72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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American way of death: american film noir 1990-2010
Films
Films
Thematic retrospective - AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH: AMERICAN FILM NOIR 1990-2010
Thematic retrospective - AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH: AMERICAN FILM NOIR 1990-2010
Ami Canaan Mann
USA
104 min.
Inspired by true events, this tense and haunting thriller follows Detective Souder, a homicide detective in a small Texan town, and his partner, transplanted New York City cop Detective Heigh as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims' mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call The Killing Fields.
Martin Scorsese
USA
146 min.
Small-time gangster Henry Hill takes part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito. His two partners kill off everyone involved in the robbery and gradually climb the Mafia hierarchy ladder. But Henry feels sorely put out by his partners? success.
Abel Ferrara
USA-Italy-UK
103 min.
Drug lord Frank White leaves prison determined to wipe out his competitors and share the profits of his operations among the city?s poor in this modern twist on Robin Hood. Frank has his own particular ethos: ?I never killed anybody that didn?t deserve it?.
Joel Coen
USA
115 min.
Two rival gangs vie for control of a city where the police are pawns, and the periodic busts of illicit drinking joints are no more than a way for one gang to get back at the other.
Silver Shell for Best Director at San Sebastian Festival in 1990.
David Lynch
USA
125 min.
Lula?s mother goes crazy at the thought of her daughter being with Sailor, who just got freed from jail. Ignoring Sailor?s probation, they hot-foot it towards California. But Lula?s mother hires a killer to hunt down Sailor. Unawares, the couple enjoy their trip and being together again...
David Mamet
USA
102 min.
While following the trail of Robert Randolph, a drug dealer high on the FBI wanted list, detective Bob Gold comes across the murdered Jewish woman manager of a shop in a black neighbourhood. The clues point towards a Zionist group, obliging Gold to confront the Jewish background to which he had payed little attention until then.
Sean Penn
USA
127 min.
Two brothers have very different takes on existence: Joe believes in the family, routine and small pleasures; Frank is violent, antisocial and destructive. While Joe mistakenly believes he can straighten his little brother out by making him see that life really is worth the effort, Frank feels tragically split between love for his brother and his desperation with life.
Mario Van Peebles
USA
97 min.
Nino and his Cash Money Brothers gang get into the crack-dealing racket and are soon earning a million bucks a week. The policeman hard on their heels, Scotty, tries to infiltrate the band with an ex-drug addict, but the plan fails dismally: its only achievement is that Scotty ends up passing himself off as a drug pusher.
Jonathan Demme
USA
118 min.
In her attempts to shackle a serial killer, FBI Agent Clarice Starling has to confide in a formerly respected psychiatrist turned dangerous psychopath: Hannibal ?the Cannibal? Lecter. Agent Jack Crawford is convinced that Lecter, also a clever and powerful manipulator, has the answers to her questions and can help them to collar the murderer. But to succeed, Clarice must first of all gain Lecter?s trust.
Paul Verhoeven
USA-France
127 min.
Former rock star, Johnny Boz, is brutally murdered while having sex and the case is assigned to detective Nick Curran. During the investigation, Nick meets Catherine Tramell, a novelist who was Boz?s girlfriend when he died. Pretty much convinced of Catherine?s guilt, Nick enters a dangerous mind game with her. But the rising body count and contradictory evidence oblige Nick to question his suspicions.
Carl Franklin
USA
105 min.
The sheriff of a one-horse town named Star City (Arkansas), Dale ?Hurricane? Dixon, sees his quiet life thrown to the dogs on receiving a tip-off that a dangerous criminal threesome is heading his way from California, lacing the road behind them with a string of crimes. Dixon gets ready to detain them with the help of two detectives from the LA Police Department.
Quentin Tarantino
USA
99 min.
Joe Cabot, a big fish in the organised crime world, hires six criminals unknown to one another to carry out a diamond robbery. All are convinced that the heist will be a walkover, but the cops burst onto the scene at the exact time and place of the grab and one of them is killed. When the surviving members of the gang regroup at the previously established meeting point they begin to smell a rat.
Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
USA
97 min.
Young African American Caine Lawson lives a violent life in the Watts protected housing ghetto, one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Los Angeles. Along with his friend Kevin, nicknamed ?O-Dog?, he gets involved in the murder of a South Korean couple who run a liquor store; the crimes come fast and furious from then on, and his recent graduation from high-school can do nothing to save him.
John Dahl
USA
98 min.
Recently discharged from the Marines, Michael Williams arrives in Wyoming?s Red Rock looking for work. Wayne, the owner of a local bar, mistakes Michael for the gunman he?s hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Michael takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money and runs; but things get complicated when he comes face to face with the real hitman, known as ?Lyle from Dallas?.
