It’s easy to overlook the moral ambiguity that mediates human interaction when your nation’s economy is riding a massive wave of resource revenue. In all directions one can see cranes floating through the clouds, quickly assembling a brand new skyline to dwarf the old, the sounds of construction inaudible behind a wall of champagne pops and applause. That’s the new urban experience, a city filled with mixed-use developments and boutique shopping, its inhabitant’s lives defined by unabashed conspicuous consumption.

But not too long ago, the urban experience was realized through a very different narrative, one filled with violent anti-heroes and equally dangerous vixens, trapped together in a never-ending twilight where the only guarantees were danger and death.

Luckily, this world and all its oblique darkness will be available for viewing at the Pacific Cinematheque for the next two weeks. “Film Noir: A Return of a Pacific Cinematheque Tradition” kicked off on Sunday, August 19th with Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 masterwork Out of the Past and will wrap up on September 5th with one of my all-time favorites Kiss Me Deadly.

If you’ve been disappointed by this summer’s blockbuster fare, this retrospective will be sure to thrill and is the perfect antidote to a lingering case of CGI-inspired nausea.

- Douglas Haddow