Noir City: Newspaper Noir

The Music Box Theatre teamed with the Film Noir Foundation to present the third annual Noir City: Chicago film festival August 12th through the 18th. The fest presents a lot of films unavailable on DVD, a boon for fans of the genre who have worked the home viewing catalog pretty deeply. It's so fabulous to see a noir film on the big screen in a restored print; I imagine that some noir films that have floundered for me at home would prove much more serviceable screened and viewed as intended.

I was able to make it for my top-choice double-feature bill: newspaper noir, both unavailable on DVD, and each centered on super leads, Alan Ladd and Humphrey Bogart.

CHICAGO DEADLINE screened once during the fest. When we arrived at the theater there was a line down the block. It reminded me of how it felt to see movies when I was young, before home viewing generally thinned the theater crowds. I try to see a movie or two at the int'l film fest every year, in part to tap into the same gathering anticipatory susurration. CD offered the gratifying Chicago backdrops the audience had turned out to see. Ladd did not disappoint, his charm-grounded-in-sorrow particularly apt for this storyline in which Donna Reed plays a nuanced noir role, the soft, doomed Rosita Jean D'Ur,  a reversal from the roles I think of her in and in counterpoint to sparkling June Havoc who gets the happier ending here. Though some of the dialog suggests media critique (with unavoidable resonances with the current tabloid scandals), the performances riveted my attention in the characters' dramas and the newsie aspect of the film served more as fun trimmings for me.

CHICAGO DEADLINE, 1949, Director: Lewis Allen (thanks to retrografix blog for hard to find pics).

DEADLINE, U.S.A., directed by Richard Brooks, stars Humphrey Bogart as Ed "Hutch" Hutcheson, our editor-hero in an unabashed tribute to newspaper media. It's eerie to watch a "funeral for the press," made in 1952. In one shot, there's a sign posted in the printing room, visible behind Bogart/Hutch, that says something along the lines of: ""Newspapers Make Jobs" (I can't find a still or reference to get it exactly; should've jotted it down); this strand throughout contributes to the time warp effect that adds a layer of interest to an already engaging film. This is such a great Bogart role; it's boggling that this is not yet on DVD. My susceptible mind runs, momentarily, to kooky anti-media conspiracies. Ethyl Barrymore's media matron backs Bogart robustly and DEADLINE, set in Every-city, U.S.A., features a baddy politician Thomas Rienzi (Martin Gabel). Best editor versus mobster scene ever:



If you're interested in noir broadly, definitely check out the Film Noir Foundation. They offer a—now quarterly electronic—magazine with hooky articles, such as, The Heaviest of Them All: The Film Noir Legacy of Raymond Burr (on his baddie roles, pre-Perry Mason). The site also posts a monthly listing of Film Noir and Neo-Noir on TV. I dawdled posting, so I wasn't able to get this up before another great newsie noir screened on Fox: CALL NORTHSIDE 777, starring Jimmy Stewart and great views of the Windy City, based on a true story, and available via Chicago Public Library and likely through Netflix. Also screened on Fox this month (do we give Fox points for screening good noir?): I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1949), a really fun oddball noir (almost a musical noir, with a disconcertingly prevalent use of an "Over the Rainbow" instrumental) also available on DVD. So, good stuff on your telly. And save the dates for next year's Noir City fest! (This year a pass to see all 16 films went for an unbelievable $50.)

Given my penchant for print and justice, newspaper noir holds a lot of extra charm in an already fave field for me. I am guessing that with restored film prints now, we'll see CHICAGO DEADLINE and DEADLINE U.S.A. on DVD soon. In the meantime, Robert Feder created a shortlist of newsroom-centric flicks for TIME OUT CHICAGO last year; many of the films are noir; most are accessible now.

Looking Up, Headless

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Antigua, Guatemala.

In Antigua, Kennedy and I always stay in Hotel Casa Santa Lucia #3, which overlooks the "wedding cake church," La Merced. (In this photo though, I am standing right at the front of the church, underlooking.)

I don't remember where in Antigua I found these headless figures. I'll have to look for them next trip. Meantime, I am adding labels to my posts, as I can now officially add a "headless" label, with two bonafide posts related.

The Writing Wall: Antigua, Lithuania, North Korea Set in Stone

Old wall, Antigua.

