Double Indemnity (1944, Dr Billy Wilder).
Walter Neff is the main character in this film and acts as the 'Hero', he is a successful insurance sales man who works for pacific all risk. He mostly deals with life insurance. And the film starts off with him on his office desk late at night and tells his story into a 'dictaphone'. And the film flashbacks to the past and it starts off when he meets the 'femme fetale' of the story, 'Phyllis Dietrichson' when he goes to renew her husbands insurance policy. Whilst they talk, it becomes obvious that Phyllis is flirting with him.
He then learns that she can take an life insurance policy out without her husband knowing, so if he dies she gets £50,000 pounds in compensation so she makes it clear she wants to murder him to make a claim. She visits him at his home and tells him that together they should kill her husband. Being in the business all his life, he knows about all the secret trades etc, therefore he came up with a plan so that she would receive twice the insurance pay out using the "double indemnity" clause (£100,000), whereby the husband dies an unlikely death. The detective of the case suspects and queries with walter, but walter stands strong, and he almost gets a way with it. Meanwhile Phyllis wants Lola, her husband's daughter, killed because Lola suspects her of killing her parents and Walter finds out.
Walter also finds out that Phyllis is also seeing Lola's boyfriend secretly and decides to blame them for the murder. Phyllis tells him that she was seeing Lola's boyfriend so that he would kill Lola. But the walter attempts to shoot her but she shot him first, when they confront. Phyllis hugs him and he shoots her. He confesses to the detective and says hes going to mexico instead of serving a death sentence but collapses when walking to the elevator due to his injuries and it finishes.
Without a doubt all the characters are typical of Film Noir's, with a hero involved and a femme fatale. And the narrative strictly follows the general conventions of Film Noir, with the typical male man who falls in love with the femme fatale, and makes one little mistake and it ruins his life.
The world the characters live in, is grim, dark, mysterious and once again follows the conventions of Film Noir, and we get a sense that the characters want a 'way-out', either by getting loads of money, or just getting that once chance. They are a couple of shots where the camera is extremely close up to the character, and it shows us the characters expression that much better, and makes us feel it's an awkward way to see people, so it makes it more dramatic. The editing in Double indemnity is pretty basic and follows Film Noir, especially when a dramatic scene is uncovering, there are much more shots, and we see the whole point of view of it, whilst the camera is still fixed on the 180 degree rule.
Lighting and the venetian blind are used over and over again in this and it really does follow general conventions of film Noir. Once again, this film follows the rules of Film Noir in sound as well, with voice overs being a tradition of film Noir's this film is focused on the voice over and it un-ravels the story for us. The message and values of the film, are like every film Noir, don't fall for the wrong girl.
I would personally say the older generation would like this film, however middle-age man would probably enjoy this film as well, and also, even though they are not the stereotypical audience for this, I enjoy this kind of film, and so do some of my mates because it's mysterious, you have to think to watch it and it's sometimes hard to understand, and I guarantee if the quality of the picture, and the actors were updated film noir could still be a very popular film choice for people. Especially men. Even though there are a few Neo-Noir's popping up here and there.
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