The Big Sleep by Hawks and Breathless by Godard - Essay Example

Film Thesis paper The success of a film depends of its various components which harmoniously produce the essential effect on the audience and the most fundamental aspects contributing to the general recognition of a film include the narrative, theme, acting, tone, camera, lighting, space, sound, aptness of the title, and the specific treatment of the genre. Two of the most significant films to discuss in connection with these various aspects of a successful film are The Big Sleep (1946) by Howard Hawks and Breathless (1960) by Jean Luc Godard. The former has been an essential example of the genre called film noir, a term for the stylish Hollywood crime dramas which specifically emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation, whereas the latter is celebrated as one of the inaugural films of the French New Wave, which refers to the group of French filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s who were greatly influenced by Italian Neo-realism. 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 narrative and there are various examples of this superior nature of the narrative. "Howard Hawks' recurring romantic configuration, one that Hollywood celebrated throughout the era, consists of the narrative transformation of the cool, sometimes insolent heroine into a devoted, yet proficient and savvy partner who can serve the hero in his adventures." (Abbott, 305) Therefore, the narrative of the film is central element contributing to the realist nature of the film which is celebrated through plot of the story and the themes. The narrative of the film The Big Sleep is celebrated by the acting of the main characters and the director is effective in presenting the story in a realist way. The film starts when an unidentified finger presses the doorbell of the Sternwood mansion and the guest introduces him in an interesting way. 'My name is Marlowe. General Sternwood sent for me.' Thus, the director thrusts the audience alliance with private detective Philip Marlowe through this introduction and spectators pass through the world of crime along with the hero. "As the central character, he is in every scene: we know what he knows, nothing more, nothing less. We share his experience as if on a detective training course: we see the way he works, the way he choreographs his moves and orchestrates his space to provoke a desired reaction from his opponent; we share his cognitive processes by identification with his visual point of view; we adopt his attitude by osmosis." (Tomlinson) Therefore, the narrative of the film is closely connected with the characterization and acting. The film is narrated from the point of view of the protagonist Philip Marlowe. The director works out the narrative resolution through this character whose actions are center to the climax of the film. Another major characteristic of the narrative is that it incorporates witty and sharp dialogues, often filled with sexual connotations, in the interaction between the major characters, and this feature of the narrative attracts the audience very much. It is also significant to relate here that the narrative of the film is noted for its playful language which contributes to the realist aspect of the film. For example, the taxi driver (Joy Barlowe)tells the protagonist,'If you can use me again sometime, call this number.' When Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) asks if the service is available day and night, the taxi driver makes an interesting remark in a playful way. 'Uh, night's better. I work during the day.' "Adapted from Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name, screenwriters William Faulkner, Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett adapted the text to fit squarely into the film noir genre. Retaining much of Chandler's caustic phrasing, the dialogue is indeed as treacherous as the network of deception and murder inhabited by the many rigid characters." (Slattery) Thus, the narrative of the film has a significant influence on the realist aspect of the film The Big Sleep. In a reflective analysis of the plot, theme, and narrative of the film by Howard Hawks, one realizes that the style adopted by the director in presenting these aspects of the film contributes to its realist nature. Similar to mist other thrillers, The Big Sleep also has the loose, episodic, and digressive structure in its various elements and the action in the film is not geared toward the central mystery or the final solution. The character of Marlowe is in less control of the action and his vision is greatly restricted, whereas he is more of the mysterious, treacherous world he investigates than he is its detached observer and interpreter. "The style of The Big Sleep is sprawling, voluptuous, lingering. The film dawdles: it dwells on atmosphere, wallows in it, and wraps it around us. The Big Sleep devotes time to developing these elements rather than to clarifying the plot, so that the viewer becomes enmeshed, suspended in a thick mood of intrigue and mystery." (Rubin, 201) In another significant thriller film, A Bout de Souffle, Jean-Luc Godard presents an innovative theme through effective film technique which makes it one of the most essential New Wave Film. The film tells the story of Michel (starred by Jean-Paul Belmondo) who is a young mugger who models himself on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. The narrative of the film, which is constructed through the mental process of Godard, has a significant influence on the anti-realist aspects of the film. In other words, the director has great influence on the progress of the narrative leading to the resolution of the story. "In A Bout de Souffle (1960) a brief cameo from the director Jean-Luc Godard highlights the constructed nature of the films narrative through the mental process of the director. Godard physically points out to the police Michel Poiccard's location (the wanted protagonist). This direction is rather comically overt, highlighting the constructed and at times convoluted systems that the director uses to progress a film's narrative. Godard's cameo is also important in relation