Brighton Rock at the Film Forum

Catch It While You Can!

The Film Forum's extensive journey through the alleyways and corridors of film noir continues with its current run of John Boulting's Brighton Rock (1947), which ends Thursday—so you can't say I didn't warn you! (Incidentally, I don't think it's on DVD in the US yet.)

Over the years, Bruce Goldstein's noir programming has emphasized fare from the United States and France, but this entry, based on a Graham Greene story (with a great use of Graham-a-phone), is another example of how the genre extended into the United Kingdom.

To be more specific: This is another example of how B-noir extended into the UK. Like the most fascinating instances of B-noir anywhere, Brighton Rock is uneven...but its high points are stunning and surprising. It's been more than sixty years since this movie came out, but some of the nastiness portrayed in this movie still stings today.

The source of the venom is Brighton Rock's sinister character Pinkie, a breakthrough role for Richard Attenborough. He's right up there with Richard Widmark, James Cagney, and Richard Conte in conveying an eerie and twisted yet charismatic character.

Another impressive aspect of Brighton Rock that seems to get less attention is its varied and subtle score, by Hans May.

Here's how it starts. You'll know Attenborough by his hands.



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French Noir Fest at Film Forum

Bruce Goldstein's exploration of French crime and suspense dramas continues this summer with a series that kicks off with the famous heist movie Rififi (August 8/9). But that's not even the high point of the festival, as far as I'm concerned.

I haven't seen all of the offerings, but out of the ones I've seen, I'd say the must-sees are the double bill Le doulos/Classe tous risques (August 24/25) and The Wages of Fear (September 4), which remains the all-time greatest movie about driving truckloads of nitroglycerine on bumpy roads. And there's also Le Cercle rouge (August 15/16), Bob le flambeur (pictured, August 17/18, on a double bill with Touchez pas au grisbi), Eyes Without a Face (August 27, on a double bill with Diabolique), and the double bills Breathless/Band of Outsiders (August 31/September 1) and Quai des Orfèvres/Pépé le Moko (September 3/4).

The whole series seems to be very strong. I'm not sure that any of them rate less than an isolated 6.7 on IMDB. Out of what I haven't seen, the ones with the highest IMDB ratings are the charmingly titled We Are All Murderers (8.2, on a double bill with Riptide on August 18) and Casque d'or (8.0, on a double bill with Goupi mains rouges on September 2).

Here are three or four amazing clips from The Wages of Fear. If you haven't seen it, think twice before seeing anything after the first clip. Spoilers, you know.



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NYC NOIR [AND NON-NOIR] AT THE FILM FORUM

Bruce Goldstein melds New York movies and film noir in the Film Forum's midsummer repertory schedule for 2007. There's a mix of the familiar and the obscure (at least to me), so here is a very likely incomplete list of top-notch flicks in the series.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
July 27 and 28
Gossip columnist Burt Lancaster lords it over the city in this metropolitan melodrama featuring great location shooting from James Wong Howe.

THE CAMERAMAN with SPEEDY
July 30
Silent-era comedians Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd wreak havoc in the black-and-white Big Apple. Try to see the 3:50 pm or 7:00 pm screenings of The Cameraman for live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner.

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET with KISS OF DEATH
August 1 and 2
This isn't quite the millionth time I've plugged Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street on this blog, but by now my regular readers must know how much I admire this hardboiled and still unnerving Cold War noir featuring Richard Widmark and a strong score by Leigh Harline. Kiss of Death scores high on IMDB.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
August 3 and 4
Travel back into the NYC subway system circa 1974—if you dare—in this Blog About Town favorite.

ROSEMARY'S BABY
August 10 and 11
Roman Polanski's masterful, moody exploration of a Dakota Hotel tenant's somewhat unusual pregnancy (based on the novel by Ira "Stepford Wives" Levin, Rosemary's Baby was produced by gimmick king William Castle, whose cheesy movies (such as The Tingler) were once a staple of Film Forum summer programming. See the amazing trailer below!

MEAN STREETS and TAXI DRIVER
August 12 and 13
If you dig movie couples, few programs could be more appealing than this pairing of the flicks that solidified the relationship between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the Seventies.

KILLER'S KISS with SOMETHING WILD
August 22 and 23
Killer's Kiss is an early Kubrick quickie, but Something Wild is what really catches my interest in this double bill. The talent includes Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Jean Stapleton, Aaron Copland, and Eugen Sch¨aut;fftan, a refugee from Breslau who also worked on visual effects for the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis (which is closing tonight).

REAR WINDOW and ROPE
August 24 AND 25
Two of Hitchcock's most impressive movies. He never made a movie more taut than Rope.



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Stills courtesy Film Forum/Photofest

LE DOULOS

Film Forum/Rialto Pictures continues to plumb the sordid richness of French film noir with Jean-Pierre Melville's ingenious Le Doulos, which I highly recommend if you're into guns, molls, trenchcoats, poker faces, and, not least, "honor" among thieves.

As usual, I don't want to give away much. But I will note that there's an interrogation scene that was, understandably, one of Melville's personal favorites.

The revival was supposed to run through tomorrow, but it's been extended—so catch it!

Here's a trailer with subtitles. It's pretty restrained in terms of spoilers, but I still suggest watching it after you see the movie. Let Melville surprise you.



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Photo courtesy Film Forum/Rialto Pictures