Deep Noir

How deep down does the black of Noir go today? If we take a look back in time, the grainy images scroll past, etched out by the great expressionist cameramen who defined the canon for the genre in 1940s Hollywood. Then, the hue reflected the distress that came out of the post-war period, to be replaced by the technicolor anger of the ‘70s and subsequently fed into a kaleidoscope of references by the debut of Tarantino. The artificial three-dimensionality of videogames and the thematic complexity behind the bold strokes of graphic novels changed the game at the dawn of the new century.

In a fast-changing age, when the rule is to shoot past conventions, the value of the noir genre first removed and then restored our imagination’s primary feel for this style. Today, more than before, noir speaks to the frustration, desperation, and bruised search for happiness that runs through societies and floods into the new continents of Noir.

Noir, as entertainment, and Noir, as the gauge of the social unrest of our time: it is just this fantastic duality that our festival, for over thirty years now, has captured, tracked, recounted with the voices of writers, shown through the images of directors and graphic artists, and now adds the voices of podcasts as well, in tales of past and present, news, cases, fantasy, and fright.

On the global festival scene, Noir has always been an exception, due to its interdisciplinary nature stubbornly cultivated year after year. It’s a prized national product, an important member of an international network that, over time, has come to include Sitges in Spain, Toulouse and Lyon in France, Crime Scene in the U.K., Bremen in Germany. All in all, an original community that shares a passion for the genre that is absolutely the most popular and significant in the 20th century as in the new millennium. In Italy, we have dialogued with and stimulated a multitude of other and very different players who have imitated or taken cues from our model, in its many thriving manifestations.

In today’s cultural panorama, we are proud that Noir in Festival has carved out its own unique space, both because it has allowed us to scout out talent and escort the “new waves” of the genre, and because – on the long road from Viareggio to Courmayeur, then Como and Milan – it has enabled us to try our hand at education and map new frontiers, in a dialogue between literature and audiovisual and historical legacy, exploring themes in-depth. Yet a festival is first and foremost a time for entertainment and celebration, which our 34th edition has in abundance, crafted with infinite passion and generosity by a team of superb professionals, made possibly by public and private institutions, and supported by partners and key players on the Italian scene (MiC’s General Directorate of Cinema and Audiovisual, Cinecittà) and in the city of Milan (the Municipality of Milan, IULM University, the Cineteca Italiana, the Casa del Manzoni, and La Milanesiana). Our heartfelt thanks to one and all.