Analysis of the film Double Indemnity - 2728 Words

Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder 1944) is a film about an insurance sales man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) that falls for a highly sexual, scandalous woman, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) who attempts to kill her husband. Even though Walter dismisses Phyllis attempt to purchase life insurance policy for her husband; he is unable to stay away from Phyllis for long. In the time they spend together, Walter and Phyllis try to hatch a fool-proof plan to get rid of her husband and get a double indemnity from the insurance company. Walter Neff boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is a man of skill and knowledge, and has been working in the same job for twenty-six years, and has always been able to tell who is a cheater and who is an†¦show more content†¦The article also touches base with other critics and discusses the rise of criticism for noir film. The article also calls for a attention to the movement, that instead of having fixed gender roles in other film noir fi lms, that change may occur and that with change a new type of noir may emerge. In the article â€Å"Towards a Definition of Film Noir† by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton tries to define what a film noir is and considers the element involved. As Borde and Chaumeton argue in article, â€Å"one could simplify the problem by assigning to film noir qualities such as nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel. . . often the noir aspect of a film is linked to a character, a scene, a setting † (18). The problem of trying to define film noir is a difficult one, but the aspect of it can be applied to Double Indemnity. These aspects are seen in the film when Phyllis is hiding behind the door in the scene where for this purpose will be call Woman Hides behind the Door. The shot captures all three of the characters, and produces an almost nightmarish, weird and ambivalent shot, where both Walter and Barton are being wanted and they are not aware of who is watching them. The woman is seen in this shot as having all the power, and is cast in a key-lig ht to show sharp shadows on her, to produce almost a black widow image by hiding in dark waiting for her prey. To start, the noir film Double Indemnity female character is Phyllis, who isShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Double Indemnity1052 Words   |  5 PagesDouble Indemnity is a film noir directed by Billy Wilder in 1944, and it was based on the novel of the same name â€Å"Double Indemnity† which was published in 1943. This film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but it did not win any prize. Double Indemnity is a story about the crime of Phyllis and Neff. Phyllis plans to kill her husband to receive the claim of an accident insurance and Neff set up a scheme to get twice the amount of a clause. Although a classic â€Å"femme fatale† of the noir era, PhyllisRead MoreCrime: A Popular Genre in Literature and Films1232 Words   |  5 PagesAn Examination of Textual Form in 4 Crime Texts Crime is one of the most popular subjects in literature and film. At the same time, however, the genre also boasts an exceptional number of texts that experiment with form, doing so in a manner that causes audiences to reflect on the nature of crime and the relationship between crime and the average citizen. In this vein, one of the challenges of crime writing is to represent justice and crime while doing so in a manner that challenges conventionalRead MoreHistorical Analysis of the Movie, Citizen Kane Essay1699 Words   |  7 Pages Historical Analysis, Citizen Kane: Camera Movement Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. 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The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entities which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930. For