Double Indemnity - Scene Analysis Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is one of the best representatives of the film noir era in Hollywood as it contains all the main characteristics of the genre. The general darkness present throughout the movie is embodied in the plot which reveals the moral bankruptcy of the main characters. It is also present in the mise-en-scene choices such as the dark costumes and modest lighting with the great emphasis on shadows. The main character’s voice-over, another important film noir characteristic, brings this darkness to life and communicates it to the audience with brutal honesty. One of the scenes of the film which contains all of these features is the one where the two main characters, Neff and Phyllis, meet for the first time. This scene will be analysed with respect to the main film noir elements and techniques that were used in the making of it – mainly mise en scene, the voice-over and the screenplay. This scene introduces the femme fatale character Phyllis Dietrichson and starts a relationship between her and Neff – a relationship which sets out the plot for rest of the film. The scene focuses on Phyllis’ use of sexual appeal to gain control over Neff and try to use him to fulfil her twisted of murdering her husband. Wilder uses several filming elements characteristic to film noir in the scene in order to display the nature of Neff and Phyllis’ relationship from the very moment they met. The scene starts with a bright shot set outdoors as Neff is heading to Mr. Dietrichson’s house – a shot uncharacteristic to film noir standards. However, the next shot contrasts the initial one greatly, as Neff walks in and is instantly swallowed by the darkness and shadows of the stuffy, isolated house.... ... middle of paper ... ...d conducts, power play and manipulation. In order to emphasise these elements, Wilder several filming techniques, mainly focusing on mise en scene. He used the lighting – more specifically shadows to depict the dark mood and to contrast the femme fatale from everything else in the scenes. He also used costumes to emphasise the sexual appeal the femme fatale used in order to manipulate Neff. Moreover, the use of the voice-over gave Wilder an opportunity to put the audience in Neff’s shoes as they go through his thinking process which stands behind his actions. All of these elements and techniques put together contributed to the style the film was represented in and created a concept which leads the audience into the dark world of danger and moral bankruptcy and makes them question their basic ethical values – a concept present in every movie of the film noir genre.
Ray takes advantage of the use of cinematic staging to enhance the emotions of both the characters and viewer. During Jim’s argument with his parents about going to the police, the use of back shots and full frontal shots mirror his inner conflict. While Jim and Judy speak privately in the mansion, their faces crowd the frame in a close up shot reflecting the vulnerability and intimacy of the
The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the
Referred to as his family's "strong right hand", Newland's composure slips and shatters over the course of the film as he becomes increasingly obsessed with Countess Olenska and the allure of her forbidden touch. The camera plays close attention to hands, reinforcing the rigidity and frigid decorum that pervade the film, offering the notion of touch as an escape from the pedantic lifestyle of upper-class New York. Ultimately, the simplicity of hands becomes the essence of life, love, and happiness, in a film saturated with customs, pageantry and pomp.
A female in film noir is typically portrayed in one of two ways; she’s either a dependable, trustworthy, devoted, and loving woman, or she’s a manipulative, predatory, double crossing, and unloving temptress. Noir labels the cold hearted and ruthless woman archetype as a Femme Fatale. A femme fatale is walking trouble, and she’s aware of it. This woman is gorgeous, refined, eloquent, and commands the attention of any room she’s in. When the femme fatale desires something, she pursues it. If there’s an obstacle in her way, she overcomes it. If she can’t handle it herself, all she needs to do it bat her eyelashes and the nearest man is all too willing to take care of it for her. In essence, the most dangerous thing about the femme fatale is her
Suspense is a 1913 film that portrays the story of a tramp intruding into a family’s home, where a mother takes care of her child while her husband is away. The plot is a common one that had been used previous times before the film’s release, such as in The Lonely Villa (1909). However, through taking advantage of the single frame shot, the filmmakers were able to create a masterful aesthetic of two separate stories that turn a basic plot into a complex story. The film created an inventive way of illustrating stories within cinema by allowing the audience the chance to consume more narrative in less time within just one take.
...and framing, Hitchcock expresses the horror of wrongful imprisonment through visual devices. Hitchcock allows Hannay to escape the snare of the police into the open world, as Hannay finds himself outside in a parade. Hannay, now free from the confines of the sheriff’s office and walking amidst the people, is now vindicated, living momentarily in the comfort of anonymity. But Hitchcock re-plays his fears, so of course Hannay will soon be back in the binding spotlight in the next sequence. Yet it is more than the fear of police and confinement that is a mark of the Hitchcock film - it is the visual expression of these psychological states that are examples of the artistry of Hitchcock as an auteur. And as seen through the first shot of the chosen sequence in which the sheriff’s laugh is merged with the crofter’s wife’s screams, Hitchcock went beyond the German Expressionists that he admired, manipulating sound to express ideas in their purest, most subtle forms.
