Film Series
Sunshine Noir
In conjunction with the Next Wave presentation of The Ambassador, singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Los Angeles, BAMcinématek presents a lineup of sun-drenched crime dramas. Programmed in collaboration with Kahane, this series explores what happens when noir steps out of the shadows and into the neon-lit boulevards of LA. Burrowing beyond the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown, these hard-boiled tales of outsiders and antiheroes expose the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels.
Friedkin’s hyper-stylized neo-noir plays like Miami Vice on amphetamines.
Polanski pays homage to the classic Hollywood detective film in this moody masterpiece.
Zemeckis’ groundbreaking pre-CGI film cleverly conjures the golden age of Hollywood.
Humphrey Bogart is a screenwriter suspected of murder in Nicholas Ray’s noir masterpiece.
There’s something about loner Max Dembo that keeps you watching this movie over again.
Blaxploitation sensation Pam Grier stars in Tarantino’s exhilarating B movie valentine.
Terence Stamp plays an aging ex-con in Soderbergh’s hand-held revenge thriller.
Brian De Palma’s thriller about a murder in Los Angeles, starring Melanie Griffith.
Debra Winger stars in James Bridges’ (Urban Cowboy) dreamlike neo-noir.
A comic book-obsessed car thief tries to outrun the cops in this giddy Godard remake.
Joseph Losey’s rarely-screened noir relocates the Fritz Lang classic to a seedy 1950s LA.
Private eye Mike Hammer scours LA for “the great whatsit” in the ultimate atomic age noir.
Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton star in this scuzzbucket satire of Reagan-era America.
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino face off in Michael Mann’s riveting existential crime opera.
Robert Altman deconstructs noir in this offbeat Raymond Chandler adaptation.
Two lovers go on the run from the mob in this Quentin Tarantino-scripted pulp fantasy.
A French hit man runs for his life through 1970s LA in this offbeat thriller.
Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James Woods get caught in a love triangle in this sexy neo-noir.
Joaquin Phoenix stars in Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed Thomas Pynchon adaptation.
A chilling homage to the female-driven noirs of the 1940s starring Geraldine Chaplin.
A small time LA mob fixer gets the screws put on him in this lost 70s classic.
Gabriel Kahane performs this musical portrait of Los Angeles, directed by John Tiffany.
Critics Nick Pinkerton and Nicolas Rapold introduce this series of unsung cinematic gems.