As November rounds the corner in full, blustery force, the bouncy, joyful beat of autumn begins to shift in favor of a darker mood. It’s cold. It’s (mostly) gloomy. The days shorten, and night takes over earlier and earlier.
The Esquire Theatre is leaning into the sinister mood with Noir November, a month-long screening series of vintage crime dramas that kicks off with Orson Welles’ 1958 A Touch of Evil — a saga of corruption and a police investigation gone wrong — and Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder’s iconic 1944 tale of murder and seduction. Both films are showing back-to-back at 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 and include showings on Saturday, Nov. 2 and Sunday, Nov. 3.
The entire series includes The Postman Always Rings Twice (Wednesday, Nov. 6), Body Heat (Wednesday, Nov. 13) and Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 classic The Killing (Wednesday, Nov. 27).
The 1 p.m. screening of Double Indemnity on Nov. 3 and the 7 p.m. screening of Body Heat on Nov. 13 will include a film introduction and post-show Q&A with University of Cincinnati adjunct film professor Joe Horine.
Noir November comes to the Esquire as part of the theater’s new repertory series, which has featured films like Some Like it Hot, Viva Las Vegas, The Graduate and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This month will also bring Coen Brothers Series Volume Two to the theater, featuring The Hudsucker Proxy (Nov. 7), Fargo (Nov. 12) and The Man Who Wasn’t There (Nov. 21).
For tickets and a complete list of showtimes, visit esquiretheatre.com.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2019.