The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival will try something new this winter and spring, with a Selects Series we’re calling “Lost Chances: Neo-Noir Here and Now.” This will be our first effort to offer a unifying centerpiece to our seasonal four-film series. A facilitated film discussion will follow each screening. If all this works, we’ll cook up other ideas, going forward.

Film noir is arguably the most influential and popular of all film genres. It was first identified by French film critics who couldn’t see American pictures during WW II. After the Nazi ban was lifted, in 1945, French audiences feasted on a cornucopia of Hollywood gangster pictures marked by a darkened mood, taut suspense, sexual subtexts, clipped and pointed dialogue, and vivid, unpredictable characters haunted by skeletons in their closet. 

Film noir was noted for its striking cinematography, often rendered in a stunning black-and-white inspired by German Expressionism. Favorite locations included wet nighttime streets and tense offices with shards of light filtered through venetian blinds. 

American critics initially disparaged the early noirs that were frequently low-budget B-movies intended to screen as the second feature on a double bill. This was back in the days before television when more than 30 million Americans went to see movies every week. Hollywood worked overtime to keep up. Film noir articulated themes well-suited to modern times, as our society grappled with the aftermath of world war, the possibility of nuclear conflict, a loosened morality and inexplicable crime driven by greed and desperation in a dog-eat-dog universe. 

A wide variety of films can be tagged as noir. This is especially true as we consider what constitutes neo-noir, since the traditional noir genre is considered to have run from 1941 to 1958. Neo-noir emerged during the 1970’s as young directors sought to challenge the Hollywood status quo. Neo-noir pictures echo the look and feel of the earlier films and often find ironic twists that comment on the genre, itself. Directors attracted to the form include Martin Scorcese (“Taxi Driver”), Francis Ford Coppola (“The Conversation”); Claude Chabrol (“La Ceremonie”); Jane Campion (“In the Cut”), and Spike Lee (“Old Boy”).

Our Middlebury series will open with the 1974 Jack Nicholson/Faye Dunaway neo-noir groundbreaker, “Chinatown” (Jan. 12), followed by Erroll Morris’ penetrating and cathartic noir documentary, “Thin Blue Line” (Feb. 9); the Coen Brothers’ monumental treatment of Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed dark novel, “No Country for Old Men” (March 16); and Debra Granik’s rural country noir, “Winter’s Bone” featuring Jennifer Lawrence’s affecting breakthrough performance (April 20).

“Chinatown” is first up — to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. Unlike gritty, low-budget 1940s noirs, “Chinatown” is noted for its luminous color cinematography, lush costumes, rich production design, career-defining performances by Nicholson and Dunaway, and a distinctive supporting cast that features ’40s and ’50s noir film director, John Huston, as the looming patriarch, Noah Cross. 

“Chinatown’s” backdrop is 1937 drought-stricken Los Angeles, where water wars threaten farmers and upset the city’s equilibrium. Water is power. The film’s narrative construction is perfect, with its reluctant protagonist drawn into a harrowing quest that nearly consumes him, through its thorny predicaments, shifting ground, carefully guarded secrets and dangerous, suspenseful high stakes. It’s an emotional roller coaster, to the last frame. 

“Chinatown” was voted number 19 on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) Best 100 Films of All Time. It ranks number 2 on AFI’s Top 10 Mystery Thrillers.

Jay Craven is artistic director of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival (MNFF). “Chinatown” will kick off the Middlebury New Filmmakers’ Neo-Noir series. Showtime is 2 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 12 at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at townhalltheater.org.