The French Had a Name for It ’24 – Part One
Don Malcolm’s landmark look at the “lost continent of classic French film noir”
Part One straddles the Roxie Theater’s two venues to present more fascinating rarities that add to the astonishing rediscoveries that the series has been unearthing since 2014. Seven spectacular films—including a landmark screening of the 1934 version of France’s “ur-noir tale” LES MISÉRABLES—are highlighted in the big theatre on October 3rd, 6th and 7th, while seven even deeper dives into “the lost continent” play in the Little Roxie screening room on October 4th and 5th.
To open the series on Thursday, October 3rd, Don rolls out a provocative re-screening—LOVE IS MY PROFESSION / EN CAS DE MALHEUR, the only film to co-star French film legends Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot. It’s paired with another Georges Simenon adaptation, THE SNOW WAS BLACK / LA NEIGE ÉTAIT SALE, a film that some have called the bleakest noir ever made…
Friday October 4th, in the screening room, takes us to the dawn of film noir—France in the 1930s, as the series has boldly corrected our “received wisdom”—with contrasting tales of criminals: one deranged, the other flamboyantly charismatic. Saturday October 5th showcases unjustly forgotten director André Cayatte, derided by the Nouvelle Vague for his socially conscious orientation, screening five films that straddle the early years of his neglected career.
The series returns to the Big Roxie with a vengeance on Sunday, October 6th–first with a matinée double bill featuring the young Jean Gabin in LILAC / COEUR DE LILAS and THEY WERE FIVE / LA BELLE ÉQUIPE. It’s followed by LES MISÉRABLES, a three-part epic featuring the phenomenal Harry Baur as Jean Valjean. As Don says, it’s a magnificent spectacle analogous to the great silent films that preceded it—and it’s thoroughly noir…
FRENCH 24’s Part One concludes on Monday, October 7 with two fraught meditations on madness, courtesy of the singular monstre sacré Michel Simon. He is crazy like a fox in A FRIEND WILL COME TONIGHT / UN AMI VIENDRA CE SOIR, but he is madness incarnate in NOT GUILTY / NON COUPABLE. Do not miss this hulking, towering, careening actor in all his one-of-a-kind brilliance!
Sales for all-festival passes for Part One are now sold out. For the best currently available discount pricing, you are urged to consider purchasing our Big Roxie Pass that includes all seven films in FRENCH ’24 screening in the big theater Thursday, Sunday, and Monday for $60.
