Policeman
(Keisatsukan, Tomu Uchida, Japan 1933, 91 min., 35mm, Japanese intertitles w/ English subtitles)
James Card Memorial Lecture/World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. This recently rediscovered Japanese silent, shot in wonderfully expressive chiaroscuro, evokes both the tense urban gunplay of an early Hollywood gangster movie and the dark fatalism of later film noir. In a story of conflicted loyalty and duty, the Tokyo cop Itami is set against his old childhood friend Tomioka, now a member of a team of gangsters. Live music performance by Philip C. Carli.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, David Bordwell will not be delivering this year's lecture as originally planned. Paolo Cherchi Usai, Senior Curator of the Moving Image Department at the George Eastman Museum, will deliver the James Card Memorial Lecture and introduce Policeman on Mr. Bordwell's behalf.