The Guild Cinema

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) - our 22nd FILM NOIR FESTIVAL!
Jul 17 & 18
Fri and Sat 3:30, 8:00pm
Dir. Edmund Goulding - 1947 - 111m - Valid for Punch Cards

The original '40's Tyrone Powers perverse tale of a travelling circus carny!

DOUBLE FEATURED (2 movies for the price of one - see one or both for the same price!) WITH ROBERT SIODMAK'S 1946 GOTHIC CHILLER THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE!

Darkness lurks behind the bright lights of a traveling carnival in one of the most haunting and perverse film noirs of the 1940s. Adapted from the scandalous best seller by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley gave Tyrone Power a chance to subvert his matinee-idol image with a ruthless performance as Stanton Carlisle, a small-time carny whose unctuous charm propels him to fame as a charlatan spiritualist, but whose unchecked ambition leads him down a path of moral degradation and self-destruction. Although its strange, sordid atmosphere shocked contemporary audiences, this long-difficult-to-see reflection of postwar angst has now taken its place as one of the defining noirs of its era—a fatalistic downward slide into existential oblivion.

"A hidden gem in the film noir genre..." - Brian Susbielles, InSession Film

"The material... is unusual and the cast first-rate." - Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

"A sordid, spellbinding piece of screen fare suitable only for adults of the sturdy type. It is a gripping melodrama well produced, expertly directed and acted." - Ida Belle Hicks, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003)
Jul 12
Sunday 10:15pm only!
Dir. Sylvain Chomet - 2003 - 80m - France - In French with English subtitles - Valid for Punch Cards

A Bike Burque special of the beloved, wonderfully odd & charming French animated feature!

A BIKE BURQUE LOCAL BIKING GROUP SPECIAL!

A wildly inventive and highly original animated feature crowded with colorful characters and fantastic imagery. Kidnapped by mysterious, square-shouldered henchmen, a Tour de France cyclist named Champion is spirited across the ocean to the teeming metropolis of Belleville. His grandmother and faithful dog follow his trail and are taken in by a trio of eccentric jazz-era divas. The motley sleuths follow the clues to an Underground betting parlor and now the chase is on!

"22 years after its original release it remains an absolute delight: in equal measures absurd, charming, strange, and unsettling." - Grant Watson, Fiction Machine

"Both joyous and melancholy, almost as if the old-fashioned and the new collided and shattered, and the pieces fell in place to create this incredible film." - Mattie Lucas, The Dispatch

"An entertaining, witty, dark animated film, full of quirky characters and very subtle social commentary." - Yasser Medina, Cinefilia

"Beautiful animation, surreal imagery, funny quirky characters and engaging situations make this a gem that should be discovered." - Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed