Noir in June? And more on The Dead?

May was an eventful month -- with both the excellent Roxie series and the Arthur Lyons' Film Festival in Palm Springs. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Palm Springs festival. Would anyone like to comment?

Thanks to Peter L (our mystery man in the field) for making me aware of the following film events at the Alliance Française in San Francisco. They are showing a lot of great films. Some of them are noir, and some are noir-related or have elements of noir, and some aren't. But it is a really cool line-up. I've been to events at the Alliance Française, in the past, and it is a very nice crowd. Some of the films being shown in June: Saturday, June 13, 12pm, A Bout de Souffle and Monday, June 22, 5pm, Ascenseur Pour l’Échafaud. They are subtitled in English. Also, I believe they are free, but check with the AF first.

Actually, we have to thank Peter twice, for bringing this bit regarding James Dean to our attention: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/james-dean-0

And speaking of The Dead (both the short story by James Joyce, and John Huston's final film, The Dead), I would be remiss if I weren't to mention that June 16th is Bloomsday. Bloomsday is the international celebration of James Joyce's work Ulysses, of which all of the action takes place on June 16th, 1904 in Dublin. Bloomsday celebrations occur all over the world. My favorite place to celebrate is New York City, at the annual Bloomsday On Broadway event, held at Symphony Space on upper Broadway. In the past, I have seen Fionnula Flanagan, Frank (author of Angela's Ashes) and Malachy McCourt and Barbara Feldon (Agent 99!). This year, if you can believe it, Stephen Colbert will be performing -- so you may want to get tickets soon.

San Francisco will hold a Bloomsday event at the Mechanics Institute, but having suffered this once, I won't recommend it.