The movie Double Indemnity is a film-noir style of film directed by Billy Wilder and released in 1944. This paper explores the formal elements displayed in the selected clip as well as the stylistic choices made by the director. The clip lasts for two and a half minutes and is comprised of five shots. The sequence takes place amid downtown Los Angeles and centers on the events of an insurance representative returning to his office at nighttime. The first shot features Mr. Neff, the protagonist, and a night watchman in a static, medium two-shot conversing in an elevator. The two men are shown in a back-view with Mr. Neff positioned to the left side of the frame and the watchman on the right. Top lighting illuminates the characters’ upper …show more content…
The non-diegetic music increases in pitch and starts to sound more fantastical. The third shot shows Mr. Neff entering his darkened office and walking over to his desk in a medium-long shot. The lights are off and only his silhouette is made visible against the backlight of the brightly lit glass door. The camera pans to the right as he walks to his desk and the venetian blinds leave striped shadows on him. He switches on a desk lamp which shines a light on the papers on his desk. A glimpse of his office is made visible by the lamp showing a water cooler, some cabinets, and his desk. The forth shot cuts on action to a medium shot of Mr. Neff sitting at his desk. He is centered in the frame and seen catching his breath and wiping sweat off of his face. A full ash tray is visible in the foreground on his desk. He takes out a pack of cigarettes and lights one up. The brightly lit match highlights the contrast between him and his surroundings. The camera pans to the left as he wheels himself in his swivel chair over to his Dictaphone. The desk lamp shines on him leaving the sides of the frame in darkness and casting a shadow behind him. The sequence ends with a static, medium-close profile shot of Mr. Neff leaning back in his chair and speaking into his Dictaphone. His brimmed hat casts a shadow onto the upper part of his face. The non-diegetic music fades out and stops as Mr. Neff begins his monologue. The clip ends with him saying, “I suppose you'll call this a
it is the start of the story. The window fills the whole frame of the
The first shot we see of this sequence is a low angle which shows, quite simply, the sheer enormity of the building Max is about to enter. The shot slowly pans down as the foreboding notes of the score
While much of the neighborhood appears on-screen in the beginning of the shot, one important thing is notably off-screen the whole time: The view from which the camera pivots. Behind the camera was the apartment of L.B. Jeffries, and the camera pans to the left, inside his window, to finish with a brief tour around his living room that teaches us his most important character traits. We see first, in an extreme close-up of a cast, that Jeffries has a broken leg. And then the camera pans left and we see why: A broken camera appears on screen, and a rack focus shift to the background shows a photograph of an automobile accident with a tire flying straight at the camera. Then several other framed photographs of exciting events appear on the screen, telling us Jeffries is a photographer who craves adventure and excitement.
shot of husband walking on the street along shops, one which has "rokers" written on window on the left of screen. He walks towards the shop, pauses to stare at it and then walks in (4 seconds). Cut to.
The audience is aware that the events shown take place within a day, as well as the location of the characters. This thorough editing style is suddenly interrupted by an unconventional montage. The montage is unconventional in the sense that instead of using cuts, it uses movement to proceed to the next scene; for instance, a car would pass through the original scene that the spectator was viewing and then the new scene would be in its place. The montage also appears to be peculiar because of its random nature. The scene before the montage shows Casper engaging in sexual intercourse with Jennie, who is unconscious on a couch while surrounded by other unconscious kids. Despite whispering no, her intoxicated struggle against him fails and the scene fades to black. Their hushed voices are replaced by somber music, which ushers in the montage of the film. The audience is then presented with random takes of a man rocking back and forth on a street corner, a man banging his head against a gate, and a man with his hands lifted toward the sky in a park; while people walk by as if their behavior is ordinary. The montage allows these random elements to be joined together to provoke insight into the character’s environment and how it has caused them to believe that their behavior is normal; because they are surrounded by sex, drugs, and
In the opening scene Burtynsky, fluidly moves the camera side to side through a factory to display the workers and their tasks. This opening scene gives an overview of what each worker of the factory does. After, the shot goes to a street where Chinese workers in yellow vests congregate for his photo. Furthermore, several shots become intimate with the worker and their processes because it is just the uses and their tools. These scenes are common throughout the video along with the sound of the
Additionally, in several night scenes, Lachman used long shot to shoot the whole windows in the eye-level only with the lighting from the rooms. This technique produced a circumstance that audiences are standing outside of the building seeing peeking what these people are doing. The window frames look like interval between characters. Dividing them visualizes the inner difference of characters. They are in the same genre of people. In the party of Harge’s parents, Carol smokes outsides and Jeanette steps in. The window frames separated Carol and Jeanette generating a boundary between them. Also in the scene that Therese and Danny are at the office of Time magazine, Lachman used the same cinematography method creating distances between two characters.
