Get ready for Noir City Chicago 2025

Noir City Chicago 2025 is a week-long film festival dedicated to celebrating classic film noir and neo-noir. The event will be held at Chicago's Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., from September 5 to 11. Presented by the Film Noir Foundation, the festival is a must-see for fans of hardboiled crime stories, high heels and fedoras, and shadowy cinematography. The lineup for the festival is curated to include both renowned classics and obscure rarities, often presented in double-bills, and will feature screenings of 35mm prints alongside digital restorations.

Joan Bennett and Edward G. Robinson in The Woman in the Window

The 2025 program promises an eclectic mix of films, including classics like Stanley Kubrick's The Killing and Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street, as well as a selection of neo-noirs such as The Grifters and The Hot Spot. The festival will be hosted by Eddie Muller, the founder of the Film Noir Foundation and host of TCM's "Noir Alley," for the opening weekend. Following that, screenings will be presented by Film Noir Foundation board member Alan K. Rode. This year's event highlights the lasting legacy and influence of film noir, providing audiences with a chance to experience these gripping tales of desperation, greed, and betrayal on the big screen.

Click HERE for the full schedule.

Noir City Chicago 2024: September 6 -12

It’s that time of year again. The air gets a little crisper, the days are shorter, and NOIR CITY Chicago is back at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N Southport Ave., Chicago, IL 60613. urner Classic Movies’ Noir Alley Host and president of the Film Noir Foundation, Eddie Muller, and author and film historian Alan K. Rode will again be this year’s hosts.

As per the Music Box website, “Under the banner, ‘Darkness Has No Borders’ this year’s NOIR CITY festival features thematically linked double bills pairing foreign language films with movies made in the United States and United Kingdom.”

The website continues: “At this year’s NOIR CITY, he notes, audiences will experience familiar noir tales … but many will be from Argentina, Egypt, France, Mexico, Italy, and Japan presented alongside English-language offerings. ‘Some are cultural one-offs,’ he explains, like the 1958 Egyptian offering Cairo Station (shown with the 1950 Paramount thriller Union Station), while others are examples of noir from countries with a dark wellspring of films still waiting to be discovered.” The 18-film program of thematically linked double bills includes heists, prison breaks, missing persons, cultural alienation, love triangles, and lots of plain old-fashioned murder.

Screenings from Friday, September 6th-Sunday, September 8th will be hosted by Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation founder and host of TCM's Noir Alley.

Screenings on Monday, September 9th-Thursday, September 12th will be presented by FNF board member Alan K. Rode, author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film.

Festival Pricing

Series Pass - $125 GA / $100 Music Box Members (Grants admission into all screenings in NOIR CITY: CHICAGO 2024) 

Individual Screenings - $12.50 GA / $11.50 Senior (Available at the Box Office Only) / $10 Music Box Members

3D Screenings -  $18 GA / $17 Seniors (Available at the Box Office Only) / $15 Music Box Members

Films screened during this festival

• The Postman Always Rings Twice
• Ossessione
• Odd Man Out
• Victims of Sin
• The Window
• Never Open That Door
• Zero Focus
• Cast a Dark Shadow
• This Gun for Hire
• Le Samourai
• Brute Force
• Hardly a Criminal
• Inferno
• Black Tuesday
• Man in the Dark
• Le Trou
• Union Station
• Cario Station

Click HERE for details on when the films will be screened during the festival.

Noir City Chicago returns to the Music Box Theatre in August

Noir City Chicago returns to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., August 25 through August 31. The event will be hosted by Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode.

Some of the films screened include Key Largo, The Lady From Shanghai, Road House, and The Big Clock.

Festival passes are $100 and $85 for Music Box Theatre members. Tickets are also available for each individual movie screening.

For the complete festival schedule click here.

It’s Back! Noir City: Chicago 2019

Festival Dates: Friday September 6th to Thursday September 12th

Noir City: Chicago is back at the Music Box Theatre. This year’s theme is Film Noir in the 1950s. Once again the film festival will be presented by Eddie Muller, host of TCM’s Noir Alley and the Film Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode, author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film.

The event is co-presented by the Film Noir Foundation and sponsored by TCM’s Noir Alley. Festival passes are available at $85 and $75 for Music Box Theatre members. Tickets are available for individual movies as well as packages for double features.

Some of the films to be screened include In a Lonely Place, The File on Thelma Jordan, Pickup on South Street, Sudden Fear, and Pushover. For a complete list of films screened and more information on the festival, including ticket prices, click here.

Must sees for me:

• The File On Thelma Jordan (1950) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey; directed by Robert Siodmak
• Pickup on South Street (1953) starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, and Thelma Ritter; directed by Samuel Fuller
• Sudden Fear (1952) starring Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, and Gloria Graham; directed by David Miller
• Touch of Evil (1958) starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Orson Welles; directed by Orson Welles

Not sure I’ll get to all of them, but those are my picks! What films are you most excited about seeing on the big screen?

Review of “All My Sons” at #NoirCityChicago

Monday night the A Film at Noir City Chicago was the film adaptation of Arthur Miller’s award-winning play, All My Sons (1948). The film starred Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster as father and son respectively.

The movie was introduced by Alan K. Rode, film historian and author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. He made it clear that this film didn’t fit the film noir category, but because of its dark thematic elements thought it would be appreciated by a film noir crowd. He was right. The film was dark and somber, but it was also superbly acted. Rode noted that photographer-turned-playwright-turned director Irving Reis overall did a good job directing the film, but thought the cinematography was a bit static. To be honest, I didn’t notice this (maybe I need to see it again); I found the subject matter and the performances compelling enough.

As the father, Edward G. Robinson was terrific. His characterization was multidimensional, which made Joe Keller a flesh and blood human being. Joe is flawed for sure, but not entirely unsympathetic. As Joe’s son, Chris, Burt Lancaster was solid. Physically, he doesn’t resemble Robinson at all, but his characterization was very strong without any of the screen chewing that he displayed in I Walk Alone, released the same year. The other cast members: Louisa Horton, Mady Christians, Howard Duff, and Arlene Francis were also very good.

 

A tense scene between Howard Duff, Burt Lancaster, and Louisa Horton

All My Sons was definitely not a film noir, but it was engrossing cinema nonetheless.

The #NoirCityChicago film festival, wraps up on Thursday, August 23, 2018. Looking forward to this festival coming to Chicago again in 2019.  

2018 Noir City Chicago August 17 – 23 at the Music Box

FRI, AUG 17TH, 2018 TO THU, AUG 23RD, 2018
Festival Passes - $85 GA/$75 MBT Members | Opening Night Tickets - $12 GA/$9 MBT Members | Single Feature Tickets - $11 GA/$7 MBT Members

Doube Feature Tickets - $15 GA/$12 MBT Members (Includes admission to both the “A” and its corresponding “B” film)

Noir City’s 10th anniversary kicks off with an Opening Night tribute to writer-director Carl Franklin. Join us for a double bill of his neo-noir classics and an in-person discussion between films with the director and Noir City host Eddie Muller. Then return to Noir City for the following six days and nights for a thrilling excursion through the original film era, comprising chronological “A” and “B” double features of film noirs both legendary and obscure! Weekend shows presented by Eddie Muller, host of TCM’s Noir Alley! Weeknight shows hosted by the Film Noir Foundation's Alan K. Rode, author of Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film.

Co-presented by the Film Noir Foundation filmnoirfoundation.org | Sponsored by TCM’s Noir Alley

For ticket information and complete schedule, click here.

Music Box Theatre

3733 N. Southport Ave.

Chicago, IL 60613

Showtimes: 773 871 6604

Box Office: 773 871 6607