Analysis of The Maltese Falcon and Contempt

In "The Maltese Falcon" and "Contempt" both Huston and Godard primarily follow this rule-of-thumb and remain faithful to the original texts on which the films are based. While Huston's film illustrates the elements of the genre known as film noir, Godard's film exhibits the elements associated with French New Wave Cinema. This analysis will discuss how these films are faithfully adapted to the screen, by comparing various elements of each with the original texts on which they are based. A conclusion will address the transmission of artistic intentions through literature and film.

Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon is considered a classic of detective fiction, a literary genre that shares many similarities with the f

. . .
ne; while he also brings a touch of vulnerability that is believable to the role as Hammett wrote it. In the scene where he sends Brigid over, Bogart's voice cracks in his delivery of the line about her possibly being hanged. Peter Lorrie is perfectly suited as the odiferous and carnation-lapelled Joel Cairo, while Sydney Greenstreet is a bit of inspired casting as Kasper Gutman. Greenstreet looks identical to Hammett's (104) description of the "fat" man in the novel, "The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs. As he advance to meet Spade all his bulbs rose and shook and fell separately." As the elements of detective fiction and film noir are similar, so too are the elements of the psychological novel as evidenced by Alberto Moravia's novel Contempt and French New Wave Cinema as evidenced by Jean-Luc Godard's film adaptation "Contempt." In Moravia's novel we are treated to the breakdown of a marriage between Riccardo Molteni, a writer, and his wife Emilia. Emilia's sudden contempt for Molteni spurs him to embark on a modern telling of the myth of Ulysses and Penelope from classic Gre
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Maltese Falcon, Raymond Chandler, Wave Cinema, Cinema Despite, Riccardo Painfully, Gutman Greenstreet, Film Festival, Fritz Lang, Spade Gutman, Contempt Javal's, maltese falcon, detective fiction, film noir, wave cinema, french wave, psychological novel, french wave cinema, moravia's novel, detective fiction film, godard 1963, fiction film, fiction film noir, original texts, conflict art commerce, political focus novel,
Approximate Word count = 2125
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)