Originally conceived as our series for March 2020--and we all know what happened then--Roxy Confidential is a celebration of the masterworks of American film noir, one we're overjoyed to finally present in full to our community. As much a style as a genre, film noir perfectly captures the angst & moral ambiguity of the post-war era. Its directors found the means to explore elements of trauma in a world no longer solidly "black and white," elements that continue to influence today’s culture. The five films in Roxy Confidential are noir to their bones, containing the classic imagery of the genre: the femme fatale, the private eye, and the plan gone horribly wrong. Through the haze of moral ambiguity and sudden violence, unforgettable stories and indelible images emerge.  

Has dialogue ever been more perfectly hard-boiled? Has a femme fatale ever been as deliciously evil as Barbara Stanwyck? And has 1940s Los Angeles ever looked so seductively sordid? Working with cowriter Raymond Chandler, director Billy Wilder launched himself onto the Hollywood A-list with this paragon of film-noir fatalism from James M. Cain’s pulp novel. When slick salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) walks into the swank home of dissatisfied housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck), he intends to sell her insurance, but he winds up becoming entangled with her in a far more sinister way. Featuring scene-stealing supporting work from Edward G. Robinson and the chiaroscuro of cinematographer John F. Seitz, Double Indemnity is one of the most wickedly perverse stories ever told and the cynical standard by which all noir must be measured.