"Knowing what you are doing is doomed and ... doing it." Was the first quote that I heard in the documentary named Film Noir . Unfortunately it did not name the person who said it, but this is one of the quotes that are spot on to the explanation of the movie Double Indemnity. In the movie the main character, Walter Neff, knows as an insurance agent that there is no way to get around his manager and "father figure", Barton Keyes, with insurance fraud. Keyes has a sense for peoples trying to commit fraud. Yet Mr. Neff is drawn in by the sexual anticts of Phyllis Dietrichson.
A couple of other quotes that reflect the "Film Noir-ishness" of Double Indemnity are one by Director Abraham Polonsky. He said about the main characters, "if they are reflecting The general sense of anxiety if life, which exsists in all film noir, then it is a correct representation of the anxiety caused by the system. How circumstances become more and more unendurable but some how you must endure." He is right in this explanation for in Double Indemnity, Neff's situation is unendurable more and more throughout the movie, but he must endure or he will get caught. The second quote was by Director Errol Morris, he said in the documentary "films about fall guys, a person who is caught in the net, the more he struggles the deeper and deeper he becomes intwined in nightmare." Neff's nightmare does not end unitl his life ends.
In the documentary many Directors go over the definition of a femme fatale. Director Janey Place says a femme fatale is "very Smart, very powerful and she is extremely sexual. She uses her sexuality to get what she is after, and what she is after is not the man in the picture, he is another tool what she is after is something for herself." Phyllis Dietrichson, the main woman character in the movie Double Indemnity. She wants money and she will use Neff to get what she wants. She uses her sexuality to get Neff to do commit an insurance fraud for her husband's money, because she knows that this is the only way to get money. In his death all his money will go to his daughter and none to Phyllis and she must find a way to to get around this. Another Director, Marie Windsor, says a femme fatale will "get a man into bed, then into trouble" and this is exactly what Phyllis does to Neff.
The world of Film Noir is dark and mysterious, hence the term Film Noir, which means Film Black. There is extreme contrast in the setting and the lighting of the films. Director John Bailey explained that in Film Noir the lighting is set "using the lights in a small dramatic frame." Another Director, Katheryn Bigelow, said that Film Noir displays "the trapped character. there is no light, there is no escape." Which means the character has no light and therefore reflects that there is no light at the end of the journey for them either. Director John Bailey talks about the Film Noir characteristics in camera usage as a "deep focus, wide visual feel behind the actors to the see the background". Director Andre de Toth said "Shooting on location is a must for Film Noir, because it is reality." This is true in that Film Noir is trying to show the reality in human life and thought. The music in most Film Noir movies are dark and dramatic. To reflect the world that the characters are living in. A dark and doomed existence. In the movie Double Indemnity, the music score was very on tact. An example would be the scene with the death. It starts out slow and quiet and builds up to the death. To enhance the climatic scene, then it slows down as Neff and Phyllis pull the "con", but raises up again at the main part, the jump. The music allows the audience to experience how dramatic the movements of the characters are.
In both Film Noir and also in Neo-noir the story is told in narration and therefore has narrators. Whether it be in first person by the protagonist or in third person by an omniniscient voice. Another similarity would be the use of mise-en-scene. In both the films are set in a way for the audience to see the world of the characters. To know how they are feeling and to their actions. The last would be the sound and music in both films are set in a way where it sets the story for the audience. It clues the audience on clues to the climax or other important scenes and story plots.
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