THURSDAY, DEC 18

CHAIR DE POULE / HIGHWAY PICKUP  7:00

Legendary director Duvivier (PÉPÉ LE MOKO, LE FIN DU JOUR, PANIQUE) was nearing the end of his illustrious career, but he saved one of the best for last in CHAIR DE POULE, in which the essence of noir's hard-boiled school is distilled in a taut tale of fate, lust and enveloping entrapment. Robert Hossein is at his astringent best as a thief on the lam who jumps from frying pan into the fire when he holes up at a highway truck stop where he's quickly embroiled in the grasping, malevolent schemes of a hard-bitten, voluptuous vixen (Catherine Rouvel) who will literally stop at nothing to get what she wants! With Jean Sorel, and Jacques Bertand. With photography from Léonce-Henri Burel, longtime right-hand man of Robert Bresson. Dir. Julien Duvivier (1963, 107 min.).

J'IRAI CRACHER SUR VOS TOMBES / I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVES  9:00

See the notorious film that literally killed the author of its source novel at its own premiere! Boris Vian's fever-dream novel of a light-skinner race-avenging psychopath had been the focus of intense controversy beginning with its publication in 1946, and the prospect of a film version brought the twelve-year contretemps squarely back into the public eye, with Vian and director Michel Gast trading barbs in the press as the movie went into production. Ten minutes into the initial screening on June 23, 1959, Vian rose from his seat, furiously denouncing the film—at which point, he clutched his chest and collapsed, suffering a fatal heart attack! He was only 39.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVES features a fine jazz score composed by Alain Goraguer, which goes down smoothly amidst all the mayhem that ensues in Gast's crude but effective evocation of Vian's dark landscape. Dir. Michel Gast (1959, 109 min.)

► TICKETS FOR 7:00 PM DOUBLE FEATURE

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