A film about murder and the promise of love and money, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is a classic film noir movie. The protagonist, Walter Neff is a single insurance salesman who catches the hots for Phyllis, one of his customer’s, Mr. Dietrichson’s, wife. In the opening sequence of Double Indemnity, Wilder heavily illustrates the themes and plot that will be presented throughout the film. Wilder achieves this by symbolism, dialogue, and lighting. The film begins with a title sequence consisting of a silhouette of a man on crutches walking towards the camera against a white background. A boisterous orchestral soundtrack adds a sense of impending doom to the approaching figure. Just as the silhouette almost encompasses the entire screen, …show more content…
The camera tracks forward following Neff as he approaches the locked front doors. A snacking night watchman lets him in and cheerily greets Neff, to which Neff does not reply. The watchman locks the doors back up, and tries to converse with Neff upon entering the elevator. The elevator scene is a two shot with the camera behind the men as they talk. The watchman brings up the insurance business and says, ”They wouldn’t ever sell me any. They said I had something loose in my heart.” This line is interesting because it is reminiscent of a line Phyllis says about how she is “rotten to the heart.” Neff could have avoided this whole situation, if he would have gone with his intuition of Phyllis being rotten and not have sold her, her husband’s life …show more content…
A close-up shot of him speaking into the funnel shows the sweat beads on his face, as well as the hard shadows under his chin and back of his neck. He begins to create a recorded confession for his boss, Barton Keyes. This speech is made to draw in the audience. Particularly when Neff says, “I killed Dietrichson,” and then goes on to describe himself. Neff states, “Me, Walter Neff, insurance salesman. Thirty-five years old, unmarried, no visible scars.” The audience is now interested to know what spurred this seemingly normal man to commit
This brief essay examines racism in the 1974 motion picture Conrack. The movie is an adaptation of Pat Conroy's autobiography, The Water Is Wide. The main character, Conrack, a young white male teacher portrayed by Jon Voight, is assigned to teach students from poor black families on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. The small community has little contact with the outside world and develops its own language. He finds the students essentially illiterate and their education neglected by state authorities. Poverty and their race cause neglect of their educational needs. The black school principal has convinced the students they are stupid and lazy. Conroy begins teaching the students useful, essential life skills. The community has no interest in learning about anything away from the island. The community has lived in fear of a nearby river because none can swim. While trying to improve the students' level of knowledge and their enthusiasm for
Throughout the film, the filmmaker follows the three victims around in their everyday lives by using somber music and backgrounds of depressing colors. The documentary starts off with colorful images of the scenery
In the game of life man is given the options to bluff, raise, or fold. He is dealt a hand created by the consequences of his choices or by outside forces beyond his control. It is a never ending cycle: choices made create more choices. Using diverse, complex characters simmering with passion and often a contradiction within themselves, Tennessee Williams examines the link of past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
Paper Towns is about a boy named Quentin Jacobsen and his childhood friend Margo Roth Spiegelman. When they were kids, they spent a lot of time together, but as they grew up, they also grew apart. Then, one day, Margo shows up at Quentin’s window, asking him to help her. They then spend the night seeking revenge on Margo’s high school friends who she says have wronged her. The next day, Margo disappears, which isn’t uncommon for Margo. But this time, Quentin gets involved in the mystery until, eventually, he’s the only one still looking. Quentin believes Margo wants to be found and has left a trail of clues for him. After searching for a while, Quentin finds the clue that leads him to Agloe, New York, where Margo is. Quentin and his friends take a road trip there, to find out that Margo isn’t what Quentin expected at all.
Bad choices are made every day by everybody. Those bad choices could lead to consequences that are going to bother a person for a long time. Even more, that person may try various ways to correct that error. The intention is good, but things can go even worse if the effort is based on unrealistic fantasies. This effort is presented as a part of modernist ideas. Modernist writers dramatize this effort through the tragic outcomes of the characters. Three modernist pieces, A Street Car Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Great Gatsby, all of them sent out a message to the audience, the loss of past and how it cannot be recovered. Each piece features a character who lost hope, strived to recover the hope, and ended with a tragic outcome. A Street Car Named Desire featured Blanche; Blanche spent her whole life trying to get some attentions. Death of a Salesman featured Willy; Willy spent his whole life trying to apply the idea “Be Well Liked.” The Great Gatsby featured Jay Gatsby; Gatsby spent his whole life trying to win back Daisy. All of those characters ended with tragic outcome. Blanche was sent to asylum by her own sister. Willy committed suicide after felt humiliated by his sons. Gatsby was murdered with a gunshot planned by Tom Buchanan. Blanche, Willy, and Gatsby’s tragic fates are caused by their false beliefs about life, which are proven wrong by the contradictions between the reality and the illusion.
