double indemnity
During the opening of "Double Indemnity" the camera closely follows Fred MacMurray's character "Walter Neff" to show we are trying to find some clues about him. We jump straight into the main storyline so we need close observation on "Walter" so we can have ideas about what is going on. For example the director may want us to pick up on the fact he is only using one arm throughout the scene, this is purposely so you wonder what is going on, there is something wrong with his arm yet we do not know what. "Walters" face is lit up so we can see the sweat showing he has done something physical to make him sweat up like and it obviously isn't the weather as he is wearing a large coat. The lighting is unnatural and therefore it must be pointing out something. Everything is done for a reason nothing happened by mistake.Typical of film noir the protagonist - "Walter Neff" is trapped in the situation and cannot find the way out so we see this reflected in the close ups of him and small rooms, e.g. his office where there is a very limited amount of space shows he is trapped. The antagonist in this film, as typically for film noir, is "Phyllis Dietrichson" a seductive female or "femme fatale". In the opening scene we see her with a low an
Usually a woman would be very vulnerable in a film, yet, film noir distinctively uses the woman as a powerful figure usually behind the danger, using lighting to show only the side of "Phyllis'" face creates an air of mystery in her an we cannot be sure of exactly what she is up to. "Neff's" confession, making the opening actually the end of the film, drawed me as the audience into the film we knew he was guilty, but not how or why he was a murderer. Although this could put you off, it doesn't because we are wanting to find out what "Keys" would "call a confession", the audience is in suspense as to why he is holding his arm and not using it. The plot slowly unfolds so we stay interested in the film to find out the answers to the many questions we want answered in the film. Being the protagonist and using voice over makes a very typical image of the genre of film noir. Men and women are colliding, throwing out the norm of women being powerless and bringing in these femme fatales in cynical universes. As "Neff" is narrating the film we see it all through the eyes of him. His confession is backing out of it. We Know not to trust this woman, as stereotypically she should be the weaker character but in the opening scenes is portrayed as a strong willed character by the use of the low angle shots making her look bigger than and uncontrollable. Would he really have killed for this femme fatale, this part of the film really didn't convince me. We see many close ups of him in the opening scene, in fact he is really the only character we see at first, we do not notice any other characters around him. However "Neff" is in nearly every shot, showing the action revolves around him, everything happening had something to do with him. Characteristically we see the features of "Neff's" face picked out with strong areas of light and dark contrast and shadows and a sense of being trapped due to the light and shade parts of a light source shining through the venetian blinds. His very 'noir' voice over personifies his doomed to be image, from the opener we can see he has lost, and is condemned in whatever he has done.
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