Deep Focus: Understanding Film Noir

August 5 (Saturday) 12:00 pm

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

USA 1946

Lewis Milestone

116 min. DCP

“A gripping film noir, all the more effective for being staged by Milestone as a steamy romantic melodrama.”

Tom Milne, Time Out

Iverstown, Pennsylvania, a coal company town filled with gothic spectres of high American tragedy, is ruled by two masters. At the top, heiress Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) oversees its monopolistic expansion, and under her heel, husband Walter (Kirk Douglas, in his first onscreen role) puppeteers an army of police officers and assorted mercenaries from his DA office. Into this closed system crashes army vet Sam Masterson (a breezily amoral Van Heflin) and ex-con Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott). A horrific murder from the past links Martha, Walter, and Sam, who grew up together; Toni is the exception: a wounded romantic who means what she says. Drunk on plot and power-lust, this A-list production comes by its noir credibility via director Lewis Milestone’s unfazed treatment of bottomless, eroticized self-destruction. The film’s rotten heart manifests in blazing torchlight, unlit cigarettes, and Edith Head’s unforgettable costume design. Judith Anderson (Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca) also makes an appearance; she called it “the meanest part I’ve ever done.”

Do you love the shadows cast by venetian blinds? Are you thrilled by a brutal double-cross? Do you consider taking up smoking (again) whenever you watch Bogie light a cigarette? We invite you to dig into the details of Hollywood’s most breathtakingly cynical film cycle with our sophomore “Deep Focus” event on understanding film noir. “Deep Focus” is an interactive lecture series presented by Learning & Outreach at The Cinematheque. Co-hosts Chelsea Birks and Christine Evans will be your Joe Gillis and Max von Meyerling for the afternoon (you get to be Norma Desmond), and will guide you through the history, cultural influences, and aesthetic markers of film noir. Participants will then hone their analytical skills by watching and discussing Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953). Whether you are a noir newcomer or a seasoned aficionado, we guarantee you will learn something new!

Top of the world, Ma!

Standard ticket rates apply for this “Deep Focus” lecture and screening.