Film Noir - Double Indemnity Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is almost like a basic outline for the Film Noir genre. Film noir settings normally take place in city streets, railway stations, the underground, warehouses or even bars. These atmospheres create a scary feeling and with the big amount of space, it leaves many hidden mysteries or secrets. Other genres can be based nearly anywhere and still create the same impression, but with the use of equal lighting on the setting and characters the impression of Film Noir is made. The many Film Noir conventions through characters is seen in Double Indemnity.
Film noirs in the 1940s and 50s were like no other, filled with intricate plots and alluring characterizations. Characters tend to be vengeful, through brute violence. Stories were told from the point-of-view of the protagonist, in a flashback sequence where the crime has already been committed. Billy Wilder, made some of the greatest Hollywood film noirs, creating some of the most interesting characters in Classical Hollywood cinema, most notable the femme fatale. Billy Wilder, known for his dark film noirs, such as Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), always featured dangerous women involved in crimes of passion.
Many adult actions occur throughout the movie that causes young Eve to begin to change and reform. Issues involved include: terror, jealousy, violence, death, abductions, seduction of virtuous young women in the sentimental novel tradition, and revelations of crimes and punishments. Eve’s Bayou is a classic example of good vs. evil and has a central theme and focus of the movie’s structure. The movie opens with an ominous black and white scene. This scene shows us bits and pieces of what seems like a vision.
The crime writing genre is an ever-changing entity. Its conventions can be subverted to reflect the values of the context it was written in. Crime writing explores the unraveling of mystery from different angles. The different angles may be a reflection of the crime composer’s context and values. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 crime film Rear Window exposes values of the 1950s American society through a plotline that explores voyeurism and gender roles.
Compare Killing Orders with traditional noir detective fiction, there are many similarities since Killing Orders still classified with the hardboiled detective fiction genre. The narrator V.I. Warshawski as a realistic and tough hardboiled detective, as well as the corruption of the society all show up in the noir detective fiction including Killing Orders. However, the representation of women in the Killing Orders makes it distinct from others, where the book is at its best. V.I.
Psychological disorders are often depicted in movies and literature to give certain characters strange, unusual, or destructive qualities. These characters can create the perfect amount of intrigue for a work, and take it to a new level. There is no better example of this than the disorders show by the characters in the Batman franchise. In fact Batman has become known for its antagonists, whose destructive tendencies constantly create havoc for the hero. So no truer statement could be made than, the characters in the Batman comics and movies, are dependent on psychological disorders.
You have the “boss” or head man in charge who will lead to his own destrucution. Although all the movies may be similar they are different in many ways. Two of the top films are Scarface starring Al pacino and A Bronx Tale starring Robert Dinero. Although both movies illustrate crime, violence, mobs, drugs, and women they are very much different in the appraches they take.
Film Noir – The Protagonist Nicky Khilnani An Introduction to Film Noir To fully understand the characteristics of a particular component of ‘Film Noir’, it is essential that we also firstly understand the basis upon which ‘Film Noir’ was initially established as a genre within the Film Industry. ‘Film Noir’ isn’t really a genre of film on its own but merely a coined term literally meaning ‘Black Film’ or ‘Dark Film’ which refers to a class of Hollywood features produced between the 1940’s and 1950’s respectively, that were based particularly on Detective or Crime-related films. The genre of these films can easily be classed as Suspense films or Thrillers. They were introduced as feature films progressively during the 1940’s after the Second World War. Feature films produced in the USA only got a chance to spread to most of Europe after the mid 1940’s and after many war stories were exchanged between these European nations and the USA, films produced in America tended to have a darker side to them with cinematography and directory of the same being heavily influenced by themes incipient as death.
Throughout the film, we see how Kazan uses different shades of lighting to accentuate the harsh lifestyle the characters are situated in. At the very beginning, viewers are made to feel unwelcome by the bleak, murky streets and alleyways that were filmed in lowlight. Not only does this suggest that the dock adopts an uneasy environment, it also adds a sense of mystery; in which ‘behind’ such darkness lies the corruption of Johnny Friendly’s (the antagonist) union. The dark representation of Hoboken essentially implies that the dockworkers and residents within the town are being ‘overshadowed’ and controlled by a hidden force, living an uneasy lifestyle. Kazan’s decision to make the film black and white also aids in portraying these elements.
More importantly, it must offer some insight into the social, political and moral climate of its era. Crime stories often use many different forms of the previous forms of crime fiction. The development, adaptations and re-evaluations of crime novels from comedy to tragedy, from depictions of our society to the exploration of an individual; the crime genre is now a genre that incorporates many other genres. Philip Marlowe from ˜The Big Sleep' written by Raymond Chandler, film directed by Howard Hawks has been used to show the corrupt world of his time decayed with drugs, sex, blackmail, gamblers, murders and pornographers. He is portrayed as an honest detective in a corrupt world.