seattle | 1 Comment

Pitfall
The excellent San Francisco based noir film festival, Noir City is making its inaugural journey up the coast for 6 dark, drama filled nights in July.  SIFF says that this is supposed to be the start of an annual occurrence, which I think is totally brilliant.  Head over to McGraw hall at the Seattle Center where there will be two movies screened each night of the festival.  A $10 measly will get you in to see les deux.  It runs from 6 July to 12 July with screenings of a bunch of films that have never had the pleasure of being on VHS or DVD.  Check it out if you’re looking to bone up on your hard boiled dialog.  I’ll be there, look for somebody in a trench coat and hat, with a bottle of scotch in one pocket and a bottle of plane water in the other.

Here’s what’s playing, go to the SIFF site for more details about each of the flicks and their show times.

July 6: Thieves’ Highway/Deadline at Dawn 
July 7: Pitfall/Woman on the Run
July 8: Desert Fury/Leave Her to Heaven
July 9: 99 River Street/Framed
July 10: I Love Trouble/Pushover
July 11: The Spiritualist/Nightmare Alley
July 12: Scarlet Street/Wicked Woman

Mp3: Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians – Raymond Chandler Evening

You Could Have Both

December 28, 2006 at 11:59 pm | In Film Noir, Music | Leave a Comment

Long BlondesKate Jackson of the Long Blondes knows how to catch my attention. Give me a lyric like “give me a good film noir and a bottle of gin, and i’d be happy just to stay inside”, do it over some chainsaw, post-punk guitars, and do it with style and you’ve got me. Actually it took a while to win me over. At first the whole thing didn’t catch my fancy, but like any good infatuation, repetition breads lust…and now I can’t stop listening.

The band is fronted by Kate, but it seems that Dorian Cox writes a lot of the material, with 10 of the 12 songs being written by him. Though, all of the attention seems to be on Kate, with here black and white film star get-up and sexy voice it’s hard not to be smitten. The record has been out in the UK since November, it’s made a number of American best of lists for ‘06 and the new Big Takeover has a nice interview with the band in the new issue . Hopefully their debut record, Someone to Drive You Home will get a release over here in the new year. I hear their live show is not to be missed, so here’s looking forward to seeing them making the jump across the pond.

In the meantime check out these songs (got ‘em from the hype machine, so they could be gone real soon).

Long Blondes – Separated by Motorways

Long Blondes – You Could have Both

I liked that. I’d like more.

November 23, 2006 at 10:53 pm | In Film Noir, Seattle, Seattle-centric | Leave a Comment

Bogie & Bacall at the Grand Illusion Cinema
The Big Sleep - In the Book Store I suppose I’m a little late writing about this, but the Grand Illusion Cinema over in the University District is showing all four of the films Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together. Last week they kicked it off with To Have and To Have Not, the first film they did together. They are showing one film a week, and this week’s film is the Big Sleep. It’s up their with Double Indemnity as the best of the Film Noir Genre. How often do you get a chance to see an old classic in an actual movie theatre? I’m gonna really try and get over there to see this on the silver screen. Dark Passage and Key Largo will be shown over the next couple of weeks, but the Big Sleep is the best of the four!

I wonder if you wonder?

August 15, 2006 at 5:46 am | In Film Noir, Movies | 2 Comments

double-indemnity.jpg
I’ve been wondering for quite a while when Double Indemnity was going to get reissued on DVD. It’s been out of print in the States for years. Universal has finally gotten the rights straightened out, and will be releasing it on 22 August. If you like film noir, you already know all about this one. It’s got Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, hard boiled dialog, femme fatal, and style oozing out everywhere. In my book, it ranks up there with the Big Sleep, and Chinatown.

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.