Howard Hawks
The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall and Howard Hawks’ storytelling have turned The Big Sleep into a lasting classic.
If The Maltese Falcon is a work of high Modernism, then The Big Sleep has more in common with Postmodernism, with an obsession with the simulacrum of detective stories, not the quest for truth.
This month’s Staff Inquiry is all about our most beloved examples of film noir, picking from the classic era of the ’40s and ’50s.
I can’t think of any other couple that exemplified the pure nature of an old Hollywood romance other than Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. If you take a quick glimpse at their history together, the love they shared was palpable. Bacall was only nineteen when they met (twenty when they married), and Bogart was old enough to be her father.
Some films parody the media, others predict what effect it will have on us in the future, other movies just have fun with the subject. Whether its a streaming network, printed journalism, television or radio transmissions the media is massive, and inescapable, so why not make movies about this oppressive facet of life? These films vary in years, themes, genre’s and that’s why they are so important.
There are those people who turn their noses up at the romantic comedy. They see it as a silly kind of film designed to entertain a delusional audience. I am not one of those people.