Filmhouse / New Kalamata Cinema Club - "Touch of Evil"
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Welles directed the decadent noir "Touch of Evil" for Universal.
The film examines the relativity of moral judgment with Quinlan, an American South barbaric sheriff. The alcoholic, racist, lame and obese sheriff, having used the Law for his personal business, discovers the guilty with his intuition and then makes sure to incriminate them with evidence he manufactures. Although efficient, he has fallen into the trap of megalomania, considering himself the absolute ruler of his small kingdom. Wells approaches him with sympathy, but without identifying with him, in the chronicle of the downfall of an abusive "lord" who goes out of bounds and confronts Fate.
With sequence shots, creative use of depth of field, elaborate shading and evocative close-ups, Welles constructs a vivid, nightmarish maze (the opening shot following the car with the bomb is one of the most famous cinematic mono-shots) in which Vargas gets caught, and Quinlan is king and captive at the same time. His unconventional film noir, full of elaborate and original ideas, is a modern tragedy of Shakespearean proportions - for many, Welles' greatest film after "Citizen Kane".
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15th
The Touch of Evil
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir | K-13 | 1958 | USA | 95'
Directed by: Orson Welles
Starring: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh
21:00 | Kalamata Labour Centre | Admission fee 5 euros, free for those under the age of 18