effect due to the basis of the film. This is used as an opening sequence
Enhancing the sustained fright of this film are an excellent cast, from which the director coaxes extraordinary performances, and Bernard Herrmann's chilling score. Especially effective is the composer's so-called "murder music," high-pitched screeching sounds that flash across the viewer's consciousness as quickly as the killer's deadly knife. Bernard Herrmann achieved this effect by having a group of violinists frantically saw the same notes over and over again.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
Double Indemnity is a crime novel that was written by author and journalist, James M. Cain. The plot of Double Indemnity is about an insurance salesman by the name of Walter Huff who fell in love with the married woman, Phyllis Nirdlinger. Throughout the novel, both Huff and Nirdlinger pursue their love for each other and faces the drama from everyone around them. The novel was successful enough that Hollywood adapted the book into a film in 1944. The film Double Indemnity would then be directed by Billy Wilder with the assistance of Raymond Chandler. Eventually, the film became successful and was nominated for several Academy Awards. Despite the successful ending, the film had to find ways to either bypass or follow the rules of Hollywood’s
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder 1950) explores the intermingling of public and private realms, puncturing the illusion of the former and unveiling the grim and often disturbing reality of the latter. By delving into the personal delusions of its characters and showing the devastation caused by disrupting those fantasies, the film provides not only a commentary on the industry of which it is a product but also a shared anxiety about the corrupting influence of external perception. Narrated by a dead man, centering on a recluse tortured by her own former stardom, and concerning a once-promising director who refuses to believe his greatest star could ever be forgotten, the work dissects a multitude of illusory folds to reveal an ultimately undesirable truth. Its fundamental conflict lies in the compartmentalization that allows the downtrodden to hope and carry on. Sunset Boulevard carefully considers the intricate honeycombs of dishonesty and deception that constitute a human life, then dissolves the barriers and watches the emotions, lies, and self-contradictions slurry together and react in often volatile and destructive ways.
Contracts are used to dictate how an agreement between two or more parties, involved in a mutually beneficial relationship, will function in a way that is agreeable to all parties involved. There are many different types of contracts for many types of situations and they can cover a wide range of rules and regulations dependent each parties wants and needs. Sometimes the agreement between the parties involved changes, but it is not always so simple to change the terms of a contract. As Christians contracts have been in our lives for a long time. God made a contract with all of us from the very beginning and he has honored the terms of that contract ever since. “He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand
Car insurance is a very important aspect of driving that all motor vehicle owners should look into. It is underutilised with only around 35% of all road users having had their motor vehicle/s insured. This leaves many drivers in financial debts as they are unable to pay, either the medical expenses due to a collision or the physical damage done to the vehicle, as they are not covered.
However, to be successful with a tried and true concept, they should offer the audience something new or refreshing to excite the viewer. The script attempts to do this by giving the main character, Savoie, an intriguing backstory – the death of her husband. The idea that she was a suspect and that she left her former police department to begin a new life, is interesting. This attempts to give Savoie some depth.
In the opening scenes of the trailer, already the audience is exposed to the dystopian atmosphere of chaos, social anarchy and oppression. This is promoted by short fast paced montages and high angle shots of the swarmed streets, close angle shots of people in terror and military forces. This also conveys the magnitude of chaos this “dilemma” has caused. A short scene of the main protagonist Robert struggling through the crowd has also been visually constructed to enforce to the audience that he is the main character of this movie. The visual construction of this scene is utilised by a close up slow motion focused shot on Will Smith with the background blurred to completely draw the audience onto him. What is more unique is that this combination of effects acts as an inference that Will Smith is the solution or only hope in settling this anarchy as he swiftly makes his way through the congested street. The explosion of the bridge also informs the audience the narrative is set in New York implied by being a landmark of the city. Already in the exposition, the visual conventions have provided an engaging and well informed construction of dystopian qualities and information about the plot itself.
Double Indemnity and Body Heat are two movies that deal with heated passion, tainted love, and reckless murders. Double Indemnity was created before Body Heat in the 1940's setting the tone for the film noir period of movies. Whereas the movie Body Heat created in the 1980's is a Neo-noir film that recreated certain elements from the film noir type movies. On a side note, Double Indemnity and Body Heat were both directed by men which is another similarity between the two movies. Double Indemnity clearly paved the way for Body Heat by giving audiences an updated version of the same story directors had created 30 years ago. Body Heat gives the audience a new perspective on just how far someone will go to be with the person they love. Both movies