It’s widely believed that cinematographer John Alton helped put film noir on the map with his expressionistic, deep-focused shadowy images. He was a master of darkness.
“Where there is no light, one cannot see; and when one cannot see, his imagination starts to run wild,” Alton wrote in “Painting With Light,” his influential 1949 book. “He begins to suspect that something will happen. In the dark there is mystery.”
Former Roxie Theater programmer Elliot Lavine, who left for the Pacific Northwest in 2017, was known for his eclectic film noir programs. Now, he’s back in the Bay Area to present a two-night, four film noir retrospective with each movie lensed by the Oscar-winning, Hungarian-born Alton.
On Monday, June 1, Lavine will screen Anthony Mann’s “Raw Deal” (1948) followed by “Joseph H. Lewis’ ‘The Big Combo’ (1955). The series finishes the next day with ‘Hollow Triumph’ (1948), a film which ‘Casablanca’ actor Paul Henreid completed after he fired credited director Steve Sekely; and Bernard Vorhaus’ ‘The Amazing Mr. X’ (1948).
The latter film, about a phony psychic (Turhan Bey), is particularly alluring visually, with a palette that includes dark séances where the only light source is a crystal ball, and an opening beach scene in which he points the camera directly into the sun, making for a strange effect.