10 · 17 · 11 Film noir specialists present Kansas City Confidential Share with twitter Share with facebook Share with mail Copy to clipboard Administrador The idea of showing movies that reflect Mexico through the eyes of foreigners came from the French director Bertrand Tavernier. Seid, who curates the Pacific Film Archive, has collaborated on the “Imaginary Mexico” project since 2008. Muller is with Universal Pictures. The U.S.-Mexico border has been represented in film noir as a refuge for criminals. In that world, antiquated customs, extreme poverty, civil conflict and fertile tropics conspire to create an intoxicating culture that provides sanctuary for fugitives. Such scenes are created in the imaginations of the directors themselves, Seid said. Muller pointed out that Kansas City Confidential is an example of the transformation film noir underwent in the 1950s, a moment in which the genre was Americanized, becoming less romantic than it was in the 1940s. He noted that the film’s director, Phil Karlson, made a name for himself by depicting more violence than had traditionally been seen in film in that era. The other two movies being shown in the “Imaginary Mexico” program are Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.
