The Film Noir genre is the product of the 1940’s which reflects the darker attitude of society representing depression, realism, and amplifying a new dynamic for women on screen. As World War II progressed, there was less money compiling in Hollywood. The little money collected affected the creative drive for the directors in how they were able to produce for their films. The smaller budget impacted money to spend on lighting, sets, costumes, as well as providing pay for extras to appear in scenes
Double Indemnity is a film noir directed by Billy Wilder in 1944, and it was based on the novel of the same name “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 “femme fatale” of the noir era, Phyllis
Feminist film theorists have argued that in classical cinema, the spectator’s pleasure revolves around images of the female body. Within the diegesis, the woman often appears as an object to be looked at and acted upon, while the male protagonist is usually granted a more active role, both in terms of his agency in the narrative, and in terms of his enunciative authority. This hypothesis is backed up by elements of two films studied this semester: His Girl Friday by Howard Hawks (1940) and Double
Few movies get right what Double Indemnity does, which is an ode to the filmmaker and crew behind the movie, the innuendo scene being one example of this. Snarky, quick-witted banter bouncing back and forth between each characters, keeps the film’s pacing going and rarely leaves the audience with a dull moment. Besides the strong dialogue in the memorable innuendo scene in Double Indemnity, the scene also relies on its distinct composition, lighting and camera angles to enhance foreshadowing and
Film noirs are unique because the viewer experiences the film in a special type of way that is different from typical comedy, romantic, or action films where a person actually sympathizes with the character and hopes everything turns out well for the people in the end. Film noirs focus on themes such as doom, darkness, death, and failure. The characters in film noirs are usually flawed and unlikable, as they act hopeless and unexcitable even when things are going well or as planned. Additionally
The term film noir was coined by French critics for 1940s-50s American films that shared a dark sensibility and a dark lighting style, such as Double Indemnity (1944), Out of the Past (1947), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Many theorists related the common noir attributes and aesthetic elements to a post war society characterised by insecurity about gender roles, the economy, changing definitions of race, and nuclear technology. One of the cultural problems the term genre attempts to
Women were not only householders but providers. This change conflicted with the traditional woman. But as the war ended, men returned home, and women were pushed back into the households. This piece of history plays an essential role in how the women were presented in the film noir. Hollywood offers a progressive representation of those working women who went back quietly. The femme fatale took the strength of independence during the war. The women were then portrayed as cold and cruel
genre of film noir was first acknowledged in France for its distinguishable darkness and its critic of social norms through nontraditional narratives. In Chinatown, Roman Polanski effectively utilizes many of the thematic and stylistic devices commonly associated with the neo-noir film genre. The objective of this essay is to critically discuss these devices employed by Polanski in order to reveal some of the subtle complexities that are embedded within the cinematic fabric of the film, Chinatown
society. There is a list of unwritten rules that every person should abide by if they want to fit in to their culture. For women in America, filling this quota is a lot harder than it seems. The Western woman is under the influence of unrealistic expectations regarding the media, this is true, but it is more complicated than that. Scholars have noticed a trend in the guidelines for women, from the stories in the bible to today’s modern media. The woman is to be a sexual being, a vixen, a wild child; while