Noir Sunday with Red Shoes

Luckily for me, most of today had nothing to do with Football.

There's something so great about living in San Francisco, where you can dress up like whatever you want no matter what day it is and no one will give you a second look. If anything, they'll compliment you ("hey, nice skirt") or just take your photo.

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Today, me 'n Mr. and Mrs. Red Shoes went to the last (and maybe best) movie of the film noir festival, Sweet Smell of Success.

They're such good sports and embrace a good reason to dress up, just like me.

They were also movie virgins (for this film), meaning that I got to enjoy them enjoying this awesome film for the first time. It was a great audience. Lots of people clapped when certain famous dialogue lines came up.

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I got to wear some special treasures that belonged to my grandma.

An awesome Lilly Daché hat covered in tiny white flowers.

Her crazy cool sunglasses.

Her little white cotton gloves and her black leather purse.

And the best part was recreating the makeup of the era. I did Joan Fontaine's eyeliner from the movie I saw yesterday, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, and Virginia Mayo lips. I even threw in a couple of beauty marks.

*sigh*

Tomorrow's gonna be kind of boring by comparison. I want to be a gun moll.

"I love this dirty town."

The film noir festival, Noir City 7, continues through this weekend. One of my favorite films-- period-- is showing on the last day, Sunday: Sweet Smell of Success.

(Roger Ebert's Great Movies essay is here, and this in-depth write up on filmsite.org is a detailed walkthrough for us groupies.)

This film has absolutely everything going for it: amazing, crackling, memorable dialogue; well-crafted characters at every level; the incomparable cinematography of James Wong Howe, I could go on and on but if you're really interested, the links above speak better than I could...

This scene below is probably one of the best in the film and shows why the Sweet Smell of Success is worth seeing over and over again.

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Yesterday morning, the MUNI train I was riding went out of service at Civic Center Station. Rather than wait with the huge, annoyed crowds of people all going my way, I decided to walk the remaining blocks since I was going to be late either way.

Civic Center Station drops you off in the heart of the Tenderloin which, for its bad rep, still is photogenic in its way. The trick is that you just gotta keep walking. You don't hang out and you don't dawdle.

I didn't think too much of these shots at first-- they were something to do while I walked to work, slightly pissed off-- but when you give these images the Noir Treatment, even an early morning photo attains some atmosphere.

Amazing what you can see in 10 minutes sometimes.
And how sometimes black and white makes it easier to see.

See you at the movies.

Happy Free Friday, guys.