Cinéclub: DOUBLE INDEMNITY

CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre presents an evening with
Le Cinéclub de Montréal: «THE FILM SOCIETY»

Event: Screening of DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) – plus comedy short.
Date: Wednesday, September 16th, 2009, 7:30pm
Tickets: A one evening Film Society membership is only $8. $6 for students (with ID) and seniors (65+).  Available at the Segal Centre box office and Admission.com Seating limited. Call the Segal Centre in adv. for tickets: 514-739-7944.
Address: CinemaSpace, 5170 Cote St. Catherine, corner Westbury. 2 blocks West of Métro Côte-Sainte-Catherine.

POKER AT EIGHT – (1935 U.S., 20 min.)  Dir.: Charley Chase.

Lesser known than his contemporaries such as Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin, the great comic talents of Charley Chase deserve a serious look today.  Here, Chase accidentally discovers hypnosis and decides to hypnotize his uptight wife into staying home while he goes out to play poker with friends. The resulting controlled chaos makes for hilarious sophisticated comedy that will leave you wanting to see more of Chase’s work.


DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944 , U.S.,  107 min.)  Directed by Billy Wilder.

Adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and Expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff's perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. The three seasoned leads give some of their best performances and Wilder’s cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective. All is heightened by John Seitz's hard-edged cinematography, best appreciated on our theatrical big screen.

Le Cinéclub de Montréal «The Film Society» events take place every second Wednesday, and are a co-production of Le Cinéclub de Montréal «The Film Society» and CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. 

To be on our mailing list, please email esoiferman@segalcentre.org