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The Big Sleep

(Paperback, 2nd edition)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

The Big Sleep

Contributors:

By (Author) David Thomson

ISBN:

9781839021596

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Imprint:

BFI Publishing

Publication Date:

26th November 2020

Edition:

2nd edition

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

Professional and Scholarly

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Other Subjects:

Film history, theory or criticism

Dewey:

791.4372

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Paperback

Number of Pages:

80

Dimensions:

Width 135mm, Height 190mm

Weight:

132g

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.'

Author Bio

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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