Folk + Noir = Folk Noir. It's a coupling so good that if it didn't exist we'd surely have to invent it. Cross the doomy chiaroscuro and skewed perspectives of classic film noir with the cussed fatalism and strange apparitions of folk music and you have a seductively dark result that reflects a whole mess of contemporary sound and screen-culture.

Throughout April Watershed will be exploring Folk Noir in cinema from the roots of this hybrid film genre that lie in Terence Malick's stunning debut Badlands and stretch to cinema’s most recent screen revisit - the timeless, cautionary tale that was Jeff Nicholl’s Mud set amidst the American Deep South. Along the way the violent and bloody folk-tradition ballads of the American West have been transplanted to the far reaches of the Australian outback via the darkly literate imagination of musician Nick Cave in The Proposition. And if Badlands is the template for American Folk Noir then The Wicker Man’s amalgamation of horror and pagan rituals with infectious folk music, sets the mould for a distinctly British take on the genre.

This is the second half of Filmic - an explorative two-month long season celebrating the creative connections across film and music. To accompany the film season St George’s are hosting an array of fantastic folk noir inspired artists, including The Handsome Family (Fri 13 March), whose song Far From Any Road was used as the theme for True Detective, brilliant singer-songwriter Howe Gelb (Wed 8 April) and UK folk act The Furrow Collective (Sat 4 April) who specialise in a dark narrative of murder and bewitchment. Why not combine a film and a music performance to get a properly dark slice of Americana? Hip flasks of whisky and bourbon not required but, perhaps, appropriate…

Watch this short video with Brett and Rennie of The Handsome Family for some more Folk Noir inspiration and hear about what noir means to them, what they think about being featured on True Detective, and how the duo approach songwriting:

Tickets: £5.50 full / £4.00 concessions and get £1.00 off all meal orders £7.00 or over in the Café/Bar on the same day with your ticket. See our full range of menus here.

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