Starting on August 8 through September 11 New York's Film Forum is showing six decades of French Film Noir — for a grand total of 38 films.

Cercle Rouge

This a rare look at a huge span of French thrillers, from the 1930s through 2000. The films represent many periods of French cinema, all spliced with the influence of American Film Noir, B Movies, and good old-fashioned American gangster films.

Serie Noire

Many of these films are some of the most stylish ever made — from Melville's Circle Rouge and Purple Noon to Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows to Godard's Breathless. Fashion and style were a huge part of these films providing many images that today's fashion designers and photographers emulate endlessly.

Rififi

Stars such as Jean Paul Belmondo, Jean Seaberg, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Jane Birkin, all epitomize a style of French cool that only the rest of the world can dream about. Alain Delon, in many of these films, represents one of cinemas best-dressed men of all time. - -STEPHEN WATSON

Some of the more stylish in this series:
Borsalino 1970
Purple Noon 1969
La Piscine 1969
Le Circle Rouge 1970
Bob Le Flambeur 1955
Riptide 1949
Pierrot Le Fou 1965
Le Doulos 1962
Diabolique 1955
Eyes Without A Face 1959
Un Flic 1972
Breathless 1959
Band of Outsiders 1964
Pepe Le Moko 1937

New York's Film Forum

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