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Stylistic and thematic characteristics of film noir
Female gender stereotypes in movies
How can the theme of sexism be represented in film
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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 …show more content…
ability to exploit her attractiveness to ensure the achievement of her goals. Her astuteness and desirability are what enables her to entrap her male counterparts and bring about their demise. This is especially true for the film Double Indemnity, as it’s known to be the most noir film ever made. Double Indemnity starts off by immediately throwing its audience into the chaos of the plot. Not too long into the film, it’s revealed that the main character, Walter Neff, is a murder and that he was tricked into it by a women named Phyllis Dietrichson. Phyllis is then presented to the audience as a femme fatale and the narrative centers around her actions of deceit and manipulation. At the core, Phyllis and the idea of a femme fatale can be viewed as concept shrouded in misogyny, but with a closer inspection they both seem to symbolize a notion that advocates for feminism. The entire construct of a femme fatale defines her as a strong female character with distinctive characteristics that adhere to that, and whose very foundation is more about female empowerment than oppression. Double Indemnity tells the story about how salesman Walter Neff gets roped into a murderous scheme concocted by a beautiful and sensual woman named Phyllis Dietrichson.
Phyllis is illustrated as an unhappy housewife who seems absorbed by the notion of killing her husband and living off of the fraudulent insurance money. In contrast to Phyllis, Neff is originally depicted as an innocent bystander who gets swept away by her sensual charm and falls prey to her feminine wiles. The establishment of her character within the film’s universe, especially in regards towards her relationship with Neff, define and exemplify Phyllis as a true Femme Fatale. At the very core of a femme fatale is a soft, feminine character that has a rock hard edge, which seems to threaten the system of patriarchy built around her. In understanding the mind of the femme fatale, and her motives, a viewer is typically asked to review her character in relation to …show more content…
men. Double Indemnity often depicts Phyllis as being a sheep in wolf’s clothing. The film builds her up as this overtly sensual woman, capable of luring men into doing her bidding by playing the damsel in distress. This becomes evident when she reveals that her motive behind wanting her husband killed is due to the fact that she’s been abused, but the film never delves further into the topic and it’s immediately written off as irrelevant. This is where the misogynistic tones of the film start to arise, and they can cause a misinterpretation of the significance of Phyllis to the film. Phyllis’s strength as a character comes from her awareness, she’s exceedingly conscious of her sexuality and she’s not naïve towards the effect she has on men. Her first appearance in the film captures her allure, and dominance as she appears naked at the top of the staircase staring down at Neff. She is a combination of both power and sensuality, and her verbal wit is what highlights her as a force to be reckoned with. However, despite the fact that Phyllis appears to have all the power in their relationship, the films actively tries to undermine that strength. Double Indemnity gives the impression that a woman with control is not only dangerous but lethal. The film wants its audience to believe that a world where females are aware of themselves independently from males cannot be sustained, and if such a world were to exist the end result would be a tangled web of destruction. Double indemnity and film noir work to promote an idea that women should remain passive and without acknowledgement of the rights that they have, the same rights that men have been afforded. The role that this noir seems to be enforcing upon women is awfully misogynistic in nature, and it appears as though Double Indemnity is trying to stamp out any feelings of empowerment within its female viewers. However, I’d argue that in spite of those efforts, noir actually manages to foster those very feelings it tries to repress. Interestingly enough, this is done through the same concept, it used to try and break down the construct of empowerment. The Femme Fatale, a character whose very nature is supposed to bring about destruction, is also a perfect role model for females. What makes the Femme Fatale worth emulating are her defining characteristics. To be a femme fatale, you must be a woman that’s self-centered, have an overt sexuality about you, and the ability to effectively seduce and control. These three portions of the femme fatale character are her re-claiming ownership of herself which leads to her gaining