@2026 by mezzanine film, inc.
Genevieve Yue presents:
Richard Fleischer’s THE NARROW MARGIN (1952) +
Abbas Kiarostami’s TICKETS (2005)
Tuesday, November 24
2220 Arts + Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
book signing: 7:30
film: 8:00
On the occasion of the publication of film scholar and critic Genevieve Yue’s new book Trains—part of Fordham Press’s Cutaways series, in which writers trace a single device or theme across an idiosyncratic selection of films—we present a short-and-feature pairing curated and introduced by Yue, preceded by a book signing.
Post-screening reception brought to you by L.A. Material, with open bar for Ciné-Club and L.A. Material members. Copies of Trains will be available for purchase courtesy of Stories Books.
Special thanks to Adam Piron, Pauline Kraatz, ellie sunlight moon and Alexandra Jade.
THE NARROW MARGIN
directed by Richard Fleischer
1952, 71m, U.S., DCP
In this taut, white-knuckle thriller from master journeyman Richard Fleischer, an LAPD officer (Charles McGraw) is assigned to protect a witness (Marie Windsor) from gangsters on a cramped, fast-moving train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Shot guerilla-style without permits at Union Station, the film was infamously shelved for two years by Howard Hughes (then the head of RKO Pictures) who wanted to remake it with A-list actors; yet the film is an ideal example of a gritty genre movie with raw, hardboiled chemistry between its then-unknown two leads.
“A nearly perfect B picture.” -Jonathan Rosenbaum
preceded by:
TICKETS (excerpt, 2005)
directed by Abbas Kiarostami
2005, 30m, Italy/Austria, digital
Abbas Kiarostami collaborated with Ermanno Olmi and Ken Loach on the little-seen 2005 anthology film Tickets, with each filmmaker contributing a short film about European passengers on the same train from Innsbruck to Rome. Kiarostami’s deceptively simple segment follows several conversations between strangers across various social and class divisions, including a man who insists that a stranger is calling on his cell-phone without his permission, and two men who insist on being seated in their reserved seats occupied by other passengers.
Buy Tickets