Cinema Dissection: Out of the Past

March 1, 2025

For many cinephiles, Out of the Past is considered to be the quintessential film noir for its pitch-perfect use of the genre’s tropes and themes. Directed by Jacques Tourner with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, two acknowledged noir masters, the film stars Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey, a small-town mechanic with a hidden past, that is till an old associate finds him out and enlists his aid for one last job. Through flashback and voiceover narration, Jeff recalls how he lost his head and heart on a job for gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas), tracking down Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), the hoodlum’s missing moll in Mexico.

Join facilitator and SIFF Programmer Dan Doody for a scene-by-scene investigation tracing every twist and turn of the film’s corkscrew plot to deconstruct what ingredients make for the perfect film noir cocktail.

Be sure to watch Out of the Past at SIFF Cinema Downtown during its screening at Noir City.

Tickets on sale Wednesday, February 5.

CLASS SPECIFICS
Saturday, March 1, 2025
10:00am–4:00pm PT
SIFF Film Center
$30 Sustainer | $25 Regular | $20 Member

ABOUT CINEMA DISSECTION
Cinema Dissection affords film lovers an exciting opportunity to dig deeper into the films that they love. Inspired by Roger Ebert's annual Cinema Interruptus in Boulder, CO, attendees will participate with a facilitator in a six-hour scene-by-scene, and sometimes shot-by-shot, deconstruction of the featured film. While the facilitator will certainly share their thoughts, anyone in the audience may call out "Stop" and either ask a question of the group or make an observation around a certain shot or moment in the film.

Dan Doody

About the Instructor: Dan Doody

A Seattle-area native, Dan Doody received a degree in English from Western Washington University, and began working for the Seattle International Film Festival in 1999. He programs both features and short films for the festival, serving on the WTF! committee and as the festival's lead coordinator for its Oscar® qualifying ShortsFest section. He is an enthusiast of the gothic in both film and literature, the pagan-haunted pastorals found in English ghost stories, and the seedy streets of film noir. He could quite happily live in a crumbling castle so long as it was within walking distance of a neon-lit diner on a rain-slicked city boulevard.