SHAFT (1971)

Monday, November 2, 7 pm

Richard Roundtree is the Black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks. Updating the PI archetype by bringing it into the grimy ‘70s, Gordon Parks’ action-drama spoke directly to Black audiences by exploring the tense class and race issues they faced every day. Shaft, a loner who doesn’t jive with the cops or gangsters, reluctantly takes on the case of a missing girl when her gangster father (Moses Gunn) pleads with the PI. What appears to be a simple assignment soon reveals itself to be a bigger and more dangerous mystery involving Black militants, the Italian Mafia, and Harlem gangsters. Still as cool and thrilling as it was in 1971, SHAFT features an all-timer score from the legendary Issac Hayes, who won Best Original Song for the title theme.

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973)

Monday, November 9, 7 pm

Robert Mitchum stars in this downbeat Boston-set picture that assembles some of the greatest character actors in American cinema history. Eddie Coyle (Mitchum) is a low-level gunrunner who is looking to strike a deal with the Feds to avoid the lengthy prison sentence he picked up for a failed trafficking operation. Coyle’s attempts to sell his partners down the river spin out of control, putting him in the crosshairs of gunrunners, contract killers, and the ATF. Gray, chilly and oppressively tense, EDDIE COYLE provided Mitchum with one of his greatest roles, playing against type as schlub who isn’t as smart as he believes. The normally confident actor becomes a lumpen old man whose tough guy talk only impresses young thugs who are too dumb to know better than to listen to Eddie. Joining Mitchum are Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Alex Rocco, Mitchell Ryan, and James Tolkan. Directed by Peter Yates (BULLITT, BREAKING AWAY).

BLOOD SIMPLE (1984)

Monday, November 16, 7 pm

The Coen Brothers burst out of the gate with this masterfully-constructed noir debut that tapped into the same grim humor that Jim Thompson utilized in his pulp classics. After a slimy private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) discovers their affair, two lovers (Frances McDorman and John Getz) must find a way to outwit not only the PI but a bitter husband (Dan Hedaya) who isn’t ready to let his wife go. Featuring bold cinematography from Barry Sonnenfeld (future director of MEN IN BLACK and THE ADDAMS FAMILY) and a score from longtime Coen collaborator, Carter Burwell.

POINT BLANK (1967)

Monday, November 23, 7 pm

This elliptical thriller from John Boorman (DELIVERANCE, EXCALIBUR) stripped down and deconstructed the noir genre, turning what could have been a routine crime pic into a bewildering exploration of masculinity and morality. Walker (Lee Marvin), a thief left for dead on Alcatraz Island, makes his way back to San Francisco to track down Reese (John Vernon), the traitorous friend who popped him and stole $93,000. Storming through the city like a golem out for revenge, Marvin speaks very little, brutalizes anyone who gets in his way, and refuses to stop until he gets his money. The film captures the fluidity of memory, jumping back and forth in time, as though we are witnessing a collection of Walker’s recollections. Boorman utilizes non-linear editing, giving the film a French New Wave flavoring while inhabiting the sunbaked California landscape of the late ‘60s. Marvin has never been more intimidating or haunting, seeming more like a specter of retribution than a mere mortal. Co-starring Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, Carroll O’Connor and James B. Sikking.

AMERICAN GIGOLO (1980)

Monday, November 30, 7 pm

Director Paul Schrader’s neon-tinged noir features Richard Gere at his most beautiful, a lush and evocative score from Giorgio Moroder, fashions from Armani, and a heavy dose the existential despair Schrader explored in his scripts for TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL. Julian Kaye (Gere) sells his love and attention to the ladies of Beverly Hills, a man who serves as both an object of lust and confessor for the ultra-wealthy whose extravagant lives bring them no pleasure. As he’s falling in love with one of his clients (Lauren Hutton), Julian finds himself hounded by a detective (Hector Elizando) after one of his previous lovers is found brutally murdered. AMERICAN GIGOLO brought the noir into the 1980s, exploring a United States that had given up its soul for the pursuit of pleasure and consumer goods. Julian, through his naïveté, is no longer just a man framed for a crime he didn’t commit; he’s the fall guy for nation that had betrayed its own morals.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

Monday, December 7, 7 pm

In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones is tasked by Army Intelligence to help locate a legendary ancient power, the Ark of Covenant, before the Nazis get it first.

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984)

Monday, December 14, 7 pm

In 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a sacred stone stolen from them by a secret cult.

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989)

Monday, December 21, 7 pm

In 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.