The 8th annual Palm Springs Film Noir Festival will come to the valley on Thursday, May 29th. It’s always a fun event. It will have a certain poignancy this year, due to the recent unexpected death of co-founder Arthur Lyons on March 21st of this year. Barbara Lyons, his widow, has stated that the 2008 Festival will be a tribute to Arthur, who lived and breathed the genre, growing up in L.A., becoming first a screenwriter, then moving to Palm Springs and writing detective mysteries when not working in the family restaurant business. He loved the noir genre, and for the festival he had a talent for ferreting out copies of rarely seen, almost lost fims, often owned privately and not seen publically since the forties and fifties. Arthur dressed for the fest in period suits, fedoras and two tone winged tip shoes, encouraging others to help make the festival a “happening” and also dress in retro garb.
A fun feature of the festivals is the appearance of stars of the films who come to share their recollections of their specific films and their memories of the classic era of film noir. They’ll also be signing autographs and engaging in Q and A sessions with the audience. The buzz for this year’s screenings has been heightened by the announcement that Angie Dickinson will be attending Thursday’s opening night festivities at The Camelot Theatres.
Barbara Lyons, who is co-producer of past events, is committed to going forward with the popular event this year. Their web site hasn’t been updated yet but should soon be listing this year’s roster of films. Check it out at www.palmspringsfilmnoir.com See you there!