Film noir, by translation alone, means dark film, and by that measurement Sunset Boulevard certainly fits the genre. A gloomy story that follows a jaded and sarcastic protagonist, Joe Gillis from his initial dire circumstances to his untimely death, Sunset Blvd. earns the description “dark” several times over. But there is more to film noir than crushingly depressing plotlines. There are common motifs and icons that are found in most film noirs, such as crime, dark alleys, guns and alcohol. Deeper than this, film noir features certain visual elements, character archetypes, and themes that create a unique style of film. Although some have argued that Sunset Blvd. fails to represent some of these elements, it has become known as one of the most iconic film noirs ever made. Sunset Boulevard (1950), written and directed by Billy Wilder exemplifies the film noir style through its use of visual elements (lighting, shots and angles), memorable characters, themes and overall structure of the film.
Professor Rath, portrayed by Emil Jannings, is a sexually suppressed literature professor at a prep school. He was introduced as a sensitive, caring person. His job puts him in a high social status. However, the daily life of this gentleman was about to change when he discovered one day a postcard of a nightclub spotlighting a woman named Lola Lola among his student's papers. Lola, portrayed by Marlene Dietrich, was introduced to be a very sexually active woman. She was comfortable in her skin. She knows that what she does is not ladylike, especially to the bourgeois values, but she treats the fact with acceptance. The professor’s curiosity led him that evening to go check the 'Blue Angel' nightclub. The club was located in a rather poor neighborhood. When he saw her on stage singing with her legs exposed, his heart was captivated. Suddenly, he fell in love with
Many of the first film elements that can be found in this movie work as an introduction to the two main characters of the story. These elements are meant to force the spectator- even one who had never heard speak of, or seen the two Hollywood stars shown on screen- to focus their attention on them.
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Shadow of a Doubt is a true masterpiece. Hitchcock brings the perfect mix of horror, suspense, and drama to a small American town. One of the scenes that exemplifies his masterful style takes place in a bar between the two main characters, Charlie Newton and her uncle Charlie. Hitchcock was quoted as saying that Shadow of a Doubt, “brought murder and violence back in the home, where it rightly belongs.” This quote, although humorous, reaffirms the main theme of the film: we find evil in the places we least expect it. Through careful analysis of the bar scene, we see how Hitchcock underlies and reinforces this theme through the setting, camera angles, and lighting.
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 95% of the light used. This really lights up the top of his head, which is bald, but there is no hot spot or reflective element which is good because reflection here would be aesthetically displeasing. The lighting causes dark areas under the man’s eyes, which emphasize the passion and eventually the hatred of what he is talking about. The scene is lit so that the background is completely black, so that the only thing we can see is the man. Even though this is logically unrealistic, the stylistic decision to light in this manner is warranted, since this or any other good film draws heavily upon our expectations and imagination to convey a message or meaning. We as audience accept the unrealistic elements, if they assist in making the story ...
Four key film extracts will be discussed. The introduction of Mina, starting of with a medium long shot of her in the Westenra house, which allows the audience to pay more attention to what is happening in the background, the mise-en-scene being a large decorated room of the Victorian era, including plants, chairs. The setting of the whole room is surrounded by glass, which has the ability to allow natural light.
In our society, individuals might insist their own point of view and refuse to consider others’ opposite ideas, however, in an existing film, revolutionary and conservative standpoints can be accepted at the same time to make the film “neutral”. Through considering the collisions of opposite standpoints which occur in the noir movie named “Double Indemnity” which directed by Billy Wilder and had earned the label of “unfilmmable” in Hollywood because of the story between Walter Neff played by Fred MacMurray and Phyllis Dietrichson played by Barbara Stanwyck in 1943(Biltereyst 148) , this essay will illuminate the characteristics of traditional female image and another kind of female role named “femme fatales” which is opposite to the traditional
This paper has attempted to investigate the ways in which Alfred Hitchcock blended conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy. It first looked at the opening scenes of the film in which the two conventions were introdruced. It then went on to analyse the film with the aid of Robin Wood's article Ideology, Genre, Auteur. From these two forms we can see that film noir and small town comedy were used as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
There are four crucial scenes of this film in which Hitchcock shows a change in perspective and identity through the mise-en-scène. Hitchcock’s signature motifs, style, and themes are conveyed through the mise-en-scène.