6. ‘The Big Sleep’

Convoluted plot be dammed, the dialogue in this movie is just dynamite. I’ve selected some of the best stuff below. Howard Hawkes directed, Bogart and Bacall on top billing, the title refers to a long term sleep, that of death.

Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.
Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he’s walking out of your bedroom.

Marlowe: You know what he’ll do when he comes back? Beat my teeth out, then kick me in the stomach for mumbling.

Vivian: You’ve forgotten one thing – me.
Philip Marlowe: What’s wrong with you?
Vivian: Nothing you can’t fix.
[last lines]

General Sternwood: How do you like your brandy, sir?
Philip Marlowe: In a glass

Find more at the IMDb quote page here.

Other ’sleep’ movies: ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Science of Sleep’

5. Sleepy

Sleepy is one of a number of 7 dwarves that take a forlorn princess having issues with her new step-mother under their protection. His story was first recorded as early as the 1860s by the Brothers Grimm. A miner, he didn’t earn his characteristic sleepiness or name until he appeared in Walt Disney’s 1936 movie, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

4. Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is described as a condition characterized by frequent and uncontrollable periods of deep sleep. One of those useless pieces of information I had in my head is that Kurt Cobain had narcolepsy, and I have found mention of that, however its not consistently mentioned so it may be urban legend. Jimmy Kimmel was the most high profile narcoleptic I came across. To be honest I first came across narcolepsy in an episode of ‘Ally McBeal’, a programme that has aged badly and re-runs of which are intensely annoying. I also recall a narcoleptic stripper factoring into an episode of ‘Arrested Development’. Its also suggested in ‘Shrek: The Third’ that Sleeping Beauty has narcolepsy!

3. Rip Van Winkle

A man with a cantankerous wife, Im sure when I was told this story in my youth he slept for 100 years, the correct version is that the man so wasteful and lazy disappeared from his village one day only to return after a 20 year nap. The story ends with the man continuing his lazy ways, his old age now allowing him sit outside the local hotel of his village, a place in the Catskills Mountain in New York State, telling passers by of his tale and generally living a happy existence.

2. ‘Sleepers’

This of course is a dark brooding movie with a uncomfortable issue at its heart. I mention it because we quiet often have movies brought home to watch by my Dad, he having being recommended the movie by someone over a pint. Usually he tries to remember the title or write it in his diary, despite writing it down what materialised one Saturday night was in fact a movie called ‘Screamers’. The movie was B-Movie schlock, none of us knew what to make of it, though we did enjoy it. Watch its trailer below. 

1. Sleeping Positions

Finally, see here the most common sleeping positions and their titles.

Find out what your position means about you here – I am a cross between foetus and a yearner.