Preview: “Three from Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024” by Theresa Rodewald

FILM FESTIVAL REPORT: Theresa Rodewald reports on noir programming at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024….

Preview: “The Surveillance Economy of David Fincher’s The Killer” by David Ryan

ESSAY EXCERPT: “The Killer argues that no matter how much security wealth buys or the number of datalocks that conglomerates build, these defenses can be poked and usurped by determined criminals. Conversely, no matter how clandestine criminal cells are organized, they can be destroyed, particularly from within….”

“Jim Thompson’s Cropper’s Cabin” by Jay A. Gertzman

NONFICTION: “There are three outstanding features of Thompson’s novel: (1) the Shakespearean intensity of love and hate depicted in closely bound men and women; (2) the simmering resentment, shame, and fear existing between Oklahomans and Native American descendants of the Five civilized Tribes; and (3) Thompson‘s and Caldwell’s versions of Southern Gothic melodrama.”

“Walking the Fine Line: Leonardo Padura and ‘Havana Noir’” By William Blick

NONFICTION: “Padura has had to walk a fine line in his writing as he faces restrictive elements from the Cuban government, while being realistic about the state of his society….”

“Dead at the Center: Enigmatic Noir Femmes and Psychopaths” by Ken Hall

NONFICTION: “Such characters differ in their affect from another class of noir figures, those who seem ‘dead at the center,’ displaying little or no genuine emotion as they proceed through the narrative. Perhaps these characters might be classified popularly as ‘psychopaths,’ although the definition of the term according to psychological theory and practice is complex….”

“Femme Fatale Assassins and the Time Clock” by Ken Hall

NONFICTION: “A more recent twist on the general narrative arc [of the hitwoman] places the female assassin as a child, perhaps orphaned, but certainly appropriated by a handler, who is trained from an early age, in a morally perverse adoption scenario, to become the ideal robotic killer…..”

“Writing from an Illusion: Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)” by Matthew Sorrento

NONFICTION: “The Hammett detective seeks any clues he can but is unable to recreate narratives through induction/deduction, hence his need to shake things up and unlock loose parts in the disorder he has confronted….”

“Daniel Woodrell: Pulp Outlaw and Pioneer of Rural Noir” by William Blick

NONFICTION: “Woodrell’s visceral and raw prose, combined with precise perception of stark, menacing environments and characters’ flaws and virtues….deserves to be recognized as part of the American literary landscape in the tradition of Faulkner, O’Connor, and McCarthy….”

“The Stranger and the Etiquette of Post-War Life” by Richmond B. Adams

NONFICTION: “Welles’s war-time writings demonstrated his concern that America, even as it celebrated military victory, might, in its naiveté, overlook the possibility of a rebirth of ‘fascism in America’ which could take root among ‘the sons of America’s first families.’ It is the ways in which Welles blends such historical concerns to various ongoing cultural traditions that make The Stranger a far more important film noir than has been generally thought….”

“Marketing The Sleeping City to The City That Never Sleeps” by Kurt Brokaw

NONFICTION: “The Sleeping City, like so many crime dramas that labored away in the era, won’t make most noir fans’ top ten lists. But its marketing was reflective of its time, more than most noirs that started out trying to hold their theater marquees alone and ended up as the underside of drive-in double bills….”