A Visit to the 18th Annual Noir City Film Festival

The Noir City Film Festival is always a highlight of the moviegoing year for classic film fans in Southern California!

This was sixth year in a row I've enjoyed the festival's opening night, and the seventh year I've attended the festival.

Noir City plays for ten consecutive days at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, concluding on Sunday, April 24th. My look at each date on the schedule may be found here. Every movie in the festival will be screened in 35mm, and many are not available on DVD.

Prior to the festival, my husband and I enjoyed an afternoon in Los Angeles, including visits to the Petersen Automotive Museum and Milk Jar Cookies, both located on Wilshire Boulevard. I'll be sharing photos from our visits in a separate post. Then, after dinner at the historic Pig 'N Whistle, it was time for film noir!

Here's our friend, the Film Noir Foundation's Alan K. Rode, ready to host 10 days of noir darkness:

Vintage vehicles parked in front of the Egyptian added a fun nostalgic touch:

Tonight's double bill consisted of THE BITTER STEMS (1956), known in its native Argentina as LOS TALLOS AMARGOS, and the Warner Bros. film RIFFRAFF (1947), which I reviewed here last year.

THE BITTER STEMS, which will be reviewed here in the near future, was memorable, and I really like RIFFRAFF, which I chose as one of my Favorite Film Discoveries of 2015. It was fantastic having the chance to see it on a big screen in gleaming 35mm!

Noir City is always one of the very best film experiences of the year, and I hope to attend a majority of this year's screenings. I'm especially happy that next weekend I'll be able to enjoy some of the movies with friends arriving in town early for the TCM Classic Film Festival.

As always, this introductory post to the Noir City Festival will be regularly updated with review links for all films seen at the festival. It's going to be a very busy week juggling trips to L.A. with work, so some reviews may take a bit to post. As the saying goes, watch this space!

New reviews of films seen at the 2016 Noir City Film Festival: THE BITTER STEMS (1956); ALL MY SONS (1948); TAKE ONE FALSE STEP (1949); FLESH AND FANTASY (1943); DESTINY (1944); FLESH AND FURY (1952); OUTSIDE THE WALL (1950); MEET DANNY WILSON (1951); YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (1950); DEAD RECKONING (1947); KEY WITNESS (1947); DECEPTION (1946); THE CAPTIVE CITY (1952); BUY ME THAT TOWN (1941).

Previously reviewed films seen at this year's festival: RIFFRAFF (1947); TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949) (and more here).

Posts on past Noir City Festivals which contain review links for all films seen each year: A Visit to the 17th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2015); A Visit to the 16th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2014); A Visit to the 15th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2013); A Visit to the 14th Annual Noir City Film Festival (2012); A Visit to the 13th Noir City Film Festival (2011); A Visit to the Noir City Film Festival (2010).