Critic gianni canova for film and crime writer sandrone dazieri for literature, in the ongoing evolution of noir in festival
NOIR IN FESTIVAL moves to Como and Milan for its 26th edition, from December 8 to 14, 2016.
After
celebrating its first 25 years in the splendid alpine setting of
Courmayeur, the festival devoted to all things noir cinematic and
literary and beyond is getting a makeover while losing nothing of its
uniqueness. Films and television, mystery novels and comics, history and
true crime: these will still be the festival’s hunting grounds, but
there are big changes underway.
"We owe a lot to Courmayeur
and the Valle d’Aosta," say Giorgio Gosetti and Marina Fabbri, "but it
was time to tackle new challenges and inject new lifeblood into a
showcase whose very identity its hallmark is tied up with adventure,
discovery and transformation. Thanks to Daniele Brunati, the
associations Friends of Como and Hoteliers of Como and the Como Tourism
Consortium, Noir in Festival is making its first appearance on the lake
this year, while an alliance with the city of Milan and the IULM
University will allow us to explore new avenues and endow our festival
with a fresh identity. In fact, we’d like to take our showcase out of
its niche and bring it to the public at large make it into an urban
festival rather than an event for the happy few. We envision the
continuity between Como and Milan as an opportunity with extraordinary
potential, as we seek out our new audience, shape its tastes, and be its
guide as it discovers the artistic genre that best combines fantasy and
reality."
As always, the next edition of NOIR IN FESTIVAL
will be sporting the many shades of noir, this time in the
Christmas-card setting of the city of Como on its lake, with the popular
entertainment venue, the Teatro Sociale, hosting the screenings of the
films in competition and presentations of the hottest books of the year,
with their authors on hand. And, in a first on the world’s festival
scene, NOIR IN FESTIVAL will also be unfolding on the Milan campus of
IULM University with its iconic tower, where the second week of our
showcase gets underway with screenings, themed events, conferences,
masterclasses and programs involving IULM students. Other initiatives
drawing on the two cities’ cultural lives are in the works as well.
It’s
a tale of two cities, in fact, not far from each other but very
different, and that’s the main challenge of NOIR IN FESTIVAL’s new
formula. The basic idea is a program with interwined events, and their
guest lineups, tailored to each urban venue, but with a common
underlying theme that links our array of offerings: the imaginative
youth-oriented section, "Young Detectives"; the exciting experimental
section, "Fight Club", and we’ll be talking more about those two down
the line; the international film competition with the latest takes on
the noir genre; and our "Ombre di Luce" showcase devoted to Italian
history (co-presented with the Istituto Luce Cinecittà). Plus our
literary talks, "Conversazioni in nero"; our lifetime achievement awards
for literature (the Raymond Chandler Award, which will be handed to the
winner in Como) and for film (the Mystery Award), along with
retrospectives and other themed events, creative workshops, and a
made-over "Noir Series" lineup.
Lastly, a homecoming for
Giorgio Scerbanenco in his own Milan, in the shape of the prize named
after the Italian mystery maestro that goes to the best Italian mystery
novel of the year, from a shortlist brimming with talent and
inventiveness, one that, year after year, attests to the superb quality
of the "Italian school" in the world’s best-loved literary genre.
