Nitehawk’s February Art Seen is a special 35mm screening of Edgar G. Ulmer’s Bluebeard that includes an introduction by Noah Isenberg in celebration of his new critical biography, Edgar G. Ulmer: a Filmmaker at the Margins. Will also include frieze video: John Akomfrah: On essays, identities and Stuart Hall playing before the film.

Every time I painted her, I had to kill her again – Gaston Morrell

Edgar G. Ulmer’s Bluebeard puts the darkness of artistic failure on murderous display. As one of the very first serial killer movies, it gleans from the notorious tales of Jack the Ripper and Bluebeard but remains, to this day, wholly unique. This rarely shown Ulmer film features John Carradine (in one of his only leading roles) as an artist who cannot resist killing every woman whose portrait he paints. With its devious art dealers, kind hearted women, and an artist all-too-familier with his limitations, Bluebeard is a beautiful noir representation of the perpetual entanglement of love, talent, obsession, and death. It also includes the most incredible puppetry presentation of Faust that, if you haven’t seen the film, will delight you.

About the frieze video John Akomfrah: On essays, identities and Stuart Hall: The award-winning filmmaker discusses the origins of the Black Audio Film collective, his recent project exploring the life and times of cultural theorist Stuart Hall and the ‘pariah space’ of the film essay on television and in the art gallery.

Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

ART SEEN is in partnership with

Featuring Absolut Vodka Cocktails.