The Big Sleep (1946)

John Holmes — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:42:03 +0000

Directed by Howard Hanks
Written by: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthmann, based on the book The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers,
Photography: Sid Hickox
Music: Max Steiner

114′, B/W, U.S.A, 1946

Adapting Raymond Chandler’s confusing and hardboiled book is not for the faint of heart. Chandler’s novel is known for it’s complexity and particularly grimy atmosphere but Howard Hanks delivers, casting the hot couple of the moment (middle 1940s): Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who were just married and ‘hot’ in the press.

The script follows the book closely, even in most of the dialogue and setting, and that can be confusing as there are a lot of details in the investigation that are too literal to be translated to the screen. But most of the plot is layered on the film. The obvious enhancement is the Bogart-Bacall romance, emphasized on screen via some great dialogue and chemistry.

The more sordid details of the book, however, are smudged because of the restrictions of the Hays Code, so the more pornographic details are laid out like the nakedness of Carmen, the nymphomaniac daughter of General Sternwood, or the plot involving obscene book trafficking. The ending differs from the book also, providing a more easy resolution than in the novel, wich is a good and bad thing, having read the novel you can’t just miss the thrill of the final pages, because you are fooled the entire time trying to figure out the pieces by yourself. The book’s resolution’s simple, yet more satisfying to this particular story.

Bogart is splendid as Phillip Marlowe, the always-right and morally-aware detective that in the book is more hardboiled and cynical. On the screen, Marlowe is the ladies man, literally every girl in the movie tries to have her way with the gentleman, and Bogart delivers a fine performance including some physical treats that he adds to the character for more realism. Bacall as Vivian, the second Sternwood daughter, is the eternal femme-fatale with her harsh cocktail voice and wide lips that seem to engulf you with every word expelled. It is somewhat obvious the influence her off-the-screen husband has on her, visible in the kissing scene in the car where her wide eyes are as passionate as a woman in love can be.

Hanks cinematography is precise and depicts the gritty San Francisco of the war-era very precisely. The scenes are tight and follow one another without any breathing space, except for the development of the romance between the two leading characters where he allows himself and the actors a bit more spice and time.

Because this is a story about the process of an investigation rather than a film about who is the killer, it may seem confusing but reading the book before and allowing yourself to embrace Chandler’s brilliant and intelligent writing gives you a great advantage to appreciate this noir classic, charged with sexual innuendo and flair.

The most common version of the film was released in 1946, there is a pre-release version made in 1945 that was just released in 1997 with some different scenes and a more relaxed pace. Therefore, the version you’ll likely to found is the later 1946 version. There are numerous stories regarding the production of the movie, like the one involving the identity of one of the killers. When the production contacted Chandler to ask him this important detail, the writer didn’t even know. And it’s better that way – in life some things are better left explained.

The movie was made during the war effort so it features a lot of gimmicks from the era like the slang used at the time, rationing stickers and so on. The studio wanted more war-related films to be released before the war was over so they didn’t loose the momentum so The Big Sleep was screened two years after the end of the conflict.

My advice is to read the book first, since most of the surprise and clever writing are better in a more literary form, then go back and watch the movie and you’ll still enjoy the first story of Phillip Marlowe, private investigator.

Heartbreak Score:

Where to get it:

My DVD copy is the european one, even the menus are in english – odd for a Portuguese branded cover. No extras, but you get the film at a cheaper price, since there are no other versions. Get it:

More Screenshots:

Crash (1996)

John Holmes — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:38:24 +0000

Crash

Written and Directed by David Cronenberg.
Cast: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, Rosana Arquette, Peter MacNeill.
Music Composed and Performed by Howard Shore.
Runtime: 98min.
Canada, 1996

Allmovie | IMDb | Wikipedia

This obsessive adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s novel turns into a hard psychological affair of sexual compulsion and hardcore demency when a group of emotionally detached individuals find pleasure, sex and escape in car accidents.

A truly weird film about the deepness of our modern world’s perversion, a deranged visual experience that puts your head in an exhausting twist.

Commonly, for most of us human beings, a car accident fuels our desire for voyeurism in a twisted way. It’s something behind our control, we need to watch. Ballard’s novel relates sex with technology written in a cold, detached way. Cronenberg’s movie is no different. Right from the start he puts you in the main role – you, as the voyeur, as the eyes that fuel every emotion; the technology and the characters as mere pawns in the twisted world of wreckage.

Filmed as an almost diabolical nightmare, there is no certainty of time, days become night almost vaguely, the characters are almost pathetically empty – yet, deeply disturbed, deeply rooted into their intense fetishism. More than a mere visual journey, it twists your brain as if you were in a permanent car crash.

Here, the crash is just a mere metaphor for our consumerism, for our detachment of emotions. We root in objects, in technology. Here the sex is the extreme personification of our evilness, of our constant pursue of the next object to attach.

This wonderful and heavy disturbed film is such a weird experience, yet so violently real that you become glued to its visual dementia. It’s almost as if the plot advances with no sensation of time or place, and the only real thing to hold on is the exact same love the characters embrace. Gorgeously shot in deep blues and whites, a gorgeous disturbing soundtrack by Howard Shore, intense sexual intercourse and a great cast of actors, just brilliantly off-beat.

But because the plot advances in a dreamlike state and the characters appear out of the blue like dead bodies and stay like that in a trance for the entirity of the film, because the atmosphere is deeper than the actual notion of conflict-resolution, because the soundtrack is shrieking, Crash is almost a bad movie, one of those you hate for life, because it is so true, so intense. This is, truly, a heavy movie, not for every taste.

Most fans of Cronenberg that grew up with his dark low budget fantasies about body modifications and paranoia in the 80s seem to be put of by Crash, as if this is one of the less serious of the “serious period” of the master craftsman. But in my opinion Crash suits the filmmaker’s vision as good as any other bizarre film he made: the twisted characters and the wrecked cars and Arquette’s body. The eeriness that shivers your perceptions is pure Cronenberg.

Yet, if you feel compelled and secure of your own dilemmas, watch it and you’ll never see a car accident with the same eyes. I’m having difficulties getting in a car at night without visualizing Elias Koteas character Vaughan coming up the other side of the lane.

Painful, but just plain gorgeous for those who don’t fear giving up their secrets and embrace their darkest sexual deviance.

Buy this DVD from Amazon:
Crash (Uncut) [1997] [DVD]

Heartbreak Score:

More Screenshots:

Heartbreak Motel » book adaptations that don’t suck

The Big Sleep (1946)

Crash (1996)

Crash