Big Sleep
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How does your chosen film adhere to or diverge from the generic convention at play within the genre of the chosen film?
The Big Sleep (1946) starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is one of Raymond Chandlers best hard-boiled detective mysteries transformed in to a Film Noir, private detective film classic.
The Big Sleep is the best example of a classic Warner Brothers mystery. It is very complex, confusing
L.A. private eye Phillip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and follows a trail peopled with murders, pornographers, nightclub rouges and the indulged rich. Humphrey Bogart plays Raymond Chandlers legendary gumshoe and director Howard Hawks serves up quick paced character encounters mainly evolving Lauren Bacall, all set against an atmospheric background.
The genre that this film falls into is clearly defined as the category film noir. Film noir is translated as meaning “Black Film” this relates to the nature and ambience of the lighting. The lighting of the film is known as Chiaroscuro, Italian, meaning light and dark.
There are various conventions that are given to a film that make it fit the genre of film noir. Its almost exclusively set in a city environment, deals with corruption and vice as central storylines, the women are always problematic and are in essence dangerous. They also feature usually a private detective rather than a police officer as the detective doesnt represent the state and so therefore can bend the rules slightly but remain incorruptible. There are also many more primary moods of film noir, melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt and paranoia. Heroes or anti-heroes, corrupt characters and villains include down and out, hard boiled detectives or private eyes. These protagonists are often morally ambiguous low lifes from dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption.
The Big Sleep fits in to all of the conventions above, its set in a city environment and the main narrative is set around corruption, all the women are problematic, the lie to the detective and generally deceive the people around them. She told the detective nobody had called and they had. This all leads us to know the genre of the film.
Film noir coined by the French film critics who noticed the trend of how dark and black the looks and themes were of many American crime and detective films released following the war is a style of American films evolved in the 1940s, and lasted in a classic period until 1960. Film noir is a distinct branch or subgenre of the crime/gangster sagas from the 1930s.
The film The Big Sleep fits well in to this particular genre as it has a private detective, Humphrey Bogart set to resolve a series of blackmail cases and a seductive female set cause havoc along the way. There is also much corruption throughout the film, gambling, pornography, blackmail, affairs, nightclubs rouges and the rich who are very much indulged.
In the opening section to this film woman are instantaneously represented as flirtatious and slightly silly. As soon as the detective comes in to the room she walks over to him in a salacious and seductive manor. She touches her face and licks her fingers all the time flirty outrageously.
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