A Rare Noir Is Good To Find 3
Lola + The Fear
On we go, into the eastern Mediterranean and the fraught landscapes in Greece, whose cinema traditions remain steeped in mystery and neglect. Over-the-top intensity is a hallmark of these two remarkable discoveries.
Lola
4:30 PM A man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit is released, but returning to his hometown, he finds that his gang has circled the wagons on him—while his girlfriend is held hostage by a manipulative cabaret owner. Lola takes us deep into the Troumba, Athens’ red-light district, where gangs, casinos, and nightclub singers are embroiled in just what you’d expect them to be—but with an operatic twist and lighting schemes that give the great John Alton a run for his money in terms of audacity and extravagance. (1964, Greece, dir. Dinos Dimopoulos, 104m)
The Fear / O fovos
6:30 PM A wayward Greek youth accidentally kills a young girl he attempted to seduce; there are further consequences… The Fear is the third and final film from Kostas Manoussakis, a harrowing tale of provincial misanthropy and shattering tragedy that seizes up from the bestial side of man too often triggered by ignorance and deprivation. Locked away for more than fifty years, The Fear is not for the faint of heart. (Greece, 1966, dir. Kostas Manoussakis, 102m)
He’s at it again. Eternal renegade of rep programming Don Malcolm (THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT, MIDCENTURY MADNESS) brings 13 insanely rare international noirs to the Roxie—including nine never before screened in America! A RARE NOIR IS GOOD TO FIND screens August 13, 19 and 20. “The time is ripe for more of these astonishing films to surface,” Don says, “as we continue to discover that the late Spencer Selby was right: there was—and is—a worldwide film noir tradition that needs to be traced in its entirety so that we will know its true extent and be able to properly assess its influence in film history.”
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