Author Archive
Look Back in Anger, Fondly
If a scene happened thirty years ago and no one paid attention, should anyone care now? Two new documentaries make the case by covering bands not regularly associated with the infancy of American punk. Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records is a fond reminiscence; You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984 makes good on its title’s insular, accusatory tone. With the marquee bands of the era enshrined in boomer-like reverence, Let Them Know and You Weren’t There are in the double-bind of portraying lesser-known subjects as overlooked trailblazers without hallowing a decidedly checkered past.
Q&A with Film Noir Foundation’s Eddie Muller
Film Noir Foundation founder/president Eddie Muller is always on the case. Just a week before the second annual Noir City DC film festival was set to begin, Washington City Paper tracked him down in France at the Grand Lyon Film Festival where he was presenting on the art of noir. Muller found a few minutes to email us about festival favorites, his ongoing efforts to unearth buried classics, and the bleak fatalism of a proper noir protagonist.
CP: Talk a little bit about the selection process for compiling the films for Noir City DC. What are you especially excited to screen?
Muller: We’ve found that it’s useful to book established classics with lesser known rarities. So while I’m always thrilled to present such critically recognized films as Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, and The Killers, my greatest satisfaction comes in being able to find, and screen, unjustly neglected gems like Alias Nick Beal, Shakedown, and Wicked as They Come.
Noir City DC
Perhaps it’s the hard times in which we find ourselves, but the temptation to take refuge within a well-constructed fatalistic yarn is increasingly enticing. After a successful initial run, the California-based Film Noir Foundation has curated a second installment of NOIR CITY DC, promising the genre’s requisite cheap thrills, tough talk, and poor decision-making skills. Here are some highlights:
GUN CRAZY (1950)
Tagline: SHE BELIEVES IN TWO THINGS… love and violence!
The Skinny: An honest man’s (John Dall) love of firearms becomes problematic after he falls for a sassy sideshow shooter (Peggy Cummins) whose taste for the good life is offset only by her appreciation of wanton violence and armed robbery.