As opposed to much of what I've seen in Central America, the architecture in Antigua ranges mostly from old to very old. The walls are works of art. Kennedy and I are among the many who love wall photos generally. Kennedy has an old Dover book devoted entirely to wall photos, drawn on for more than one Thin Man gig poster. I can't find this book online, and I can't find it on our shelf of books-for-visual-inspiration either, leading me to the dread conclusion that I may have unaccountably shed it during one of the great purges. Hopefully a Thorough Search will turn it up in the Wrong Place.

One of the things I enjoy about the blog is the chain link affect, when folks share related/inspired items after a post, and when previously encountered tidbits nest nicely with a current musing. A friend brought up Polish artist Nicolas Grospierre's work after the Sonsonate post and my mention of Frédéric Chaubin. I hadn't been familiar previously, and I love his work—so happy for the introduction. In addition to many bittersweetly striking projects, such as featured below, Grospierre made a gift of a photo of a patinaed wall to a writer friend, to serve as inspiration. You can see The Writing Wall on his website, along with his reasoning for choosing the image.

Photo from the project Hydroklinika, Nicolas Grospierre.

Grospierre's description for the Hydroklinika project:

The balneological hospital of Druskinnikai in Lithuania, designed by A. and R. Silinskas was built in 1976-81. Having served for merely 20 years, it was shut down and destoyed in 2005, to be replaced by a (probably more) profitable water-amusement park. Hydroklinika is an attempt at documenting the hospital through a global, objective and systematic approach. Therefore, no part of the building, was neglected and all were photographed likewise.

Before I started putting up the pics from Central America, my dad shared a link to an Alan Taylor/In Focus piece in The Atlantic featuring fantastic photos of North Korea by David Guttenfelder.

Original caption: "A statue known as the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, which symbolizes the hope for eventual reunification of the two Koreas, arches over a highway at the edge of Pyongyang, North Korea, seen on April 18, 2011. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)"

For me, this arch is another example of the architecture of hopeful aspiration that pops up all over the world—on one level all tingly-cool, regardless of the all-important technicalities that are the original purpose, message, inspiration.

In Antigua sacred/religious architecture stands out. (More pics next post.)

Cross, Antigua.

I like the little clump of vegetation growing on the right arm of the cross. At full size, you can make out the very delicate detail of the plant life, in a nice contrast to the very bold lines of the cross and its ball base. Clumps and patches of vegetation, often flowering, affix themselves to all the walls and stationary objects in Antigua. The color and contrast in this picture have not been touched; the sky is a typical, dramatic Antigua sky.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

I finally watched the trailer for the BBC documentary looking at our relationship with computers, and other mammals, titled for Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace." My dad pointed me to it sometime back via Poetry's Harriet blog. The trailer transmits like a poem for me, a kind of video/film/poem amalgam I'd like to see (make?) more of.

Moth at bedtime, El Zonte, El Salvador

This is a bit fuzzy but if you look really closely the moth seems to have red-eye, which is funny. I took this pic about 4 years back, when we had the chance to stay with our friends in El Salvador for a glorious three week stretch. That night I was reading The Shape of Water, the first book in Andrea Camilleri's Salvo Montalbano series (I now have a "celebrity" crush on Luca Zingaretti's TV Salvo); I remember because the cover of the book appears in another, fuzzier photo of the moth. I wish I could have caught the sound of the ocean in the picture; reading in bed with the sound of the ocean washing around my consciousness is about as good as it gets.

Horse in a rainbow bridle, Chiltiupán, El Salvador

We've gone to the little mountain community Chiltiupán to walk around the steep streets, buy fresh cheese from townswomen carrying it wrapped in large leaves; we've also tagged along when our friends have had to take care of business there—trash collection, water bills, et cetera, as Chiltiupán is the municipal center in their region. Everybody stares at Kennedy, we think because of his height. It's friendly, with some very shy giggles and smiles from the children.

Sonsonate

We're going through our accumulated pics from trips to El Salvador and Guatemala. There's not a lot of colonial architecture in El Salvador—my eye really enjoys crumbling modernity in spite of the economic/social implications. Sonsonate, the euphonious name belies; it's a hot, gritty city with not much to draw those without business there. We've passed through numerous times and made a trip to see a fine Semana Santa procession; this building caught my attention. The building reminds me of (though not quite on par with) Frédéric Chaubin's photos of mind-tickling Soviet architecture, published by Taschen in CCCP: Cosmic Commuinst Constructions Photographed. I like the pigeon keeping watch in the upper hole-window.