A Rare Noir Is Good To Find 3
The Adventuress + Death Whistles the Blues
The Latin film circuit developed in the 1930s, extending from Mexico to Argentina to Spain and back again, with directors and actors/actresses traveling frequently between these countries for various film projects.
The Adventuress / Aventurera
12:00 PM The singularly fiery Elena (Ninon Sevilla) has her life placed in peril when she becomes a popular dancer in a nightclub that’s a front for a brothel. An iconic cabaretera film, The Adventuress ranges from good-old-fashioned crime to gender politics set in the chaotic whirlwind of Mexico City nightlife. (Mexico, 1950, dir. Alberto Gout, 101m)
Death Whistles the Blues / La muerte siba un blues
2:00 PM Death Whistles the Blues shifts us into the 60s incarnation of such tales, with even scuzzier criminals and a cool blonde singer (Danik Patisson) who is sent in by the police to keep tabs on a heist being planned at a Caribbean casino. (Spain, 1964, dir. Jess Franco, 85m)
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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