THE BIG SLEEP · TOTE SCHLAFEN FEST | Stationen der Filmgeschichte - Black Box im Filmmuseum Düsseldorf

THE BIG SLEEP
THE DEAD SLEEP TIGHT

USA 1946 · 114 min · Original Version · 35 mm · Rated 16 · Dir: Howard Hawks · Screenplay: William Faulkner, Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett · Cinematography: Sid Hickox · Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, and others.

Hardly any other Hollywood crime film has shaped the aesthetics of film noir as profoundly as this 1946 masterpiece: a world of shadows, cigarette smoke, and moral ambiguity, in which the truth can only be pieced together in fragments. At the center is private detective Philip Marlowe, who, while working for a wealthy family, becomes entangled in an opaque web of blackmail, violence, and corruption—and in the process finds fewer answers than new abysses.

Howard Hawks’ film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel is still considered a seminal work of classic film noir. The film combines sharp dialogue with a narrative structure that deliberately forgoes a clear resolution, instead making atmosphere, rhythm, and suggestion the driving forces. Humphrey Bogart transforms Marlowe into an icon of the detached investigator, whose laconic demeanor became the hallmark of an entire genre tradition; at his side, Lauren Bacall brings to life that blend of elegance and unpredictability that further electrifies the film. THE BIG SLEEP is not only a central reference point for postwar American cinema but also a prime example of how a thriller can become a study of social upheaval.

In cooperation with the Filmforum – Friends of the Film Museum
Introduction on September 8: Joachim Manzin (Filmforum – Friends of the Film Museum)