Night of the Hitmen

Koolhoven & Simons: Night of the Hitmen

Who hasn’t dreamed of a different job? As a hitman you get to see the world, you’re your own boss – and the pay isn’t bad either. Koolhoven & Simons zoom in on two classic titles from the genre.

poster Il sicario (Damiano Damiani, IT 1961)

Koolhoven & Simons are back after a different year for one time only with a good old double-bill, this time two films about hitmen. Made by masters of the craft: Italian Damiano Damiani (La piovra, A Bullet for the General) and genre veteran John Flynn (Lock Up, Out for Justice) from Chicago, where in the 1920s and ’30s it rained bullets.

Programme

Il sicario (Damiano Damiani, IT 1961, 87’)
Damiani's second feature is not just any crime film. The director combined social engagement – Pasolini even called the filmmaker 'a bitter moralist in search of the purity of old values' – with a flair for visual storytelling. The hitman in Il sicario is a workman hired by a contractor to get rid of his creditor. Hitman and client are consumed with remorse…
Best Seller (John Flynn, US 1987, 95’)
What if a hitman hangs up his gun and finds it time to have his life story written? James Woods is the psychopathic ex-hitman Joseph Wambaugh, Brian Dennehy the hardened ex-cop-turned-writer. Who sells his soul to whom? Who pressures whom?

This is part of

Koolhoven & Simons

Details

Length

234 min.

Event language

Dutch

Moderator

Martin Koolhoven & Ronald Simons

Subtitles

Dutch

Part of

Koolhoven & Simons

Every month, Koolhoven and Simons will be scrutinizing the genre film, presenting films within pretty forthright themes that have never before been screened at Eye. Expect evenings on Trucker, Grindhouse or Revenge of Nature films. A tribute to rarely screened trailers and forgotten classics, where possible in 35mm, using films from Eye’s collection.

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