Discussion: Beware, My Lovely

Before and after select screenings, gather with experienced instructors and fellow audience members in the Education and Community Engagement Center for a closer look at the film and its context. 

As the apocalyptic clouds of war rolled onto American shores at the start of the 1940s, an ominous fog took hold of the dark alleys and anguished faces painted on the silver screen. Fueled by the talents of refugee filmmakers in exile, American pulp fiction and German expressionism would coalesce into an entirely new genre that would dominate the box office - film noir. 

Reflecting the mores and cultural attitudes of an American life in limbo, the picture house would become home to tales of economic desperation, empowered women, and tortured souls preceded by studio-produced war propaganda that aimed to influence, provoke, and control public perception with an image of nationalistic dominance. 

Employing film criticism and popular psychoanalyses of the time, this series will explore the cold hard truths and fiction of conflict - in the mind, on the streets, and abroad. 

Admission includes an introduction to the film, screening, and post-film discussion. 

ABOUT KAY LYNCH 

Kay Lynch is the founder of Salem Horror Fest and film program director at The Bower by Montserrat College of Art. Named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the best genre festivals of the world, she set out to create a safe and welcoming space for people to find truth and catharsis in the dark shadows of cinema. Over the span of her career she has programmed and presented hundreds of films at venues such as American Cinematheque, Peabody Essex Museum, Coolidge Corner Theatre, where she taught the sold out five-week course Arthouse of Horror, and CinemaSalem, where she previously served as creative director. Her commentaries for The City of the Dead and The Cell are now available on brand new restorations by Severin and Arrow Films. Deemed “so queer it’s scary” by Advocate Magazine, Lynch is committed to the texts, creators, and trends that best reflect our cultural anxieties.