Film Thesis paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Film Thesis paper - Essay Example In The Big Sleep, which is the first film version of the 1939 novel in the same title by Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart stars as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall plays the role of the female lead. Breathless (the French title bout de souffle literally means 'at breath's end'), which achieved international acclaim in the nouvelle vague along with other two movies, was highly recognized for its bold visual style and the innovative editing use of jump cuts. Howard Hawks' film is celebrated as an important Hollywood realist film which treats its subject, theme, and story in a realist manner, and it was highly appreciated by the U.S. Library of Congress, which preserved the film to the National Film Registry in 1997. Through its audacious visual style and the inventive editing use of jump cuts, Breathless is celebrated as a significant example of "anti-realist" film. A comparative analysis of these two essential films brings out significant facts about the various elements of the two genres. Therefore, this paper undertakes a reflective analysis of 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant' film The Big Sleep (a Hollywood "realist" film) by Howard Hawks and the French New Wave film Breathless (an "anti-realist" film) by Jean Luc Godard, in order to compare and contrast the theme, narrative, tone, acting, and genre of the two movies. The Howard Hawks film The Big Sleep is one of the most powerful and complex noir movies in the history of the genre and represents the rotten sweetness of corruption through the narration and themes. As the realist version of a celebrated novel, the film depends greatly on the narrative and themes to reflect the story in an effective manner. To several critics, the director has even excelled the author of the novel to represent various significant details of the plot and the narrative of the film is a reflection of this success. "Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep is one of the truly great Hollywood pictures: the Raymond Chandler novel is brought to the screen with panache and authority, and the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is unsurpassed. While the protagonist lovers are good guys and there is no femme-fatale, the movie has a strong noir aura. The darkly lit atmosphere and strong sexual tension shape our response to a grim and dissolute nether world where PI Philip Marlowe doggedly solves an enigma within a mystery in a plot so convoluted not even the film-makers fully understood it." (The Big Sleep (1946): Love's Vengeance Lost) In the narrative of the film, the director presents a number of murders throughout the film which complicate the audience in easily figuring out the full plot of the story. Significantly, a careful spectator of the film feels that he is left in a world of ambiguity and chaos, similar to the case-hardened private detective Philip Marlowe. Therefore, the realist version of the film through its narrative helps the director in reaching the audience more efficiently. The director has been able to bring about his recurring romantic configuration through the n