Blog Entry #4: Zero Draft Responses

Out of the qualities Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton used to describe film noir, I chose ambivalence because in Double Indemnity, Walter Neff the protagonist makes a troubled choice to engage in a deadly relationship with secret serial killer, Phyllis Dietrichson. Already having self-internal conflict with his decision, Walter accepts his demise at the beginning of the film and does a voice-over narrative on how it all started. As his story begins to progress, Walter was sort of aware of the possible outcome that would have happen as soon as he planned the murder with Phyllis, as well as the inability of getting away with it without Keyes ever finding out, in which in short time after, he had it all figured out, but did it anyways just to give himself a challenge, so he pretty much pushed himself right over the edge of crazy just because he “fell in love” with a beautiful woman who thinks of herself as Death. What’s even worse is that after the murder he realizes his relationship is growing apart instead of bringing them closer and has mixed feelings and ideas, thanks to her step-daughter Lola, that now Phyllis plans to kill Walter, but not before he did it first. Although, Phyllis did shoot him first and gave him a bloody wound, which eventually he bled so much he died. What a tragic scene, but yet a satisfying end to a film noir classic with a protagonist who was unable to chose between his course of life or death.  In my opinion, the protagonist went beyond his threshold of living a life of every day is exactly the same, letting lust and desire consume him to love a woman who simply killed to get ahead which led him to his doom and demise.     

With the provided descriptions of the cinematic qualities involved in film noir from the article “Ten Shades of Noir” of the online journal In Focus, many matching scenery took place in the film, Double Indemnity. For example, during the title sequence, the man on crutches hobbling towards the camera, Walter’s monologue in his dark office at the beginning of the movie, the murder scene at night in the car and at the railroad tracks where Walter and Phyllis were placing the dead corpse of Mr. Dietrichson or Nirdlinger, or the part where Keyes is leaving Walter’s small apartment, at the same time hiding Phyllis behind the door casting a dark shadow over her symbolizing her true color while creating a barrier in their not too distant future relationship, which eventually leads into the final confrontation between them in Mr. Dietrichson’s dark living room with very little light shedding through the Venetian blinds of the windows of the house allowing the viewer to expect a very dramatic moment as soon as Phyllis plants a gun under the pillow of the couch she is sitting in. All of these are evident descriptions in Double Indemnity that show true visual form and content of film noir at its best.