THE BIG SLEEP

Directed by Howard Hawks
Starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

(1946) Hired by a hothouse-ensconced retired general to investigate his nympho daughter’s gambling debts, Humphrey Bogart, as Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, finds the dames keep throwing themselves at him, even as corpses keep dropping, while he and Lauren Bacall take time for memorable double entendres. Co-scripted by William Faulkner. 35mm. Approx. 114 mins.
2:40, 7:10

“SUBVERSIVE. As though the seedy criminal underworld were spilling over into real life, bringing with it the grim but thrilling aura of sexual abandon and sudden death.”
– Tom Huddleston, Time Out New York

“ONE OF THE GREAT FILM NOIRS, A BLACK-AND-WHITE SYMPHONY. Exactly reproduces Chandler’s tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares.”
– Roger Ebert

“AN UNSENTIMENTAL, SURREALIST EXCITEMENT. Witty and sinister, and in an odd way is a realistic portrayal of big-city life with Arabian Nights overtones.”
– Manny Farber, The New Republic

“By far the best Raymond Chandler adaptation.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

THE LONG GOODBYE

Directed by Robert Altman
Starring Elliott Gould and Sterling Hayden

(1973) Raymond Chandler, Altman-style, as Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe – in 70s L.A., but still driving a ’48 Lincoln – encounters Sterling Hayden’s boozy novelist and mysterious Nina Van Pallandt while searching for pal Jim Bouton (the ex-Yankee pitcher). 35mm. Approx. 112 mins.
12:30, 4:55, 9:30

“A New Wave Anti-Noir…The closest Hollywood ever came to making its Breathless.”
– J. Hoberman

“ATTEMPTS THE IMPOSSIBLE AND PULLS IT OFF! Altmans most entertaining, most richly complex film since M*A*S*H and McCabe and Mrs. Miller.’
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“EASILY THE MOST INTELLIGENT OF ALL SCREEN ADAPTATIONS OF THE WRITER’S WORK. Altman constructs not only a comment on the changes in values in America over the last three decades, but a critique of film noir mythology… Shot in gloriously steely colours by Vilmos Zsigmond with a continually moving camera, wondrously scripted by Leigh Brackett, and superbly acted all round, it’s one of the finest movies of the ‘70s.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“The Long Goodbye attacks film noir with three of his most cherished tools: Whimsy, spontaneity and narrative perversity. He is always the most youthful of directors, and here he gives us the youngest of Philip Marlowes, the private eye as a Hardy boy.”
– Roger Ebert

“Altman tells a detective story all right, but he does it through a spree—a highflying rap on Chandler and L.A. and the movies. Altman gracefully kisses off the private-eye form in soft, mellow color and volatile images; the cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond is responsible for the offhand visual pyrotechnics (the imagery has great vitality).”
– Pauline Kael, The New Yorker