A weekly series of classic noir movies based on books is currently running at the Michigan Theater, an 87-year-old Ann Arbor landmark, in partnership with Nicola's Books bookstore. On average, 170 viewers have attended screenings every Monday since January 12, beginning with The Maltese Falcon (adapted from Dashiell Hammett's novel), and planned to run until April 27. Nicola's Books sells copies of each film's book inspiration (assuming they're still in print) and other noir titles at every show.
The idea for the series came to Nicola's Books event manager Lynn Pellerito Riehl during a Michigan Theater screening of The Godfather. "Before screenings, they play the theater's original Barton pipe organ and the organist played the theme song to the 1944 noir film Laura," Riehl said. "I love that film and the first thought that popped into my mind was, wouldn't it be great to see that film, then that morphed into wouldn't it be great to have a film noir series that was based on noir novels."
Two years later, Riehl and Michigan Theater senior programmer Brian Hunter created Noir: Seventeen Stories of Sex, Suspense and Murder. "We're excited to offer this series and hope to give viewers the opportunity to step back in time and see these classic films in the setting they were originally shown, a real movie house," said Hunter. "Nicola's partnership offers a great way for film goers to appreciate the original source from which the screenplay was adapted."
The series has been a boon for Nicola's. "We are selling books at both the theater and the bookstore," Riehl said. "I hear a lot of people talking about Nicola's Books and how they shop there and when someone is looking at a book, but you can tell they just are not sure if they want to buy it, I tell them that we have the exact same titles at the store, so they could always buy it there--one time the customer said, 'Oh great, I have an order to pick up tomorrow so I will do it then.' The goodwill and exposure that we are getting from this series is priceless and it is really exciting to be part of something that has a real buzz going on in the community."
Nicola's and the Michigan Theater are no strangers to successful partnerships. "We have a long standing relationship with them and have done many large scale author events with them too (Neil Gaiman, Malcolm Gladwell, Anthony Bourdain to name a few) as well as sponsor the Not Just For Kids series (live performances of childhood favorite books and characters), where we also sell books," said Riehl. "They are our go-to venue when we have a possible large event."
She hopes to have another film series with the Theater, "another noir series, maybe foreign films," with tentative planning underway for this summer. "We are currently discussing doing a screening of To Kill a Mockingbird and the documentary Hey Boo in July when Go Set a Watchman comes out."
In addition to booksellers from Nicola's Books, the Michigan Theater invites film experts to speak before each show. Next Monday's movie, 1947's The Lady from Shanghai starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, based on the 1938 novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King, will be introduced by University of Michigan Screen Arts and Cultures field librarian Phil Hallman. --Tobias Mutter