Episode 217 - Argentine Noir with guest Matthew Gentile

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:33:58 — 65.5MB)

This episode of Criterion Cast features a conversation with director/screenwriter Matthew Gentile, as he and host David Blakeslee discuss the ARGENTINE NOIR bundle currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. As the name implies, this is a collection of six films noir originally released in Argentina during the 1950s. Here’s how the Channel describes the set:

Argentina gave rise to some of the finest and most fascinating crime thrillers of the postwar noir boom—pitch-black tales of lust, greed, guilt, and deception suffused with the passionate intensity of tango and sculpted in striking expressionist shadows. This selection of newly restored films from the Perón era brings together some of the most intriguing examples of Argentine noir, including two atmospheric Cornell Woolrich adaptations (IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE, NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR), a female-centered remake of Fritz Lang’s M (THE BLACK VAMPIRE), and a searing adaptation of Richard Wright’s landmark novel NATIVE SON starring the writer himself. Set amid the smoky nightclubs and dark alleys of Buenos Aires and laced with bitterly ironic social critique, these stylish, suspenseful journeys into existential dread are ripe-for-discovery gems from one of Latin America’s major film industries.