Film Noir and Double Indemnity

Errol Morris describes the great Noir films as “films about fall guys”. In the film Double Indemnity there are two fall guys. The first and is Walter Neff who is the sucker that falls in love and kills of the husband thinking he’s going to live happily ever after but ends up taking the fall for the whole conspiracy in the end. The second is Nino Zachetti who was set up to take the fall for the murder Walter committed.

A femme fatale is described as a very smart, powerful, and extremely sexual woman.  Janey Place describes a femme fatale as a woman who “uses her sexuality to get what she’s after and what she’s after is not the man, he’s another tool. What she is after is something for herself. Phyllis’s character in Double Indemnity fits this quote perfectly; she lures Walter in by entering in a towel and flirting with him and later kissing him and saying that she loves him, when really it was all an act to get him to forge the accidental death insurance and murder her husband. She convinces him that it is for both of them when really it was just for her so that she could collect the money on her own making her the typical femme fatale.

Double Indemnity uses many Noir elements in their filming. The first scenes of the movie show Walter entering his office and telling his story into a recorder which narrates the rest of the movie in first person from his perspective.  In the scene where Walter and Phyllis first meet they shoot Phyllis from a low angle and Walter from a high angle putting her in the place of power. The entire movie is dark and shadowy using the Noir type of filming to portray the mystery of Phyllis scheme and the dark side of the characters. The good characters such as Keys are in the light while the mischievous characters such as Walter and Phyllis are in the shadows even when in the same building. The film also uses dramatic music when the tempo picks up you know something is going to happen it gets darker or creepier when the characters are plotting what they want to do or talking in the store.

I hate Memento; I struggle to watch this movie every time I watch it. Memento is an example of neo-noir films in that even though it is a color movie it still uses the use of light and shadows to portray mystery and the good characters from the manipulative ones. It also contains a femme fatale while Natalie is not a typical femme fatale in my opinion she is still using Leonard to get what she wants. We also hear Leonard’s voice over throughout the entire film.