Tomorrow night marks the grand opening of Noir in Festival in Milan with Tim Burton’s latest at Milan’s IULM University. Thanks to a collaboration with 20th Century Fox, this fractured fairy tale from the director of Edward Scissorhands kicks off the second half of Noir with Sunday night’s premiere of Burton’s new Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, loosely based on the novel by Ransom Riggs (in theaters on December 15th).
The premiere is also the occasion to show off the brand-new Auditorium at IULM, the college campus that becomes the headquarters of the festival starting on Monday morning, with premieres, talks, masterclasses and events jointly arranged by Noir and a young audience of college students. First up on the program, the quarterfinals of the tournament for cinephiles, Fight Cult on Monday at 10 a.m., with the opening face-off between two teams that will be debating two Italian noirs from the new millennium. Indeed, Fight Cult (which fans can watch and vote on as it is streamed on the site welovecinema.it, courtesy of BNL - Gruppo BNP Paribas) revolves around Italian genre and auteur films, including The Consequences of Love, Romanzo Criminale, Gomorrah and Quo vadis Baby?, as well as recent titles like Italian Race. Who will come out of Fight Cult the winner? To find out, hold your breath until the morning of December 15th, with the final showdown presided over by Italian horrormeister Ruggero Deodato.
But the Milan part of the Noir program is packed with events at its three venues: the IULM Auditorium, the Spazio Oberdan (in collaboration with the Italian Film Library), and the cinema Anteo, which will host talks with Noir authors (from Monday to Wednesday, at 5:30 p.m.) and the competitive film lineup (every night at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.).
Marquee names not to be missed: Dario Argento, in Milan to greet the Noir audience at the screening of the restored version of his film Four Flies on Grey Velvet; Maurizio De Giovanni, who will be on hand to present his latest novel Pane. Per i bastardi di Pizzofalcone, with a reading by actor Vinicio Marchioni; plus author Massimo Carlotto at Noir with Il turista, and Claudio Amendola, who will be presenting the premiere of the only Italian film in competition, which he directed and co-stars in alongside Luca Argentero: Il permesso. 48 ore fuori (slated for a 2017 release by Eagle Pictures). 