to his position on the auteur theory. Godard is highlighting the explicate control the director has on the progress and resolution of a film's construction; its tempo and final polished narrative." (Duckworth) Therefore, the narrative of the film has a major role in the anti-realist tendencies of the film and the director has an explicate control on the progress and resolution of a film's construction. The narrative strategy and emphasis of the film has a vital significance in general as it makes the movie different from its Hollywood prototypes. "The prime thriller aspects of the story are often treated in a shorthand and seemingly perfunctory manner. In Breathless, the initial theft and murder have an abrupt, throwaway quality, and the police manhunt occurs almost entirely off-screen, whereas a memorable twenty-four-minute scene (over a quarter of the entire film) is devoted to the hero's persistent attempts to make love to his lukewarm paramour in the course of a lazy morning." (Rubin, 125) The narrative of the film makes use of techniques that remold the story similar to that of classic heist films and criminal-on-the-run films. Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless is most noted for the ironic integration of themes and techniques that are not generally associated with crime film and this characteristic of the film offers meaning to the anti-realist aspect of the film. The plot of the story deals with the petty car thief Michel Poiccard who leads the story forward. "Breathless remains the most arresting of Godard's first films because of his ironic integration of themes and techniques that are not readily associated with the crime film Breathless is a dizzying, dazzling work, caught between the understated poetry of its cinematic precursors and encompassing fatalism of postwar art." (Sultanik, 385-6) The major themes of bout de souffle / Breathless and the treatment of these themes by the director influenced the French New Wave movement and he became a superstar director celebrating the success of the film. Significantly, the historic importance of the film is indisputable and it is one of the most famous examples of anti-realist films. There have been several criticisms about this anti-realist aspect of the film and Dan Schneider makes a severe attack on the attempts of the director. "Godard attempts to capture 'reality' on film without realizing that anything filmed becomes unreal - or irreal. In fact, any form of art can never be real. To convey reality most aptly, art needs to be most affected. By shooting his film with a handheld camera while Parisians gawk at the filming-in-process, Godard ends up making the most artificial of films while trying to show the most boring aspects of life. He thus focuses on the two worst aspects of film - the artificiality of cinma vrit and the reality of tedium - rather than the two best ones: the 'reality' of film as artifice and the 'artifice' of poetically chosen reality." (Schneider) However, Godard has been effective in illustrating the anti-realist aspect of film and his cinematographic techniques of blending theme with other aspects of the film helped him in conveying his ideas. To compare the two films, The Big Sleep by Howard Hawks and Breathless by Jean Luc Godard, it is essential to note that both the films celebrate realist and anti-realist aspects respectively through the various elements such as theme, narrative, genre, starring etc. The most important connection between the two films is that they celebrate their genres in a significant manner and Godard's film can be seen as a love-on-the-run tribute to Hollywood film noir in general and Hawks' film in particular. When the protagonist of Breathless appears as a Bogart-esque thief, there is a connection between this character and the protagonist of The Big Sleep starred by Bogart himself. Both the films make immense contribution to the filmic genre they belong to - The Big Sleep to the Film Noir movement and Breathless to the French New Wave. "Godard's debut feature is a love-on-the-run tribute to Hollywood film noir & B-grade studio pictures, starring Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) as a Bogart-esque thief, who kills a cop & plans to escape south with his girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg). Believing that "filmmaking itself should accord with the theme of a film", Godard shuns studio-bound tradition in favour of the streets (partly out of necessity) to utilise natural light, the freedom of the hand-held camera, & the discontinuous editing rhythm ("jump cut") of the New Wave style." (Lon Morin) Therefore, there is central connection between the two movies and they celebrate the different genres of film in their own way. Whereas the theme, narrative, style, genre etc of the film The Big Sleep celebrate the realist aspect of film, Breathless is an essential example of the film dealing with the anti-realist tendencies. In conclusion, a reflective analysis of The Big Sleep by Howard Hawks in comparison with Breathless by Jean Luc Godard maintains that the former is an important example of the Hollywood realist film, while the latter illustrates an anti-realist film through its theme, narrative, tone, acting, and genre. Works Cited Abbott, Megan E. "'Nothing You Can't Fix': Screening Marlowe's Masculinity." Studies in the Novel. Vol. 35. Iss. 3. 2003. P 305. Duckworth, A.R. "A Note on Narrative and Direction in A Bout de Souffle(Breathless)." The Motley View: A Film, Art, Aesthetics, Critical and Cultural Theory Journal. 2009. 13 Aug, 2009. . Lon Morin, Prtre. "Breathless: Jean-Luc Godard (1960) 90 mins PG." The Melbourne Cinmathque. 13 Aug, 2009. . Rubin, Martin. Thrillers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1999. P 201. Schneider, Dan. "Breathless D: Jean-Luc Godard." Alternative Film Guide. 13 Aug, 2009. . Slattery, Andrew. "The Big Sleep." Senses of Cinema. 2001. 13 Aug, 2009. . Sultanik, Aaron. Film, a modern art. Associated University Presses. 1986. P 385-6. "The Big Sleep (1946): Love's Vengeance Lost." Film Noir. FilmNoir.net.13 Aug, 2009. . Tomlinson, Doug. "Film Reference: The Big Sleep." Filmreference.com. 13 Aug, 2009. . Read More