The Castro Theatre begins its March programming on Wednesday with The Big Sleep (1946). Humphrey Bogart's second great private eye (Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe) is caught between the demands of an aging mogul and two mismatched daughters (Lauren Bacall and Marsha Vickers). The film that virtually defines film noir, this 1946 release gave Humphrey Bogart his second crack at the world-weary, cynical but totally honest private eye Marlowe, capable of witty one-liners. "She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up."
Farewell My Lovely (1975) Robert Mitchum is the best thing going for this third film version of a Raymond Chandler novel that was too well-written to be entirely ruined. (both 3/1)
Delicatessen (1991) Jean-Pierre Jeunet provides an oddball take on cannibalism that's (sorry for this) not for all tastes. The color scheme matches its icky artistic intent.
The Tenant (1976) Roman Polanski helms this odd terror cult piece about an unlucky soul who moves into the room once rented by a woman who took her life. (both 3/2)
Reservoir Dogs (1992) One-time Southland video clerk Quentin Tarrantino made a huge splash with this hyper hip, extremely bloody bank-heist noir that re-invented an old genre for the 90s. As with the greatest pop art, there's something to please or offend virtually anyone. The piece starts out with an aging gangster (Lawrence Tierney) assigning code names to a random group of hoods. The names are color-coded like a suburban housing track: Mr. Pink, Mr. White, Mr. Brown. Predictably, some of the wannabe thieves are offended by their new nicknames.
The names are just the beginning of the fun. A serious crime-film geek since his teens, Tarrantino uses his encyclopedic knowledge of rock-n-roll to find exhilerating ways to pump up the violence. His casting seriously good actors (Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel) against type both cuts across and increases our expectations of what these guys will deliver as serious goons, especially once the job goes bad and the survivors are left to point fingers and guns at those they suspect may have betrayed them to the cops. (3/3)