While October has a firm hold on the horror genre, Arkadin Cinema & Bar is carving out space in its November slate to celebrate classic film noir in its many forms with its “Noirvember” program.
While “Noirvember” as a concept exists well beyond just Arkadin, the Bevo theater’s version of the program consists of four classic noir films that, according to its website, “spotlight the broken dreams and bitter paranoia of this distinctly American genre.” These films will screen as Sunday matinees throughout November. Arkadin co-owner Keith Watson notes that while they have dabbled in “Noirvember” programming in the past, this is the broadest program they’ve put together.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
“It can be hard to get people out to older films, but we also don’t want to neglect them,” Watson says. “We’ve got four movies, each priced at $3—so very cheap—and I think they show a broad range of the noir style.”
First up on November 2 is Orson Welles’ The Stranger, about a Nazi war criminal hiding out in a small town after World War II, which plays with a pre-show of anti-Nazi cartoons. Next, on November 9, is Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker, which follows two friends whose fishing trip takes a dark turn when they pick up an escaped convict who plans to murder them once the ride is over. Watson notes that very few women directed films either in or around the Hollywood studio system at the time, making The Hitch-Hiker particularly unique.
After a weekend of SLIFF programming, the series picks back up on November 23 with Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street, a noir-tinged melodrama starring Edward G. Robinson as an unhappily married clerk who falls for a brassy prostitute, unaware that she and her pimp are scamming him. And closing things out on November 30 is Rudolph Maté’s D.O.A., which follows a man who, after being poisoned, has to find the person responsible before the poison kills him.
“We really wanted to have a diverse lineup where each film had its own hook for people, rather than just generic noir,” Watson says.
While each of the selected films in this program certainly has many of the shadowy hallmarks of the noir style, these elements manifest quite differently, from the anti-fascist bent to The Stranger and the meditations on masculine egos of The Hitch-Hiker, to the steamy and torrid melodrama with touches of German Expressionism in Scarlet Street and the cartoonishly frantic D.O.A.
READ MORE: 10 film screenings to catch in November
While classic film noir may be somewhat less en vogue with audiences compared to some of the genres and styles that dominate rep cinema these days, Watson sees “Noirvember” as both a good challenge to think outside the box as a programmer and a chance to show why classic film noir is still relevant to, and resonant with, a modern audience.
“Noir is still such a resonant label because it so perfectly captures this feeling you get through these movies, which is this darkness, desperation, and this underbelly to American society after the war,” Watson says. “It’s kind of interesting to go back to a time where people may have the idea that it was rosier in the past, and you can see that, no, there was actually all of this grit, grime, and desperation and all of these feelings back then, too. In that way, the films come very fully into the present.”
For more information about these screenings and to purchase tickets, visit arkadincinema.com.