Scott McGehee, David Siegel
USA
96 min.
Half-brothers Vincent and Clay meet for the first time at their father?s funeral. Vincent plans to kill Clay, pass his corpse off as his own and start a new life elsewhere with his father?s inheritance. Clay survives the bomb explosion, but he loses his memory and has to have his face rebuilt.
James Gray
USA
98 min.
Joshua, a cold-blooded contract killer, returns to the neighbourhood that saw him grow up, Brighton Beach, home to New York?s Russian community, to do one of his dirty jobs. There he sees his kid brother, who adores him, his dying mother, who still loves him, and the abusive father he argues with continually. The reunion with his familly ends up toppling the impassive wall he?d built around himself.
Michael Mann
USA
170 min.
Neil McCauley and his gang look to score big money targets, like bank vaults. But hot on their heels are Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops. Neil and Vincent are a lot like one another, even down to their trouble private lives. When Neil is about to retire from the ?business? with his girlfriend Eady, he gives in to the temptation to get even with Waingro, one of his former partners in crime.
Nick Gomez
USA
98 min.
Black teenagers Jason and Midget live in Newark (New Jersey). Their favourite pastime is shared by the whole neighbourhood: stealing cars and joyriding. Sick of arguing with his mother, Jason moves into Midget?s pad in a troubled area. Run-ins with the white cops who control the district intensify, with fatal consequences.
David Fincher
USA
127 min.
Two homicide detectives, Somerset and Mills, desperately hunt a serial killer who justifies his crimes by claiming to be an exterminating angel who punishes the world for the Seven Deadly Sins. While Somerset studies the sins in an attempt to understand the murderer?s modus operandi, Mills is sceptical about his efforts to get inside the killer?s mind.
Kathryn Bigelow
USA
145 min.
Set in a dangerous Los Angeles in 1999, during the last days of the millennium. Lenny Nero is an ex-cop who now deals with data-discs containing recorded memories and experiences. One day he receives a disc containing the memories of a murderer killing a prostitute. The more he investigates, the deeper Lenny is pulled into the whirlwind of blackmail and carnage.
Steven Soderbergh
USA
99 min.
Michael Chambers returns home to celebrate his mother?s wedding some time after his penchant for gambling had seen him ousted from the city of his birth. Now he?s back and ready to re-woo his ex-wife Rachel; the only problem is that she?s found solace in the arms of a local thug, Tommy. Michael lands a job driving an armoured car and behaves like the prodigal son... until the determination to get his ex-wife back leads him to plan a heist on one of the company trucks.
Bryan Singer
USA-Germany
106 min.
Roger ?Verbal? Kint is a swindler undergoing interrogation in connection to a boat blown up at a Los Angeles wharf. Only two people survived the explosion: Kint and a Hungarian criminal lying badly wounded in hospital. The Hungarian tells the police that the attack is the work of a mysterious villain mastermind no-one has ever set eyes on, a Turk named Keyser Söze; meanwhile, Kint tells his version of the story beginning six weeks back in New York...
Joel Coen
USA-UK
98 min.
Jerry works in his father-in-law?s car dealership and needs dough fast. When the other plans to get his mitts on the much-needed bread fall through, he hires two men to kidnap his wife and demand a ransom from his father-in-law. But things go pear-shaped, and what was expected to be a non-violent affair turns very bloody. Sheriff Marge Gunderson, 7 months pregnant, investigates the case with tenacity and common sense.
Paul Thomas Anderson
USA
101 min.
John has lost all his money. He happens upon Sydney, a professional gamester who takes pity on him and teaches him a few tricks of the trade. Under Sydney?s wing, John takes up home in Reno, cashing in at the local gambling haunts. But things get complicated when John falls for Clementine, a casino waitress and occasional hooker. And as if that wasn?t bad enough, Jimmy, John?s new-found friend and security guard, knows a secret about Sydney.
Walter Hill
USA
101 min.
John Smith is a gunslinger in the prohibition era. On the lam from the law, he winds up in Jericho (Texas), a ghost town emptied of people by warring between the Italian and Irish mafias for control of the illegal alcohol market. Smith sees a chance in the stand-off between the two gangs to get his hands on some easy cash as a hired hitman.
Curtis Hanson
USA
138 min.
Three Los Angeles cops, Ed Exley, Bud White and Jack Vincennes, are sent to investigate a multiple shooting at a night diner. It looks like it may be an attempt by the thug Mickey Cohen to seal his control of organised crime. Things get complicated when they discover a strange porn and call-girl ring that traffics with women who are given plastic surgery to make them look like well-known Hollywood film stars.
