Tickets going fast for Whidbey’s debut film festival on Jan. 12-13

‘Femme fatales of Film Noir.’ Sultry, saucy and possibly a sell-out

Femme fatales are hot.

Tickets to Whidbey Island’s first film festival featuring bold and brash broads are going fast.

About 60 percent of tickets for the four-movie “Femme Fatales of Film Noir” event Jan 12-13 have already sold, said Verna Everitt, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts executive director.

“And we haven’t even advertised yet,” she said. “That’s incredible to have that kind of response in a first year of a film festival.”

Full series passes that offered premium reserved seats and other amenities were offered at an early bird discount and sold out quickly.

Still available are festival packs good for eight, six, or four regularly-priced festival screenings priced between $36 to $72.

Individual tickets for $10 can also be ordered in advance.

The movies will be shown on WICA’s main stage with theater seating for 249 people. Two movies each day are scheduled.

The classic black-and-white films are “Gilda”, “Double Indemnity”, “The Killers” and “The Maltese Falcon.”

Actresses starring in the four movies are described as “bold, brash and smart” women — Rita Hayworth, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor and Ava Gardner.

Tough, confident, alluring and oh so dangerous, these dames.

A fact best not forgotten, femme fatale is French for “fatal woman.”

In post-war America, their glamour and guile lit up the big screen like never before. Their sultry smiles and come-hither smarts have been described as offering “generations of women an alternative model of femininity.”

“We chose to showcase them because they were anything but traditional, and for me, it’s fabulously entertaining to watch these saucy characters’ lead men to danger,” Everitt said in a press release.

“I can only imagine that many moviegoers of the 40s felt the same way. And I’m confident none of the allure has lost its hold on today’s audience.”

Jason Dittmer, the festival’s marketing director, points those wanting more facts about femme fatales to consult a collection of essays about actresses, directors, writers, composers and other topics compiled on the festival’s website blog. Point your peepers to some wonderful Hollywood head shots there, also.

Everitt, who recently took over the reins of WICA, said Whidbey is catching up to other communities that have offered film festivals for years.

“Port Townsend has a film festival, Orcas Island does, Everett does and of course there’s the Seattle International Film Festival,” she said. “They are all popular.”

Whidbey’s first film festival includes panel discussions and a competition for short films that will be judged and awarded.

Beth Barrett, artistic director of SIFF, is one of several invited speakers who’ll address what makes a film festival successful.

Besides a run on tickets.

• For more Film Festival information, schedule, tickets and blog: www.whidbeyislandfilmfestival.org