AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

This year's festival seems to possess the omnipresent theme of "relationships;"

 

relationships to our community, our environment, our political and social structure,

 

our history, our family, and even our spouse. "relationships;"

 

relationships to our community, our environment, our political and social structure, our history,

 

our family, and even our spouse.

 

The festival continues through March 30th with screenings in both Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

 

PRINCE KI-KI DO   /Slovenia

 

this is a cute little short - just 4 minutes long

 

makes a big impact

 

there's no dialogue, just some grunts and screams

 

the screams come from all the animals in the little prince's

 

kingdom, where he reign's as sovereign and protector

 

when a scary monster seems to be an imminent threat

 

the little prince takes to the sky to defeat the scourge

 

but in a simple and poignant twist the monster turns out to be

 

just the manifestation of a conductor's misreading the score

 

the music sheets he's reading from are inverted

 

thus the impactful and lasting lesson of this whimsical tale is:

 

 

get your act together

 

 

 

 

MORE REVIEWS COMING SOON

 

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT EVENTBRITE.COM OR BY CALLING 800-350-8850  

SAMPLE REVIEWS OF SCREENINGS AT 2013's

 

MAKE SURE TO MAKE PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR'S NOIR FESTIVAL. COMING IN MAY 2014



THE BRIGHT SPOT IN A JEWEL HEIST

norma jeane had a very small bit part in john huston's

 

the asphalt jungle - which he directed and co-wrote

 

but every time this 50's film classic was re-released

 

throughout the coming years

 

- she would figure prominently in the posters and promotions

 

and what a figure is was...

 

this was the film that first gave marilyn the exposure that

 

she so disparately sought and that we so disparately loved

 

meanwhile, in the movie's long and contrived plot

 

a brilliantly conceived and executed anatomy of a crime

 

a foolproof plot to grab-a-gob of jewels - the perfect crime

 

- almost works - but crime - as the writers put it

 

'is a left-handed form of human endeavor'

 

the bad guy's perfect crime unravels when a corrupt cop

 

angry that his patsy didn't let him in on the caper

 

beats this bookie into confessing his part as well as

 

fingering the other criminals involved

 

from this point on, the meticulously planned crime falls apart

 

as does the film itself, it's like a classic greek tragedy

 

the film's format is so weak and the dialogue is endless

 

as in a lot of films, there was great acting by great actors

 

but far too tedious for today's standards of great film making

 

 

THIS FILM CLOSED THIS YEARS FILM NOIR FESTIVAL

DEATH, DECEPTION AND JUST PLAIN BAD GUYS

MURDER, INC. 1960

this is the first original story of how the syndicate

 

runs and controls every racket and vice in the nation

 

based on the bullet-riddled pages of the best seller

 

by former NYC assistant district attorney burton turkus

 

the hoods, the sleazy babes, the blond bombshells

 

and the wanton gunmen who accounted for an estimated

 

1000 previously unsolved murders in new york

 

and all were executed by murder, incorporated

 

this was peter falk's silver screen debut

 

and it was magnetic while being electrifying

 

- a two bit hood who cleaned up nice and then shot first

 

in the best scene from almost any movie - he screams

 

'what you get your hands on ya take, ya take and ya take'

 

the star of this classic, stuart whitman introduced the film

and took questions afterward

watching an old whitman watching himself as a younger man

in a movie he made 53 years ago

is what makes this film festival so intriguing thus successful

Arthur Lyons FilmNoir Festival is in its 13th season and

 

better than ever and continues until today's 4pm finish

 

the festival is held in one convenient location in beautiful

 

palm springs at the Camelot Theater

CHAMPION AND ANTI-HERO

CHAMPION 1949

the road to the top can be bumpy and brutal

 

but when you have the burning desire of having everybody

 

call you mister and the need to be the head cheese

 

some will do whatever it takes to take the brass ring

 

well, in the ring - in his first major starring role

 

kirk douglas skyrocketed to stardom and got his first

 

oscar nod as hard-nosed and ruthless boxer midge kelly

 

kelly and his brother find their way to california

 

while first having to step in for a hurt boxer in kansas city

 

kelly gets beat pretty badly in his stint as a fighter

 

and then gets beat out of his full pay, adding the insult

 

that seems to end his boxing career, so off to wait tables

 

but when he's at his end - after getting married and

 

leaving his bride the same day

 

he takes up the sweet science with a manager this time

 

he starts to move his way up through the ranks

 

he beats-up as well as steps upon anyone in his way

 

his brother and his manager and

 

all the women who he uses like trophies

 

he makes it to the top and stays there until the end

 

and what an ending and what a movie and what a guy

 

douglas is the heart and soul of the film

 

and crafts every scene like he has trained for it

 

it's easy to see why he became one of hollywood's favorites

 

the mark robson film was nominated for six academy awards

 

and won only two

 

this movie shows the length and depth a man can go

 

to get the respect he thinks he so deserves

 

the restored 35mm champion is a stark

 

and realistic study of the boxing racket

 

and the possible degeneracy of a prizefighter in that racket

 

it is not available on DVD, that's why the

 

Arthur Lyons FilmNoir Festival is in its 13th season and

 

better than ever and continues until today's 4pm big finish

 

the festival is held in one convenient location in beautiful

 

palm springs at the Camelot Theater

JUST A REALLY BAD DAY

sam goldwyn didn't make film noir films

 

but his wife made him make this one

 

and boy this one, as the head of

 

the film noir foundation

 

has said, is the noir-iest of any film noir film

 

webster sez: noir is short for film noir which is...

 

crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters

 

and bleak sleazy settings

 

well, dig this mark robson film

 

there's a nice, good looking young guy

 

who works at a flower shop and has a nice girl too

 

he's called away from a nice dinner with his nice girl

 

to tend to his dying mother

 

then

 

his mother dies, the neighbors are crazy and unhelpful

 

so he goes to the church for help and in a rage

 

kills one of the priests with a crucifix

 

then he goes to the mortuary but can't get any credit

 

and then goes to the flower shop and gets fired

 

and the police put him in jail for robbing a movie theater

 

gets put in a police line-up for the murder and then gets off

 

and then goes see his girl but then leaves her

 

and then confesses to his dead mother at the funeral home

 

while the police listen in

 

and then he ends-up in prison for murder

 

all in a dingy dark smelly nameless inner-city

 

- just a really bad day - but an excellent movie

 

the edge of doom will keep you on the edge of my seat

 

the whole time

 

not available on DVD, that's why the

 

Arthur Lyons FilmNoir Festival is in its 13th season and

 

better than ever and continues until sunday night's big finish

 

the festival is held in one convenient location in beautiful

 

palm springs at the Camelot Theater