Fifteen films--some of them noir classics, others solid noirs-in-name only, a couple of Godard noir pastiches, and a klatch of widely-scattered international noirs--seem to have been randomly picked out of a hat and turned into a summer noir series by the folks who run the prestigious, well-funded Vancouver Cinematheque.

Here are the fifteen films--first in the way they are organized as separate series:

8/1, 8/3, 8/12 GILDA
8/2, 8/6, 8/18 CAUGHT
8/5, 8/9 PICKUP ON SOUTH ST.
8/5, 8/14, 9/1 TO HAVE & HAVE NOT
8/14, 8/31, 9/2 THE MAN I LOVE
8/17, 8/23, 8/25 WHITE HEAT
8/24, 9/5 T-MEN
8/30, 9/2, 9/5 ACT OF VIOLENCE
------------------------------------
8/1, 8/9, 8/17, 8/20 LE SAMOURAI
8/2, 8/5, 8/10, 8/29 THE THIRD MAN
8/4, 8/16, 8/29, 9/2 MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE
8/6, 8/12 VICTIMAS DEL PECADO
8/11, 8/24 NEIGE
------------------------------------
8/22, 8/24, 8/28, 9/1 ALPHAVILLE
8/22, 8/28 DETECTIVE

All interesting in this configuration. But then they get combined into a strangely scrambled version of the "American-foreign" idea that we introduced last year with "Franco-American noir," a more carefully controlled approach to a mashup that can (as you'll soon see...) get out of control content-wise, tone-wise (and otherwise-wise).

Here are the screenings as they will happen in real time:

1-Aug GILDA/LE SAMOURAI
2-Aug CAUGHT/THE THIRD MAN
3-Aug GILDA
4-Aug MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE
5-Aug TO HAVE & HAVE NOT/THE THIRD MAN/PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET
6-Aug CAUGHT/VICTIMAS DEL PECADO
9-Aug PICKUP ON SOUTH ST./LE SAMOURAI
10-Aug THE THIRD MAN
11-Aug NEIGE
12-Aug GILDA/VICTIMAS DEL PECADO
14-Aug TO HAVE & HAVE NOT/THE MAN I LOVE
16-Aug MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE
17-Aug WHITE HEAT/LE SAMOURAI
18-Aug CAUGHT
20-Aug LE SAMOURAI
22-Aug ALPHAVILLE/DETECTIVE
23-Aug WHITE HEAT
24-Aug T-MEN/NEIGE/ALPHAVILLE
25-Aug WHITE HEAT
28-Aug ALPHAVILLE/DETECTIVE
29-Aug MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE
30-Aug ACT OF VIOLENCE
31-Aug THE MAN I LOVE
1-Sep TO HAVE & HAVE NOT/ALPHAVILLE
2-Sep THE MAN I LOVE/ACT OF VIOLENCE/MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE
5-Sep ACT OF VIOLENCE/T-MEN

There are a few intriguing combinations that ensue from this film salad (for example: GILDA and VICTIMAS DEL PECADO, one that Eddie or I actually might have thought up...), and the two Godard films do get screened together in accordance with auteurist conventions, but most of the time the random mashups here are nothing more or less than bizarre.

Note that WHITE HEAT never plays with any of the other American noirs that are closely adjacent to it--why not pair it with T-MEN or ACT OF VIOLENCE, films that have compelling variants of hard-edged noir energy? It almost seems like an intentionally missed opportunity...

Now, some of these can clearly make for such a "mismatch" that the combination becomes interesting despite itself. I'll leave it to others to pick through the list and suggest which of these seem likeliest to fall into that "consolation category." (I suspect, however, that it might be difficult fos someone to champion that THE MAN I LOVE/ALPHAVILLE double feature in such a way!)