Palm Springs Noir Festival kicks off 21st year this week

Speaker 1: (00:00)

With Palm Springs as close to drive as Los Angeles KPBS art's reporter Beth Mondo wanted to highlight the Arthur lions film noir festival happening this week. Beth is a fan of noir and her cinema junkie podcast will focus on filmed war all next month. She previews the festival with its host and producer Alan K roadie,

Speaker 2: (00:24)

Alan, for people who are not familiar with the Arthur lines, nor festival explain a little bit about what this is,

Speaker 3: (00:31)

This festival we're now in our 21st year. And this festival was started by Arthur lions. Arthur was a mystery writer. He was a Palm Springs city council man, and was my good friend. And he started this back in 2001, 2000 with a single screening, inviting Tony Curtis. Then it moved over to the Camelot theaters and it started with, with film war movies from the, mostly from the 1940s and the 1950s and guests and so on and so forth. And I got involved in it as a friend of ours, uh, helping the program movies, interview guests, get guests and so forth. And sadly art passed away in 2008. I do the promotion, the program, the guests, the films and everything. We are able to show 35 millimeter films in its original format, uh, with a real, a real changeover system, et cetera, as well as digital and, and, uh, just about anything else. And, uh, what other place you can go to see a film war where you can go upstairs to the bar, take a cocktail, go down in an elevator and sit in the theater and watch Bogan Bacall. So it doesn't get any better than that.

Speaker 2: (01:48)

I'm a huge fan of noir. And so are you, you're a champion of it, but for people who may not be familiar with it, why do you feel it's important to showcase these films on a big screen at a festival?

Speaker 3: (02:01)

Well, uh, I think first off when you're showing these films on a big screen at a festival or in a venue, you're not only introducing the, some members of the audience or renewing their acquaintance with these films from the 1940s and fifties, you're also renewing the experience. The other part of this is why these movies are still relevant, important, entertaining, et cetera. I think that it does introduce people to the way things were from a historical sense, but the plots of these films, I mean, our lives must have changed a lot with 21st century devices and zoom and cell phones and email and all of this, but the basic human being a of greed, lust, larceny, uh, and particularly with noir, when you have people in situations who are doing something they know is fundamentally wrong and they do it anyway. So I think people identify with that. They identify with a good story and they appreciate that. And I think film the war is still and will always be relevant because it's stories about people and what they do, uh, or in many cases what they shouldn't do

Speaker 2: (03:25)

Well. And I think noir, unlike a lot of other genres or film styles remains very contemporary because it's willing to look at kind of the darker side of human nature and to address things that were taboo and difficult back in the forties and also remain ideas and themes that are relevant to people today.

Speaker 3: (03:49)

Yeah. And I think it also identifies characters that may not live within the letter of the law, but they have their own personal code, their own personal standards, which I think we all do. So I think when people see these stories and I think Beth you're exactly right. They often identify with the characters and the decisions that they may or may not make because it's a, again, Fillmore is about people. It's about the human condition. A lot of times, the, the dark side of the human condition. And I think that's just something that people naturally identify with. I just don't think there's anything. There's no substitute to a good, compelling story, uh, shown and shown in shown in a darkened theater.

Speaker 2: (04:35)

And the things about your programming is that you show some films that basically we don't have access to any other way than seeing it in a theater. So talk about programming choices like that. Well,

Speaker 3: (04:48)

One of the things I always tried to do is to maintain some of the fidelity to, uh, what art did and art. One of his, one of his books was death on the cheap, the loss B world, the film, the war and art would show like a movie on VHS that someone had in a shoe box in their garage. So I always try to keep that and put at least one in and, uh, Saturday at 10:00 AM, I'm showing a movie called the cruel tower from 1956. So now I'm going to have a DCP of a film. That's not on streaming, not on DVD, not on blue Ray. Uh, another one that we're showing on Sunday morning is, uh, Playgirl, which has been vaulted for decades. And in 2020, uh, we were able to show it at the Egyptian theater and universal actually made a DCP, uh, uh, for me. And, and this is great. And, and, uh, this is Shelley winters Unbound.

Speaker 4: (05:50)

The make would that cold truth, Spain, not when my temperature is 8,000.

Speaker 3: (05:57)

And then the other thing is, is my, uh, as a charter director and treasurer, the Fillmore foundation, we have restored many films and we have a very close relationship with the UCLA film and television archive. And the film our foundation started when, around Eddie mother's kitchen table and Alameda, because we couldn't get the films that we wanted to show at the north city festival. And so then the foundation kind of emanated from that. So at 4:00 PM on Saturday, I'm showing a 35 millimeter print of a film high wall, 1947 with Robert Taylor. But this is one of the films that we actually funded the print for. And we have those at UCLA. So I have access to those as well. And,

Speaker 2: (06:46)

Uh, since I'm from San Diego and Victoria mature lives here, her father was Victor mature. I just wanted to ask you about the film you're showing. Actually you're showing two films with him, but she's introducing one.

Speaker 3: (06:57)

So Victoria, she's been there. I had her there for kiss of death and she, she sang a little song. And so we're going to come up with something, uh, Victoria is about her dad and we're going to introduce the long haul Sunday at one o'clock together.

Speaker 5: (07:15)

Yeah. I love him, but the little Valenti office I'm right here. I'm going to Liverpool name, Kenny. Hey, just a minute. Look, I've been waiting over here. What's the idea.

Speaker 3: (07:26)

This is a victim mature as an American GI, married to a British war bride, and he becomes a lorry driver. And then of course gets caught up when the whole, uh, trucking industry is corrupt. And then Diana doors emerges, uh, with the blown dried hair and so on and so forth. And she does her best to screw up Victor's marriage and so forth. And there's a phenomenal ending that, uh, for those of your viewers who have seen the movie sorcerer will recall. So, uh, Victoria and I are going to do that together. And I think it's going to be a blast.

Speaker 2: (08:04)

I want to thank you very much for talking about the Arthur lines nor festival in Palm

Speaker 3: (08:08)

Springs. Thank you, Beth. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: (08:12)

That was Beth Armando speaking with Alan K roadie. The Arthur lions film noir festival runs this Thursday through Sunday at the Camelot theater in Palm Springs.