May 15 -
Movie of the Week: The Killers
(1946) Directed by Robert Siodmak.
Two hoodlums enter an all-night diner and begin menacing the staff and patrons.
“What’s the idea?” someone asks.
“There isn’t any idea,” says one of the hoods.
The superb first ten minutes are as tense as anything ever projected on a screen, and lovely to behold as well. Woody Bredell’s expressionist cinematography is a chiaroscuro festival of black pools and stark white shafts of light; a more furiously vibrant example of noir cinematography does not exist. This is a quintessential genre picture, with every film noir trope and convention fully on display. Hero searching for answers; check. Fatalistic world view; check. Femme fatale; check. Oppressive and sinister atmosphere; check. It’s a desert island work of cinema, really.
Los Angeles-based TROUPE VERTIGO is a revolutionary theatrical circus and event production company made up some of the most elite circus professionals in the world. Led by Co-Founders/Artistic Directors Aloysia Gavre (Cirque Du Soleil) and Rex Camphuis (The Pickle Circus), the group creates Big-Top for a new generation. Circus artists, musicians, dancers, directors, technicians and support staff work together to develop circus as an art; combining skills of balance, strength, creativity, drama, dance, music and comedy with the ancient traditions of many cultures to create a new, vital theatrical experience.