an awareness of her worth within society. Typically, these characteristics are condemned by femme fatales misogynistic counterparts, but through them femme fatales actively re-claim their roles in society by expressing their awareness and control. From this arises a woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and one who isn’t afraid to play dirty to level the playing field. The femme fatale isn’t a damsel in distress and her self-attained empowerment as well as ownership embodies the very core of feminism and feminist ideals. Therefore, even though Phyllis is seen playing the victim, what truly makes her a dangerous character isn’t her vulnerability or the way she’s claimed her sexuality for her own, but rather the self-awareness she has over that fact. Phyllis Dietrichson is the ultimate example of a femme fatale, personifying the ideas of female empowerment rather than female oppression. Phyllis doesn’t let herself become defined by a system of patriarchy, instead Phyllis uses the three characteristics to try and achieve her life desires. Throughout Double Indemnity we’re bombarded with hypersexualized moments where the camera catches Phyllis in a state of almost indecency. The first one is when Walter and the audience first spot Phyllis and she’s standing in nothing but a towel; the second time we get a sexualized look at Phyllis is later in that scene where her anklet is showing, and Neff seems to be captivated by it so much that he feels he had to comment on it. Double Indemnity tries to portray the sexuality of Phyllis in a more subtle manner, but the clear sexualization and the fact that Phyllis doesn’t tend to shy away from these moments are her assuming ownership over her in term overtly display her sensuality. Double Indemnity has also managed to cast Phyllis in a self-centered light, and while she does admit that she’s never loved anyone in her life, is she really to blame for wanting to be financially independent and rid of someone who verbally berated and possibly physically abused her? That seems like an understandable thing for a woman in her situation to be feeling. Even though, she may go about it in the wrong way, at least she recognizes that her situation is unhealthy and one she needs to get out of. Phyllis refuses to let the actions of her husband define her, she isn’t a dutiful housewife, but rather someone who should be cherished and her acknowledgement of that is more an act of self-preservation than one of a self-centered nature. While, Double Indemnity tries to demean Phyllis because she’s able to entice Neff and get him to orchestrate a plan for her husband’s death, the blame should really fall upon Neff. Out of the two he’s the weaker character. Neff knew going into the situation that Phyllis was potentially bad news, but ignored his original instinct for her pretty face. However, because he fell for her tricks we blame Phyllis but really I think the issue is that he wasn’t strong enough to stick to his morals and therefore he succumbed to her seduction. To hold the femme fatale solely responsible for the destructive mess, is ignoring a crucial part of the plot and belittling the value and strength of the character. Knowledge, awareness, and self-preservation are all qualities innate within every human, and it’s unfair to demean a character for using those qualities to their advantage. When discussing the archetype of a femme fatale, feminism isn’t normally a topic brought up in association.
However, when deeply analyzing the characteristics of a femme fatale the similarities between the two concepts become clearer. This is especially the case when looking within the noir genre and at films that embody every aspect of noir, such as Double Indemnity. Double Indemnity and noir are perfect examples of how oppressive a film could appear to be at first glance. However, upon a deeper inspection of the Double Indemnity and everything it has to offer, it’s easy to see that although it tries to define and belittle its femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson by her actions against her male counterparts, she’s really the strongest character in the entire film. Her resilience in ensuring she obtains her every desire is what sets her apart. Her actions at first glance could come across as being self-centered, but all Phyllis is truly after is security which is more self-preservation. Phyllis is a character who is exceedingly aware of not only herself as a person, and the power this awareness has over men. Which, that self-awareness, and ownership of one’s body, as well as their ability to take that knowledge and level the vastly unjust playing field is the very core of feminism. Therefore, the femme fatale is not a character that’s needs to be defined by a male. Rather, to truly define a femme fatale characterize her by her own strength and ability to achieve her desires in
life.
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.
