The REAL "Midcentury Madness"...
MERCH!
WE begin the “end times” tomorrow. (French noir end-times, that is—be assured that we’re not going that apocalyptic on you!)
And while waiting for what occasionally did seem like “the end of the world”—the increasingly Kafka-esque sequence of events overtaking our efforts to bring that pesky “French noir book” into tangible, hold-in-your-hand form before December 3—I put myself in real danger: I ventured into the maelstrom of MCP’s “merchandise room.”
Believe me when I tell you that the famous Criterion Collection closet has nothing on the towering, defiant disarray in our “merch madness” domicile. I barely escaped in one piece…
IT was extremely educational, however—and, with some Jenga-like maneuvers, I was able to extract some of that “merch” and schlep it up to San Francisco so that the “film club” faithful could be cajoled into making a few final (discounted!) purchases before we go ungently into that shadowy night.
My archeological “dig” produced this quaint artifact from 2014—the first look at what we’d soon christen “the lost continent of French film noir.” Compared to what came later, this looks more like an overambitious archipelago, but the chart expanded to cover the additional research that quadrupled the number of films and was nearly six feet long!
To accommodate easier reading for those interested in searching for the films on the master list, we began creating charts that focused on the salient individual decades pertinent to the timeframe associated with “the lost continent” (1932-1966). We printed elaborate posters for the French noirs in the 1940s and 1950s (as pictured below); similar products were designed for the 1930s and 1960s, but the pandemic interrupted our printing plans.
SEVERAL copies of these items were extricated from the cantilevered land of “merch madness” and accompanied me to San Francisco the other day. Those of you who didn’t avail yourself of the opportunity to purchase one in those heady days of 2017-19 (before the Roxie revamped their lobby and made it “merch-proof”) will get a second chance to acquire one—or both!—tomorrow and Saturday.
Some will ask about postcards, which was where the madness reached its harrowing zenith. With a book forthcoming that includes poster images for all of the films screened in the ten-year series, it seemed superfluous to do so—and it would have created a level of clutter that might have produced a catastrophic kerfuffle with our hosts at the Roxie. (Likewise, those “mega-sets” we made are simply not discount items.) That said, I will be giving away some postcards that tie into one of the dominant images that “film club” folk already know well:
IN the midst of our early madness, we made an 11" x 17” poster for that initial THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT series in 2014, even though there was no inkling that it would be a such a big success (kudos to Mick LaSalle and Elliot Lavine for their efforts in making that a reality). The Italian poster for one of our most beloved rediscoveries, CHAIR DE POULE, starring seminal rediscovery Robert Hossein and featuring the dangerous femme fatale you see above, played by Catherine Rouvel, has really become synonymous with the festival.
I extricated a small quantity of these using state-of-the-art recovery technologies and they will be available for those who want to say they were there at the creation…
AND that brings us to the famous T-shirt, made in 2019 in tandem with FRENCH 6 (the last festival to be numbered; we used yearly designations after that). I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the “film club” folk wear them to our more recent show and wanted to give everyone who didn’t buy one back in the day one more chance to do so.
Tomorrow evening (and all day Saturday November 30), “film club” folk get first dibs at these, and the other items shown above. Discount prices apply ($10 for posters and T-shirts). Don’t wait until we move to the Big Roxie, because there we will charge “Big Roxie prices.” (And a number of you know what that means!)
PLEASE note that to purchase any of these items, you’ll need to bring cash. We won’t be set up for credit cards, and we sadly no longer have the services of the wonderful Gail Thomson (who relocated to LA) or logistical genius Michael Peake (taken from us in a highway accident back in 2021). This is a classic “back of the truck” sale—minus the truck.
And I’ll fill in all attendees about the status of the book—which, naturally enough, will feature fierce femme Rouvel once again. Which of course means that the very existence of the book is in constant danger…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves! We have sixteen films to watch before the fateful moment of truth will materialize concerning that star-crossed project. All will be revealed in due time…
I AM forward to seeing many of you tomorrow evening, and then onward into a delirious array of films that will culminate on Tuesday, December 3. Thanks so much for coming along on this tumultuous journey!