Check out these 5 classic films with Noir Nights at New Bedford Art Museum
If you're a fan of classic films, particularly the ones about gumshoes and femmes fatales, you'll be glad to know that Noir Nights are returning to New Bedford Art Museum .
Following last year's successful model , Noir Nights will be a five-film series featuring classics of the genre, and just about enough intrigue to satisfy the most voracious of armchair sleuths.
You can subscribe to the series, and enjoy a noir night out each month, from February to June.
The whole thing kicks off with a screening of "Chinatown" on Feb. 23.
So grab your fedoras, and your trench coats, because here's what you need to know about Noir Nights:
What is film noir, and when will Noir Nights take place?
"Film noir, what critic Roger Ebert once called 'the most American film genre,' is known for low key lighting as dark as a killer's heart, camera angles more skewed than a gumshoe's moral compass, and weaving plots as convoluted as was to circumvent the production code," a press release from New Bedford Art Museum said.
Noir Nights will be held at the New Bedford Art Museum, 608 Pleasant St., beginning Feb. 23 and continuing through June 22.
Screenings will be on Sundays, at 5 p.m.
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Noir Nights 2025 films
This is a five-month series of "dim lit alleys, ambivalent motivations, hapless hard drinking men and women who would just as soon kill you as love you," the press release said.
The Noir Nights series for 2025 will feature:
" Chinatown " (1974) on opening night, Sunday, Feb. 23, with showtime at 5 p.m.
"A classic noir shot in broad daylight, updated for the Watergate generation," Roman Polanski's thriller stars Jack Nicholas as "a private eye uncovering corruption in 1930s Los Angeles, a desert town where water equals power," the press release said. "For his richly intricate screenplay, Robert Towne researched historic power struggles over the water supply to Los Angeles, creating in tycoon Noah Cross — played by old-guard film director John Huston — one of cinema's most disturbing villains."
On Sunday, March 23, see " Double Indemnity " (1944), directed by Billy Wilder and starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson.
This film "was one of the original handful of cynical American thrillers which, when released en masse in France after the war, gave rise to the term film noir," the press release said.
" Laura " (1944) will be screened on Sunday, April 13.
Directed by Otto Preminger and starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney, along with Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, and Judith Anderson, "Laura" is the tale of NYPD detective Mark McPherson, who is called on to investigate a brutal murder. The victim is Laura Hunt, "a Manhattan advertising executive who is murdered just before she is set to marry her playboy fiance," the press release said.
"Under the spell of the beautiful Laura's portrait, the detective finds himself falling in love with the dead woman," the press release said. "This Preminger classic noir greatly influenced David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks' and its story of a detective hauntingly fascinated by a woman named Laura."
See " In a Lonely Place " (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray, on Sunday, May 18.
"The emotionally charged 'In a Lonely Place' is a brilliant, turbulent mix of suspenseful noir and devastating melodrama, fueled by the powerhouse performances of Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Graham," the press release said. "An uncompromising tale of two people desperate to love yet struggling with their demons and each other, this is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, and a benchmark in the career of the classic Hollywood auteur Nicholas Ray."
Rounding out this Noir Nights series is " Touch of Evil " (1958), on Sunday, June 22.
This film was directed by Orson Welles and stars Welles, Charlton Heston, and Janet Leigh.
"With its story of murder, marijuana and police corruption, 'Touch of Evil' is considered among the last of the 1940s/50s cycle of crime thrillers known as film noir," the press release said.
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How much is a Noir Nights subscription and what's included?
The cost of a subscription is $120 for members, and $125 for non-members.
A subscription includes all five film screenings, pre- and post-film discussions with film professor Dr. Mocha J. Herrup, popcorn, and a soft drink.
Sign up for Noir Nights
Sign up for Noir Nights and reserve tickets at https://newbedfordart.org/noir-nights/ .
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: New Bedford Art Museum Noir Nights feature 5 classic films
