L.A. Noir: Cutter’s Way (35mm)

L.A. Noir: Shadows in Paradise

Presented by Greg Olson Productions

This great film of the 1980s features a lazily charming Jeff Bridges as a blue-eyed beach boy who seduces older women for money and dabbles in selling yachts. He flows along, easy going, but his crippled, boozy war vet friend (John Heard) burns red-hot with anger over his own shortcomings and “the sins of the world.” Heard is an “Ahab” looking for a "Moby-Dick” to pursue, and his target becomes an oil tycoon (Stephen Elliott) who Bridges thinks he may have seen dispose of a dead teenage girl in a nocturnal mist. Heard disregards Bridges’ uncertainty and devises a scheme to expose Elliott as “the killer.” But Bridges can’t commit to acting out his friend’s “fantasy.” Heard’s long-suffering wife (Lisa Eichorn) sways between the husband she loves and Bridges, who’s touched by her melancholy allure. Bridges' acting artistry is quietly stunning as, alone with Eichorn, he acknowledges his attraction to her with fond looks and few words. Bridges is the guy “who always walks away.” But when a Zen moment of existential choice arises, young blue eyes can handle it. Presented on 35mm.

Individual Tickets: $15
Passes: $109 | $91 SIFF SAM, Swedish Club, UW Cinema Studies, NWFF, SFI, TheFilmSchool, Festa Italiana, Alliance Francaise de Seattle, Scarecrow Video, & KING FM members