Black and White

If you're a black-and-white, 1940s, B-movie fan, you'll definitely want to be in the house Saturday when film noir buff Mark Boyd does his film noir thing at the Monterey Museum of Art's Civic Center. Boyd, who has taught at the University of Maryland and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, will discuss what makes a film "noir," and will show clips from some of his favorite examples, including The Blue Dahlia, Double Indemnity and the original The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Film noir, Boyd explains, was a term coined by French film critics in 1946 to describe the dark visual and emotional tone of American films coming out of the second World War, many of them directed by German emigres such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Max Ophuls. "They had escaped Hitler, but still worked in the Expressionist style with chirascuro lighting, sharp angles and shadowy elements," Boyd says. The same 1930s pulp fiction that gave rise to these films enjoyed a retro comeback in the '80s, leading to a rash of "nouveau noir" films such as James Foley's 1990 After Dark My Sweet, the Kathleen Turner-William Hurt sizzler Body Heat and, of course, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Boyd will only show the old stuff during Saturday's talk, however.

Boyd's lecture and screening will take place in the museum's Buck Education Center (downstairs from the main gallery) from 1-4pm. It costs $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Call 372-5477 for reservations.

Support Seaside Dance

Seaside High School's student dance company, which has been wowing audiences for 30 years, will be inaugurating a spiffy new dance floor in its classroom studio with a festive party and "Dance-A-Thon" on Feb. 10. The Dance-A-Thon will feature high school dancers from Seaside and Monterey in a They Shoot Horses, Don't They kind of dance marathon. The kids will try to hoof it through 100 songs to raise money for the program, which entertains for free at various community and school functions. But they need local folks and businesses to pledge tax-deductible dollars-per-dance, so step up to the plate and call Leslie Groves at 659-4617 with your pledge.

Kids' Theater Class

The Young Actors Workshop at Magic Circle Center for the Arts in Carmel Valley Village is offering a class in classic theater skills for 13- to 18-year-olds beginning Jan. 31. The group meets Monday and Wednesday, and concludes with performances of The Hobbit on April 7-9. Classes are limited to 15 teens, under the supervision of John Farmanesh-Bocca. Call 659-1108 for information.

More Bucks for Sunset

The Campaign for Sunset, which is raising funds to renovate Carmel's historic Sunset Theater, now has $11.4 million of the $16.65 million it needs to begin construction. The Packard Foundation kicked in a $1 million gift, added to its $2 million challenge grant. The city of Carmel is giving $5 million, and $3.4 million has been contributed by private citizens, including an anonymous challenge grant of $400,000. Campaign chair Bill Doolittle says the 18-month construction should begin in Feb. 2001.

Once the bulldozers roll in, groups that perform in the Sunset Center Theater will have to find new temporary digs. "The groups are still all scrambling around," says Center director Brian Donoghue. That includes the Bach Festival, which may be looking at a gym/auditorium space at the Naval Postgraduate School; the Monterey Symphony, the Carmel Music Society, Chamber Music Monterey Bay, and a host of others. Donoghue says the theater is booked right up until next February, with his Performance Carmel series one of the last shows. "It looks like we'll go on an 18-month hiatus after that," he says. "We have a huge following. Finding a space for 600 to 700 people is hard."