The Foreigner

Director: Amos Poe

1978 / 92min / DCP

Described by its director as an “anti-homage,” Poe’s noir-inflected tale follows French secret agent Max Menace (Eric Mitchell), arrived in New York City to fulfill a mission whose exact nature is unclear and targeted by enemies whose grudges are equally ambiguous, first found holed up in the Hotel Chelsea then driven into the streets by mounting, maddening ennui. Shot with a mere $5,000 and largely improvised off-the-cuff—including Cramps frontman Lux Interior’s ad-libbed pulling of a knife on Mitchell in a fight scene at CBGB’s—The Foreigner is a work of disquieting atmosphere and desolate beauty, its air of creeping menace contributed to greatly by an ambient electronic soundtrack courtesy Ivan Král of the Patti Smith Group.

Part of Amos Poe and No Wave Cinema