Jim Jarmusch
USA-France-Germany-Japan
116 min.
Ghost Dog is a hitman who models himself on the samurai ethics of old. He lives alone with his homing pigeons and works under the orders of the local mafia capo who saved his life way back, Louie, serving him with typical samurai loyalty. But when one of the jobs he?s given to do for Louie backfires, the mafia honchos decide that Ghost Dog has got to go.
Spike Lee
USA
142 min.
In the summer of 1977, the city of New York was the setting for crimes committed by a mysterious serial killer known as the Son of Sam, whose real name was David Berkowitz. Spike Lee recreates the period centring on the inhabitants of the Bronx and the fear instilled in them by the murderer.
Christopher Nolan
USA
113 min.
Leonard is thirsty for revenge on his wife?s killer, but he has a problem: the murderer?s blows have destroyed his short-term memory, making him incapable of remembering what happened only minutes earlier. He must resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs to follow the thread of events.
Henry Bromell
USA
88 min.
Alex has inherited the family business: contract killings. Unhappy with life, he decides to visit a psychoanalyst. In the waiting room he meets an attractive young woman who sets him thinking about his work and arguing with his father. When dad gives him his next assignment, precisely to kill the therapist, Alex has to take important decisions.
Antoine Fuqua
USA-Australia
122 min.
Alonzo Harris is a veteran officer with the Los Angeles Narcotics Division whose methods of enforcing the law are questionable, if not corrupt. Harris has to train idealist rookie Jake Hoyt, who can?t help but ask himself if Harris' ways of ridding the Los Angeles streets of drugs are right or wrong.
Clint Eastwood
USA-Australia
138 min.
Friends since childhood, when they lived in one of Boston?s Irish neighbourhoods, Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine and Dave Boyle are reunited when Jimmy?s eldest daughter Katie is murdered. Sean, the detective on the case, has to deal with confusing evidence and Jimmy?s rage as he takes it upon himself to investigate the matter helped by his neighbourhood contacts. The suspicion falls on Dave, traumatised by a terrible childhood experience.
Michael Mann
USA
120 min.
A nighttime tour of Los Angeles beginning when Max, a taxi driver who still dreams of owning his own limousine service, picks up a hire in the shape of Vincent, an implacable contract killer who offers him US$600 to take him to five places. Immediately they get to their first stop, Max realises that Vincent plans to kill five people, one at each place.
Shane Black
USA
102 min.
Posing as an actor, a petty thief finds himself caught up in the middle of a murder investigation as an improvised private eye. Sharing the adventure with him are his high school dream girl and the real-live detective who's been training him for his upcoming film role...
Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
USA
124 min.
Four adapted tales from Frank Miller?s popular comics: The Hard Goodbye revolves around a man thirsty for revenge on his girlfriend?s killers. The Big Fat Kill relates a street fight beween prostitutes and Irish mafia mercenaries. That Yellow Bastard tracks a policeman who risks his life to protect a girl from a paedophile attack. The Customer Is Always Right stars a hired killer.
Sidney Lumet
USA-UK
117 min.
Needing to get their hands on some extra money, brothers Andy and Hank come up with a plan to rob their parent?s jewellery store. They want to commit the perfect crime: no guns, violence or victims; not even their parents will suffer as they?ll be covered by their insurance. But an accomplice enrolled by Hank ignores the rules and draws a gun, triggering a series of events that will leave no-one unharmed.
James Gray
USA
117 min.
Brooklyn, 1988. Crime is rife, especially related to drugs and the violence they generate. Joe has followed his father Bert?s footsteps and joined the NYPD. His brother Bobby manages a club with a Russian heroin trafficking capo among its patrons. Joe and Bert ask Bobby for information to help them arrest the Russian, but Bobby refuses to cooperate.
David Fincher
USA
157 min.
In the late 60s, American society was shaken by the mysterious and unexplained murders committed in San Francisco Bay Area by the enigmatic ?Zodiac killer?, who taunted the police with his cryptic messages. David Fincher painstakingly recreates the investigations of a reporter and a detective in the endeavour to solve that big unanswered question.
Gavin O'Connor
USA-Germany
130 min.
Four police detectives from the same family (the father, two siblings and a brother-in-law) have to deal with a corruption case when four of their colleagues are killed in an ambush in the neighbourhood under the jurisdiction of Francis, one of the brothers. When the investigation led by his brother Ray finds evidence of police corruption, the family closes ranks around Francis and tries to save his career.
Anton Corbijn
USA
105 min.
Jack, a cold-blooded master craftsman among assassins with a price on his head following a job in Sweden, is forced to lie low in an Italian village while he fills the time between jobs. Surprisingly, he seeks the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto, and romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
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