The biggest surprise of this year’s edition? Shakespeare meets noir!

Hamlet-businessman lighting a cigarette, two Othellos in one body and third one in the dynamic urban jazz scene – that and more will be offered by the program section Shakespeare Meets Noir, an apt example of how many forms can a noir narrative take. Shakespeare has more in common with the genre that is commonly associated with brooding antiheroes in raincoats, dangerous seductresses and dark city streets, than might be apparent at the first glance. In his oeuvre we find, just like in film noir, not only quite a lot of crime, but also complicated interpersonal relationships and a romance tested by fate (or at least circumstances). In this section you can look forward to, for example, a unique piece from the never finished Northern Shakespeare trilogy, Hamlet Goes Business (1987) by the legendary Aki Kaurismäki. The tragedy of Hamlet is remarkably changed in this 80s version, through Kaurismäki’s specific style and extremely dry Finnish humor. You will also have an opportunity to watch a layered variation of Othello directed by the versatile George Cukor. A Double Life (1947) earned an Academy Award for the male lead Ronald Colman and represents an interesting double adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. It is more than adequately seconded by a successor twenty years its junior, All Night Long (1962), directed by Englishman Basil Dearden, who takes Othello from theatre to a musical environment. This film can boast for instance the presence of Richard Attenborough and a long line of established jazz musicians cast as themselves. (bk)