Hell on Frisco Bay (2005-2008 archive)

The other day I looked out the window at 7:30 PM or so in the evening, and I couldn't help but notice that it was already getting dark. Summer's over. The end of Daylight Saving Time is just around the corner. It's time to get ready for noir season in Frisco. Get our trenchcoats out of the closets, brush the dust off our fedoras, and practice looking cool in the fog. Living in the Richmond district, I get to practice that pretty much all summer, but the rest of the city will soon have its chance to catch up.

Shorter days and longer nights are perfect for evening double-bills free of any pangs of guilt for missing out on maximum Vitamin D production. And the Film Noir Foundation has already started announcing the films they'll be bringing to the upcoming 4th Annual Noir City Film Festival. It'll be 1946 all over again in my neighborhood, where the Balboa Theatre will host a week of vintage pairings like The Big Sleep with The Blue Dahlia and The Dark Mirror with Crack Up. And for those who think a trip to the foggy West End of town is inconvenient, a separate program will run at the Palace of Fine Arts, where the lobby will be transformed into a "Noir City nightclub" complete with live jazz. I can picture it already. The titles picked so far include everything from unusual gems like Hollow Triumph to bona fide classics like Strangers on a Train (perhaps Hitchcock's most noir-ish film, it will play alongside a personal appearance from Farley Granger, as will Nick Ray's They Live By Night, which I've yet to see). The festival starts next January 13 (Balboa screenings starting January 18), and lasts through the 24th.

If 2006 seems far too long to wait, the Danger and Despair Knitting Circle has apparently resolved the issues that halted its weekly Thursday night 16mm screenings last July, and has already promised a Fall filled with Robert Ryan titles and spy films. Only one date announced as yet: the noir precursor Freaks plays just in time for Halloween on October 27th. Check their website for details on how to get an invitation to their free screenings.

And if you can't wait even that long for a noir fix, you might try checking out Jean-Luc Godard's noir-influenced Band of Outsiders (perhaps his most accessible film, too) at the Castro which plays this coming Monday-Thursday with Masculin, Feminin. Or better yet go over to the Parkway on October 6th for Jim McBride's New Orleans-set neo-noir The Big Easy, screening as a Hurricane Katrina Victims Benefit.