These are sad, strange days, Faustketeers. I’m still pretty broken up over the cancellation of this year’s festival. Being an anti-social homebody writer, I don’t get out much and this event is something I look forward to all year. I love seeing all my long-time hardcore Noir friends and bonding over our common obsessions. It’s like my yearly vacation.
Anyway, that’s why I’m keeping up with the commentary, crazy as it may seem, and I really hope you’ll stick with me. Be sure to comment, connect on social and keep the virtual festival going. Let’s get pie and talk about the movie, even if we each have to stay isolated in our own little quarantine bubbles with our very own stress-baked pies.
On to the movies. Pie, optional.
First: “There are eight million stories in the Naked City…”
A beautiful young model is found murdered in her bathtub and a pair of dicks, a veteran and a rookie, must track her killer through the mean streets of New York City, encountering all kinds of shady and colorful characters along the way.
My home town is the real star of this sensational Docu-Noir, and the opening sequence is legendary. The film was inspired by the photography of Arthur “Weegee” Fellig, compiled in a book of the same name. He is also credited as a visual consultant on the film
This flick is widely available on a variety of streaming platforms as well as on DVD and if you haven’t seen it, what the fuck are you waiting for? I will say how sorry I am to be missing a chance to see it on the big screen though, because there is so much real vintage NYC packed into every single frame. But don’t let that stop you from checking it out any way you can.
Next up, HARDLY A CRIMINAL, another one of those fabulous foreign films that I was so looking forward to this year.
Lucky for me, I’ve already seen this superb prison Noir. Not only that, I already wrote it up. Unlucky for you, it still isn’t all that easy (but not impossible) to see, especially if you don’t speak Spanish. Worth tracking down if you can.
Thanks for sticking with me through all this madness and I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow for the next installment of Noir City, the Home Game: GUN CRAZY and PALE FLOWER.