NOBLESSE OBLIGE (US, 1981, Warren Sonbert)

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The style is relatively unchanged, but the images — press conferences, news events, disasters — convey his vision of the world in a new, direct, political fashion. Featuring startling footage of the City Hall riots after Councilman Dan White received a light prison sentence for slaying San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, NOBLESSE OBLIGE opens a new chapter on Sonbert's career. —David Ehrenstein, L.A. Reader

NOBLESSE OBLIGE is masterfully edited work featuring imagery Warren Sonbert filmed of protests in San Francisco following the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk — the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California — at the hands of Dan White. Whereas the political dimensions of Sonbert’s ‘70s films were ever-present yet undoubtedly subtextual, they are unabashedly textual here.

Sonbert modeled the structure of this film on Douglas Sirk’s THE TARNISHED ANGELS (1957). Sirk himself appears at the end of the film, engaging in conversation, over coffee, with filmmakers (and longtime friends and collaborators of Sonbert’s), Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler. Stills from that scene can be viewed below:

DOUGLAS SIRK (LEFT) AND NATHANIEL DORSKY (RIGHT) IN WARREN SONBERT’S NOBLESSE OBLIGE (1981). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

JEROME HILER (LEFT) AND DOUGLAS SIRK (RIGHT) IN WARREN SONBERT’S NOBLESSE OBLIGE (1981). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

Furthermore, Senator Dianne Feinstein appears briefly in NOBLESSE OBLIGE. Her four seconds of screen time can be viewed below:

NOBLESSE OBLIGE is part of the DSL collection THE WARREN SONBERT COLLECTION and is included within the curated package SONBERT IN THE EIGHTIES. This digital version of NOBLESSE OBLIGE is a 2K transfer from 16mm materials.

NOBLESSE OBLIGE
(US, 1981)

Director: Warren Sonbert

  • 25 minutes
  • 16mm
  • Color and B&W
  • Silent
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: GME

Classroom Price: $250

Institutional Price: Inquire

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