Film Noir Movies

 

The quote that I chose from the first ten minutes of the documentary Film Noir that also describes a main idea in "Double Indemnity" is said by Abraham Polonsky. He is the writer and director of Force of Evil and he said, “This is what this picture is all about. How circumstances become more and more endurable, and yet you must endure.” By this quote we all know that he is referring to the movies of Film Noir. If you’ve watched Film Noir I’m sure we can agree that the film is the bad, but also the good. In Film Noir part of the film and entertainment industry takes place in the first half of the 20^th century. This film went past the confront zone of most audiences because of the time they were living on, but this is what made the film so interesting. Anyway, these kinds of movies have been known as exposing the dark side of humans. Movies like this are about drugs, crime, and sex. The kind of stuff exposed in these kind of movies was something people were not used to seeing but still managed to relate to it. For this reason is why Film Noir was successful due to the fact that it had highly sensitive subjects that connected with the viewer’s emotions. In my opinion the film Double Indemnity falls into this category because it shows all the traits that keep people entertained and leave them with questions. I picked this quote because I think it demonstrates how people who watched these films felt. 

In the film  ‘’Double Indemnity,” the character Phyllis is the typical femme fatale. She fits in the characteristics of femme fatale because everything a man desires; beautiful, smart and uses that as power. A femme fatale characteristic that is portrayed in the character Phyllis is how she can be manipulative using her beauty. For example, a femme fatale can use sex to gain power and get what she wants which at the end only gets the men in trouble. I think the character Phyllis plays a typical role of this type of character. She only lives up to all the traits that the Film Noir documentaries use to describe a femme fatale.

The tools that Film Noir uses help create a mood that has never been done in cinematic presentation. One of the elements that helped this type of movies look interesting is the lighting. It is that what creates a dark atmosphere feel to the movie. This is what made it look mysterious to the audience, also the fact that is was in black and white. It also helped made the movies show some kind of creativity. For example, the lighting was supposed to create a mood of isolation in the rooms or buildings. The sounds in these movies also created certain moods and added more suspense to Film Noir movies. However, in my opinion “Double Indemnity” did not really have good music and lighting in some parts. Although it did have some sounds that created suspense and went well with the scenes. 

The use of  “neo-noir” in movies don’t have as much black and white as the original films. However they still have some of the same features. In the movie “memento” you can see a lot of the similarities of the of Film Noir movies. For example it has the subjects of murder and controversial subjects such as having a mental person as the main character. This movie was also created differently because everything happens backwards and makes the movie a puzzle itself. In my opinion I think Christopher Nolan would agree that both films are quite similar in some way and meet at some point with the topic of Film Noir. Finally, the structure of this movie is what makes it more interesting for the audience and keeps them tentative.