However, in Modleski’s analysis of the film, Rear Window, it is apparent that it is the actions of the characters that evaluates and defines their masculinity or femininity. The heroines, Violet and Corky are opposites when it comes to appearance. As it was established, Violet is feminine and Corky is masculine. However, in the film it only initially seems like Violet plays the more passive role and Corky plays the more active role. At the escalation of the film, Violet demonstrates her masculinity and actively uses the male gaze in her
while his wife Bunny and daughter Maude are reminiscent of the two Sternwood daughters, Vivian and Carmen” (Bergan 201). These two women also provide that all-important aspect of the femme fatale. Bunny is the impulsive, sexualized woman who acts without thinking, and lives by the charity of the elderly husband who just can’t tell her no. Maude is the dark, intelligent, manipulative woman. She works in the background, accomplishing what she wants, only telling others what they need to hear for her to get what she wants.
During the 1940’s and 1950’s, a new film genre called Film Noir became popularized. Film Noir translated from French means “black film” which is what these movies were. Some of the characteristics movies in this genre shared were that they were shot in black and white, there was no happy ending, the protagonist was often a war veterans, the plot was ruled on fate, emotions were usually raw, and the theme dealt with the darker side of human nature.
...nd, Neff ironically decides to trust her, providing the brute strength needed to carry out her female machinations. Phyllis is the dangerous dame, the spider woman who lures the hero into her web of lies. She is made a spectacle, as she meets Neff for the first time, wearing nothing but a towel; she is seen from above, at the top of the stairs, a pinnacle of femininity and beauty. However, she is not the fragile creature that she seems, and she uses her sexuality to manipulate Neff into killing her husband. Typical of the women of noir, Phyllis embodies the monstrous feminine, whose hyper-sexuality is a tool to destroy the nuclear family and to castrate the men she encounters. She dismantles the Dietrichsons from the inside, killing the mother to take her place, then her husband, and finally turns Zachetti against Lola, who is supposed to be like a daughter to her.
Since the beginning of time, women have been seen as different from men. Their beauty and charms have been interpreted as both endearing and deadly to men. In the Bible, it was Eve’s mistake that led to humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden. However, unlike in the Bible, in today’s world, women who drive men to ruin do not do so through simple mistakes and misunderstandings, they do so while fully aware of what effects their sexuality can cause. One thing remains constant through these portrayals of women, and that is that they are portrayed as flawed creations and therefore monstrous. It is a woman’s sex drive and sexuality that can lead to her monstrosity. The femme fatale is an enticing, exquisitely beautiful, erotic character who plays the ultimate trick of nature: she displays her beauty, captures the man and goes in for the kill. Films such as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and Sir Gawain the Green Knight use the femme fatale as a means of making a woman into a monster; the femme fatale can never win in the battle of the sexes. But what is it that makes the femme fatale such a dangerously character for the hero as well as the readers or viewers?
portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time
The Blaxploitation films were needed to reshape the past images of slavery. Blacks were exiting the Black Panther and Black Power movement, which the people had become profound to the use of drugs within urban communities. Therefore, the films were produced counter to the rise of drugs. So, the films were used as a framework to create new stereotypes of blacks being big bad drug dealers or pimps. The films were publicized in the media, which produced a greater outcome of people wanted to become the illustration within the films. The films in Blaxploitation often deal with finding solutions of trying to remove cocaine out of the hood, as there was an uproar within the communities. However, films that were produced declared African Americans being the villain, while the women were often degraded to being a sexual object.
