Award winning filmmaker Roger Corman presents Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep as part of Cinema’s Legacy monthly series at the Skirball Cultural Center Friday, June 30, 7:30pm.
The American Film Institute and Skirball Center are combining to give you the opportunity to meet some of Hollywood’s most important filmmakers. Cinema’s Legacy is a monthly film series focusing on the great classics of cinema presented at the Skirball Cultural Center. The screenings are based on a simple question posed to one of today’s most important filmmakers, “Which filmmaker has most inspired your”. Roger Corman will lead a Q&A explaining why his answer to the question is Howard Hawks, and how The Big Sleep exemplifies Hawks’ abilities as a preeminent filmmaker.
The 1946 film noir classic was directed by one of the golden age of cinema’s best, and written by a team of screenwriters that include the esteemed novelist William Faulkner, based on the hard-boiled detective mystery by Raymond Chandler. This complex, logic-defying whodunit stars one of the most seductive on-screen couples of all time. Humphrey Bogart is the quintessential private detective, Phillip Marlowe, and Lauren Bacall is the alluring female lead in this, their second feature together. The convoluted story is full of red herrings, snappy dialogue, colorful one-liners, femme fatals, seedy characters, and dead bodies. In fact, one murder is never resolved, and although irksome, this does not deter from enjoying the story as a whole.
Roger Corman’s pedegree speaks for itself. With over fifty years in the film industry and more than 370 films to his credit he is perhaps the most prolific filmmaker ever known and an ideal spokesman for his craft. As a movie aficionado his opinion is highly respected and should be given due consideration when touting the merits of a fellow craftsmen. Corman’s impeccable ability to spot talent and inert ability to encourage the development of burgeoning filmmakers is responsible for launching the enduring film careers of numerous luminaries including, but not limited to, Gale Anne Hurd, Robert Towne, John Sayles, Peter Bogdanovich, James Cameron, Francis Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese.
Among his many accomplishments, Corman has received an Honorary Doctorate from the American Film Institute, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics, as well as the 2006 David O. Selznick Award from the Producers Guild of America. Corman has been recognized by the Guild for American Cinema Editors, The Academy of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the American Film Marketing Association. In addition, in 1998 he won the first Producer’s Award ever presented by the Cannes Film Festival and, in 2006, his film Fall of the House of Usher (1960) was among the 25 movies selected for the National Film Registry (a compilation of significant films being preserved by the Library of Congress).
Ticketingr$10 General / $8 Members* / $6 Students and Seniors
*Union, Guild, ArcLight, Skirball and AFI Members
To order advance tickets, call 866.468.3399 or order online at www.ticketweb.com. If you have questions regarding the Cinema’s Legacy series, schedules, ticketing information or directions to the Skirball Cultural Center, please contact them at: onscreen@afi.com, info@skirball.org, private-events@skirball.org.