Film / News
Bristol’s Film Noir UK announces its first festival
Launched by South West Silents in 2021, Bristol-based Film Noir UK is the UK’s first organisation dedicated to showcasing this most influential of genres on the big screen. Now they’re launching their own Film Noir Fest, which is billed as ‘The Classic Noir and Crime Film Festival’. Over the course of the weekend of November 15-17, they’ll be showing a selection of classic American and British noir titles in a number of strands including Dangerous Divas and London in Noir – plus a special bunch of 1950s Mexican Noir titles in the festival’s International Noir strand.
A Heritage Noir strand will look at the influences of early cinema on the genre and three special screenings called Late Night Neo Noir explore the more modern edge of noir. The festival will also mark the centenary of stars Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) and Lee Marvin (1924-1987).
“It’s all very exciting,” says Film Noir Fest director and Film Noir UK co-founder James Harrison. “Not only is Film Noir Fest a brand new festival for the UK, but it’s a unique one as well. Attendees will be able to see the many aspects of crime films, including classics from America, Britain and Mexico – all showcasing some of the many directors and stars involved with noir. We’ll also be looking at more modern titles involving Neo Noir. So there is something for everyone… and it’s all on the big screen.”
is needed now More than ever
That big screen is in the newly re-opened historic Plaza Cinema in Weston-super-Mare, which was formerly the Weston Odeon. Originally opened in 1935 as one of the earliest Odeon venues in the UK, the art deco cinema even played host to the Beatles in their summer seaside tour of 1963, during which the Fabs played 12 shows over six days. By the 1990s, it had been carved up into four screens. The Odeon Cinema Group finally pulled the plug on June 5, 2023. The following month, the cinema was acquired by independent operator Merlin Cinemas, who reopened it in December and are working on a programme of restoration.
As James Harrison notes, this make it the perfect venue, “given the fact that some of the films we are screening would have been shown at the Plaza during their original runs in the 1940s and 1950s.”
The full programme will be revealed in July. Sign up here for further information.
Main image: Film Noir UK
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