Noir Festival in Palm Springs Mixes Classics, Restorations for Film Buffs Who ‘Live by Night’
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticThe Palm Springs area will live up to its reputation for seediness under the cover of never-ending nights — irony intended — as the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival returns to town for its 22nd annual marathon of vintage crime dramas this weekend.
Leonard Maltin and TCM “Noir Alley” host Eddie Muller will be among the guest hosts joining festival curator Alan K. Rode for a four-day deep dive into the dark that kicks off Thursday night with the 1949 Nicholas Ray film whose title pretty much says it all about the genre being celebrated: “They Live by Night.”That opening night will be preceded Wednesday by a fundraising performance by frequent festival guest Victoria Mature, daughter of Victor Mature, dubbed “Victoria/Victor Mature Cabaret, an Evening of Memories and Music,” to be held, as with the festival proper, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
Mature will also be on hand Sunday afternoon to present her father’s work in the festival’s penultimate film, 1941’s “I Wake Up Screaming” (speaking of quintessential noir titles).
Rode brought the festival back last fall outside its usual May time slot to get things back on track after sitting out 2020 due to the pandemic, but getting back on pace in springtime this year — shortly after he also co-hosts, with Muller, the annual Noir City festival in Hollywood — represents a return to normalcy, to the extend that anyone wants to use the word “normal” in conjunction with such a belovedly twisted genre.“It’s a classic film paradise, and I am so gratified that TCM renewed its sponsorship for 2022,” says Rode, speaking of the network that came on board officially for the first time last fall. (Rode, the author of “Michael.
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