Celebrate one of the most influential crime writers of all time at the Irish Film Institute
During September 2009, the IFI in Temple Bar will present a special season celebrating the work of Raymond Chandler – one of the most influential and widely read crime writers in the history of the genre – to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.
American born but educated at an English public school, his reputation rests on a writing career that didn’t properly begin until he was a middle-aged man and only produced fourteen short stories, seven completed novels — all of which feature his most famous creation, Los Angeles-based detective Philip Marlowe — and a small number of screenplays. Yet Chandler’s Marlowe became the blueprint for what we think of as the hardboiled detective. The author’s dazzling prose, his mythologising of Los Angeles, his acerbic, witty tough-guy dialogue and his adoption by Hollywood all combined to make him part of crime fiction’s very DNA.
It was Chandler’s extraordinary success in Hollywood that made him world famous. The public’s appetite for contemporary, hard-edged adult drama made Chandler’s books hot properties. Chandler fought with Wilder during Double Indemnity, just as he would fight with Alfred Hitchcock while adapting Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, but he remained much sought after as a screenwriter.
The special season commences on August 5th and the IFI will present many of Chandler’s biggest screen successes including Murder, My Sweet (the first real adaptation of a Chandler novel), The Big Sleep (another on-screen romantic pairing for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall), The Blue Dahlia (a continuation of the teaming of noir stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake) and the Billy Wilder directed Double Indemnity. The season will also include an illustrated talk by Adrian Wootton (director of ‘Crime Scene’ and CEO of Film London) featuring film/audio clips and chronicling the author’s extraordinary life and career.
Tickets can be purchased at the IFI (6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar), online at www.ifi.ie or by calling 01 679 3477.
Full line-up of the Raymond Chandler series
Murder, My Sweet – September 5th – 2.00
The Big Sleep – September 5th/6th – 2.00
The Blue Dahlia – September 6th – 2.00
Marlowe – September 12th – 2.00
Farewell, My Lovely – September 13th – 2.00
Chandlereque: An Illustrated Talk by Adrian Wootton – September 16th – 6.30
The Long Goodbye – September 20th – 2.15
Double Indemnity – September 23rd – 6.30