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The Big Sleep
Series: BFI Film Classics
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The Big Sleep
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book suits readers interested in film history, particularly fans of classic cinema, film noir, and adaptations of literary works. It also appeals to those fascinated by Hollywood's evolving style and storytelling techniques in the mid-20th century.
"First published in 1997 by the British Film Institute"--Copyright page.
A study of Howard Hawks' mystifying 1946 noir classic The Big Sleep in the BFI Film Classics series.
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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.'
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781839021596
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 12 November 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Edition: 2nd edition
Illustration: 50 bw illus
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 8.0mm
Width: 132.0mm
Height: 188.0mm
Weight: 131g
Pages: 80
About the Author
David Thomson is a film critic and historian based in the United States. He is the author of books including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (6th edition, 2014), and a regular contributor to The New York Times, The New Republic, Movieline, Film Comment and Salon.
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