Granite Noir is leaping off the pages of crime fiction and onto the silver screen when the festival returns to Aberdeen next week.
The hugely-popular event is boasting the return of its film thread – Crime Watch – with an eclectic mix of films curated by Colin Farquhar.
In the mix are Hitchcock’s classic noir, Vertigo, the recent crime sensation Knives Out, but also family films Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the animated Zootropolis.
“They are very different films, but at the end of the day they are kind of crime thrillers,” said Colin who was formerly the head of cinema operations at Belmont Filmhouse before it closed last year.
Granite Noir takes its silver screen to Aberdeen Arts Centre
“They are all films that have an element of investigation, a crime in the middle that needs to be solved, so they are different takes from different eras on that.
“And the two family films have environmental themes in them and that comes up in noir quite a lot. If you think about Chinatown, there’s a water shortage in the middle of that, Roger Rabbit has the slime and Zootropolis has something similar going on in the city the animals are trying to save.”
The Belmont had housed the Granite Noir films in previous years and this year the films will be screened in Aberdeen Arts Centre, and Colin said the venue had influenced his choice of movies.
“I’ve worked with the Arts Centre for this programme and it will be a fantastic location for these films. It’s a good space and they have a good screen set up,” said Colin.
“I got in for a feel for the space and maybe that ended up informing the programme a wee bit. If it had been in the Belmont, maybe I wouldn’t have gone for the family feeling stuff. That kind of spoke to me when I was in that space.
“They do a lot of pantos, a lot of fun stuff, a lot of musicals.”
Important for Granite Noir to celebrate world of crime films
Colin believes that it’s important for Granite Noir to celebrate the world of crime films as well as the world of crime books and authors.
“Film is still, in a sense, about writing so it’s not that dissimilar. Film drew a lot of its early studio age films from pulp, things like Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart.
“All these big stars played these detectives so I think there’s lineage there. I don’t think it’s a huge step away from the core programme.”
Colin believes the different films will bring in different audiences.
“Knives Out on Friday is very in at the moment because the second one has just come out on Netflix and has been a huge smash. I hope people who have seen that will want to have a chance to see the first one again on a big screen at the Arts Centre,” he said, adding Saturday’s package would bring in a family audience with Roger Rabbit and Zootropolis.
Vertigo is nod to old Belmont audience says Colin
“For Vertigo, on Sunday, I was thinking about the old Belmont audience for that one. A classic noir usually does really well in these programmes. With no slight to the others, that’s the best film in the programme. It’s one of my favourite films.”
While not directly involved in the current campaign to bring the Belmont back from oblivion, Colin supports the drive – as well as the wider drive to support film in the north-east.
That’s why he hopes people will flock to the Crime Watch strand of Granite Noir.
“I hope they come along and have fun. There are little bits of cinema popping up at the moment in the city and the shire. In the absence of having the Belmont do go and see stuff. It’s important to support the medium and the art,” said Colin, adding he hoped to screen more films in the Arts Centre over the summer.
For more information on Granite Noir and Crime Watch, visit granitenoir.com
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