Noirvember Is Back at the Coolidge: 8 Dark Classics on the Big Screen, Nov. 1 Through Dec. 2

Still hungry for something dark after all that Halloween candy? The Coolidge Corner Theatre has the cure: Noirvember is back in Brookline, a month-long celebration of Hollywood's hard-edged, shadow-drenched style, with eight films on the big screen from Sunday, November 1 through Wednesday, December 2.

Noirvember was coined in 2010 by Chicago film critic Marya E. Gates and has grown into a worldwide, month-long holiday for film lovers. This year the Coolidge goes big, spanning noir from its 1940s origins through its 1990s afterlife and into the 21st century, with in-depth discussions on select films led by film writer and programmer Kay Lynch, founder of the Salem Horror Fest and a frequent Coolidge instructor.

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Here is the full lineup, and every one of these deserves the big screen:

On Dangerous Ground — Sunday, November 1 at 2:30 p.m. Nicholas Ray's classic opens the series: a burned-out New York cop, who has seen it all on the city's shadowy streets, finds a shot at redemption in a brutal murder case that takes him into the open country and into the arms of a beautiful blind woman.

Fargo — Thursday, November 5 at 9:45 p.m. The Coen Brothers' darkly comic noir made them household names: a desperate Minneapolis car salesman hires two thugs to kidnap his own wife, and pregnant sheriff Marge Gunderson starts pulling the thread.

Beware, My Lovely — Wednesday, November 11 at 7:00 p.m., with introduction and post-film discussion with Kay Lynch. A woman hires a handyman and soon finds herself a prisoner in her own house after he locks the doors and tears out the telephone.

In Bruges — Thursday, November 12 at 9:45 p.m. Two hit men, played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, are ordered to cool their heels in the storybook medieval city of Bruges after a job goes wrong, and it may be their final destination.

I'll Be Seeing You — Wednesday, November 18 at 7:00 p.m., in 35mm, with introduction and post-film discussion with Kay Lynch. A woman on Christmas furlough from prison meets a troubled army sergeant on leave, and friendship blossoms into romance, shadowed by the secret she has yet to tell him.

Blast of Silence — Tuesday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. A low-budget, razor-sharp portrait of a hit man on assignment in Manhattan at Christmastime, with rough, poetic narration and an eye for the oddball details of city life.

Spellbound — Wednesday, November 25 at 7:00 p.m., with introduction and post-film discussion with Kay Lynch. Alfred Hitchcock's own dalliance with noir: Ingrid Bergman plays a psychiatrist drawn into a whirlwind of tangled identities with Gregory Peck, featuring an Academy Award-winning score by Miklos Rozsa and a dream sequence by Salvador Dalí.

L.A. Confidential — Wednesday, December 2 at 7:00 p.m., in a rarely-seen archival 35mm print, with introduction and post-film discussion with Kay Lynch. Curtis Hanson's 1997 neo-noir closes the series in style: three very different 1950s Los Angeles cops collide over a mass murder at the Nite Owl cafe, in a case that leads to blackmail, prostitution, and a police cover-up.

The full schedule is also available at coolidge.org/noirvember. The nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline's beloved movie house since 1933, welcomes over 225,000 patrons a year. Do not wait for streaming to catch these: noir was made for a dark room, a big screen, and an audience holding its breath.