Film Noir is a term in French meaning the’black film’. It could not be easily defined as films of this peculiar genre is produced under a particular circumstances during 1939 to late 1950s generally. It was first brought up in 1946 by a French film critic named Nino Frank. Accrdoing to his definition, it was a new trend in crime movies in the Hollywood that contains certain negative aspects such as violence, sexual y motivate and vulgarity with vision of dark and shady in overall. Although the film was produced in 1974 in colour, Chinatown is identified as a noir film with the containment of classic noir-film elements, including the development of a flawed male protagonist and an authority figure, the atmosphere of deceit and hopelessness,
From Jessica Rabbit to Claire Underwood the femme fatale is strong, smart, determined to create their own path, and unconcerned about who must be manipulated to bring about the end they desire. For this reason, I submit that the Maltese Falcon would be a hit today because Bridget is the femme fatale we love to hate but hate to love- one only has to consider the success of the movie Gone Girl to see the possibilities. In Gone Girl the main character Amy is a clever, perfectionist and spurned woman creates her own destiny and her cheating husband Nick is the "sap" who is played- of course she is also off the charts crazy, but that's not the point for this essay. Consumers are still lulled into feeling sad for the poor woman the first half of the movie and just when it seems that our main character has disappeared from the film, it is revealed an exquisite web of lies woven together to make an
In the movie, Double Indemnity, people were tired, sad, and bored. Nevertheless, this shows a good example of what’s good about film noir. As Film Noir shows the dark side of the city. There was a great balance in both dark and light with the lighting. When they times that there were any excited it was most bright while dark in very grim or evil scenes. The scene of Phyllis covered in a towel shows how seductive the character. There was also a strong use of cigars or cigarettes in the film. Additional, gives out that smoky vibe to the film. All the men in the film work while the females stay home and shopping. This example shows how their culture were back in the 1940s and 1950s
Femme fatale women are desirable because they are forbidden. Mia is the wife of Vincent’s boss, and having any relationships with her would lead to Vincent ultimate destruction, and ironically it does. Femme fatale characters have a specific power over men, and usually they allure through a mix of seduction, attraction, and independence. Independence from men is a characteristic that allows femme fatales to be the most destructive towards men. The victims of a femme fatale end up needing and caring for these women, when these women don’t want or need them. This is proven in The Golden Watch segment. After the boxing match. Butch’s opponent is lying dead on the table and Mia is standing by the door. Vincent walks in then immediately asks Mia how she is, implying he was worried about her after her near death experience. This shows great weakness in Vincent, and Mia responds that she is fine acting like the two of them never even met each other. The distance grew stronger, and before that Mia tricks Vincent into his death, like any other good femme fatale. At first we learn a man was thrown out a window due to rubbing Mia’s feet, but later at Vincent and Mia’s dinner she reveals that the only thing she ever did with Antoine Roccamora was shake his
Double Indemnity cuts into the guilty heart and the insanity when situations get out of their control. Phyllis,who is the template for the femme fatale, is broken down as the psychologically manipulative serial killer so obscure in her ways she is close to not even being human and is better described to be a rattlesnake waiting for her prey. She presents herself as a trusting figure, being that she was a head nurse the local hospital and best friend of Mr. Nirdlinger sickly wife, who she let die in her care. Emotion is not capable for someone like Phyllis. The reader already determines she is a vile woman as Huff’s confession develops, and grows to be as repulsed by her. However, Walter comes clean with his confession and overwhelming guilt. Even though he followed the plan from point A to point B, Huff redeems himself by turning in to his boss, in order to protect what is left from his doomed decisions. Even though he is the perpetrator of a gruesome murder, he also falls victim of corruption, by a woman, loveless love and a twisted greater force. Thus leaving readers to trial Huff's actions, there's a tragedy to Cain's writing hidden beneath the raw edge; he clearly feels for Walter but doesn't condone his actions, hence why he builds to such a bitter climactic to Double Indemnity open ending and leaves pending
The article expounds upon the characters: Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy. The author discusses how these female fatales were seen as a threat because of their power and authority. They are objectified because they used their sexuality in order to achieve their goals. For example, Batman recounts to Albert, his butler how Harley Quinn used her sexuality in order to advance her goals to become a psychiatrist during graduate school. In the franchise, the characters exhibit a defiance of societal norms. As a result, the women are portrayed as dangerous and monstrous. However in order to survive in society, they each rely on their displays of sexuality and seduction to advance their motives. For example, Poison Ivy uses her feminine symbols such as kisses and flowers for destructive purposes. The author adds how there are differences between male and female villains, especially when it comes to verbal connotations of labeling. They are often underestimated, especially when fighting men, who are hindrances in the women’s path. However, they are also punished when they are seen as “too powerful”. For example, the Joker punishes Harley Quinn when she comes closer than hi to defeating Batman. These female fatales exemplify what
The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).