Movie Magic

The Killers marked the debut of Burt Lancaster.

The American cinema in the ’50s came to be identified for its black-and-white  scenescapes that introduced genres such as crime, thriller, gangster, melodrama and romance, among others. Better known as Film Noir or Noir cinema, it was an important phase in American cinema.
Now, a three-day film festival called “Noir Film Festival” (May 8-10) is being organised by Cinedarbaar at the American Center in Delhi. The festival will open with Double Indemnity (1944), a crime-thriller directed by Billy Wilder, which was nominated for seven Oscars. It is about an insurance representative who commits a murder, which arouses the curiosity of an insurance investigator.

There will be eight movies screened during the festival, which explore the Noir and Neo-noir period of American cinema. The 1946 Robert Siodmak-directed murder-mystery The Killers, which marked the acting debut of Burt Lancaster, was in part an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s book by the same name. There will also be Orson Welles-directed The Lady from Shanghai (1947) where a plot to fake a murder goes horribly awry.

Movies from this period were typically characterised by guns, hats, femme fatales, plunging necklines and mixing drinks. “This is a genre which we are exploring and it is a nice way to see how crime-thrillers came into being. We will be bringing in experts to discuss the importance of this period in shaping the sensibilities of cinema,” says Supriya Suri, Founder of Cinedarbaar. There will be interactive sessions with film researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University and independent filmmakers, after every screening comprising movie quizzes, discussions and a chance to win a full-size movie poster, based on a movie review writing competition.
Among the Neo-noir films at this festival, there will be the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford and Sean Young. The other film is the Oscar-winning LA Confidential (1997), starring Kim Bassinger and Russell Crowe.  Passes are available at American Center, 24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg.

For details, email: info.cinedarbaar@gmail.com