Nottingham Contemporary

A playlist of Film Noir in devotion to Her.

B movies, shorts, and newsreels played on a loop, cinema was once a place to move in and out of with fluidity. You might enter a film halfway through, or you might stay all day in the dark seeing the same recurring images.

I've selected a playlist of noir that features Rita, Gene, Veronica, Barbara, and Gloria. The image of Her is within our collective cultural consciousness, imprinted, multiplied, and distorted ever since She was born. From 2pm until midnight we’ll play Her films, with things in between. Stay for some of it, stay for all of them.

- Niki

FEATURES

Blue Dahlia (1946) George Marshall. 96 mins.

A navy vet returns home to find his wife cheating on him with a nightclub owner, later she is found murdered. We follow Johnny Morrison as he tries to clear his name, with the help of a nightclub singer. The murky milieu of L.A. with its shadowy characters of the night captures the iconic imagery of noir. Veronica Lake’s image is forever rendered in this film, and we are with Her within the darkness.

Laura (1944) Otto Preminger. 89mins.

A detective investigates the murder of a beautiful woman, Laura, through a series of interviews with the men who knew her. Laura’s portrait hangs above as we piece the story together. One of many Film Noirs Gene Tierney made with Otto Preminger, Laura sears itself on our imagination as She is revealed to us as both an obscure object of desire and as an inconvenient fully-realised human being.

In a Lonely Place (1950) Nicholas Ray. 94mins.

Hollywood Screenwriter Dixon and his neighbor Laurel begin an intense romance. He is suspected of murder and slowly she starts to see behind the mask and doubts his innocence. In this, we see the darker more damaged side of the protagonist’s psyche and as a result, She is viewed through a more sympathetic lens made real by Gloria Grahame, almost swallowed up and devoured by the dark.

Gilda (1946) Charles Vidor. 110mins

In the heady environment of post-war Buenos Aires, we meet petty criminal Johnny Farrell, a gambler who is hired by rich casino owner, Ballin Mundson. Johnny and Ballin’s equilibrium is disrupted when Ballin marries Gilda, Johnny’s former flame. Gilda: A classic example of when She is blamed, adored, feared and revered. Rita’s Hayworth’s performance is iconic.

Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder. 110 mins.

Insurance salesman Walter Neff leaves a memo to his boss telling the story of what happens when he falls for the young wife of a rich older man. Walter is seduced and enthralled throughout his downfall. Barbara Stanwyck is the epitome of the seductive Her.

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