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The Big Sleep

By David Thomson

The Big Sleep Film, Art & Culture

The Big Sleep

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Description
The Big Sleep: Marlowe and Vivian practising kissing; General Sternwood shivering in a hothouse full of orchids; a screenplay, co-written by Faulkner, famously mysterious and difficult to solve. Released in 1946, Howard Hawks' adaptation of Raymond Chandler reunited Bogart and Bacall and gave them two of their most famous roles. The mercurial but ever-manipulative Hawks dredged humour and happiness out of film noir. 'Give him a story about more murders than anyone can keep up with, or explain,' David Thomson writes in his compelling study of the film, 'and somehow he made a paradise.' When it was first shown to a military audience The Big Sleep was coldly received. So, as Thomson reveals, Hawks shot extra scenes, 'fun' scenes, to replace one in which the film's murders had been explained, and in so doing left the plot unresolved. Thomson argues that, if this was accidental, it also signalled a change in the nature of Hollywood cinema: 'The Big Sleep inaugurates a post-modern, camp, satirical view of movies being about other movies that extends to the New Wave and Pulp Fiction.'
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
2
Number of Pages:
80
Release Date:
2020-11-12
Publication Date:
2020-11-12
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1839021594
ISBN13:
9781839021596
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
131 g
Height:
137 cm
Width:
189 cm
Thickness:
7 cm
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