Double Indemnity is a classic film noir that has set the stage for other films of the same genre. Containing themes of imminent danger, fatalism, and drama, the film artfully uses a series of cinematic techniques to tell the story of Walter Neff and his seductive partner-and-crime, Phyllis Dietrichson. By carefully analyzing the first minute and a half of the film, one can get a sense of how particular factors of the opening scene (such as lighting, sound, and set) both heighten the drama at the particular instant and also provide further context to the storyline as a whole. Furthermore, each cinematic moment in the first minute and a half has some trace of foreshadowing that hints at the well-calculated, sinister plan that unravels later on
The Great depression consists of a high numbers of unemployment due to the stock market crash the United States faced in 1929. In order to get the people out of this depression the United States declared World War Two, which separated husband from their families because they were being recruited to fight for their country. These catastrophes led people to live the American Nightmare. This nightmare consisted of people searching for desperate ways to obtain money regardless of the consequences. In particularly it arose the creation of femme fatales because women were facing hardships trying to balance a stable home while also managing work. James M. Cain exposed this new role played by women through his novel Double Indemnity that was followed by a film noir directed by Billy Wilder.
Death is a part of much of film noir. A facet of death is the idea of the living dead. In a few films there is the inclusion of characters who are a part of the living dead. The living dead refers to those characters who are inevitably going to die, or those persons who have escaped death and are now living.
From coloring and lighting to music direction and the score, there are many ways for a film's story to be told. Film noir mirrors its detective pulp book predecessors, where a strong narrative character is key and the protagonist walks a fine line between hero and villain. The use of voice over, black and white film, and evocative lighting techniques define the style we know today. Modern films, such as The Artist (2011) and Sin City (2005), attempt to incorporate these creative devices, but unlike their predecessors, these techniques don’t support and further thematic developments. In director/screenwriter Billy Wilder's classic features, Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Blvd.
How Double Indemnity fulfils the definition of Film Noir Many commentators agree that it is essential films like Double Indemnity (1944) and Out of the Past (1947) that make up perfect film noir masterpieces. They also agree that the birth of this ‘movement’ was possible with the production of The Maltese Falcon, the first textbook example of a film noir. According to French film critic Nino Frank, film noir is a film genre that is characterized by violence and pervaded by an intense ‘feeling’ of dread and moral uncertainties. A film of this kind tends to accommodate heroes who are tough and cynical but overwhelmed by mighty forces beyond their power (Park 19).
The episode starts off with low intense music and shows a man hooked up to a lie detector test. Throughout the rest of the film, the music used as a background to people talking to add intensity. The second scene shows real photos from the court case and the crime scene. While the photos are being shown an expert starts off with his thesis. The documentary starts to show the other experts that will be talking, and gives them ten seconds to give their opening statement.
Next, the audience sees a man in a priest 's clothes hurrying down the sidewalk late at night. The lighting is very important in this shot as it sets a very serious, ominous tone. The character also looks over his shoulder hastily as if he 's worried someone might see him. The camera goes to a wide shot to show that two young girls are right behind Keller as he briskly walks away from his crime. Then the shot fades into Keller walking towards the camera down an alleyway. The lighting is still extremely gloomy and shadowy as he takes off into a dark corner. The next shot has a "revealing" as Keller takes off his priest clothing and he looks around suspiciously.
generate moods, and have great psychological affect. This is just as true for the very first series of shots for the film, and perhaps more important since these first shots will give the audience the initial feeling of the film, and set a tone for the picture. The first shot is highly dramatic in its lighting method, and the audience is drawn in immediately to one single detail. A man begins revealing the details of a tragic incident that befell his daughter. We don’t see who he is talking to. There is a spotlight directly above the man, and this is pretty much