Blog #7

Both of these stories were interesting, but if I had to choose one to recommend I would choose "The Method". This story was very interesting to me because a woman narrated it and the plot was very twisting. I knew early on that something along the lines of someone dying was going to happen, but that is only because we have been studying noir. With the death aspect, this story fits with noir very well. I think that even people that have no idea what noir is would enjoy this story because there are so many details included and you can see the story playing out in your mind. I thought it was an easy read and it caught my attention from the first few pages.I thought that "Morocco Junction" was boring and it just did not catch my attention. I did see a lot of aspects of noir but I was not interested in the story at all. The way that "The Method" was written was so different from a lot of short stories that I've read before. The setting was not a typical murder story setting and since everything was easy to understand, you could imagine everything as you were reading it.

Blog #6

This article confused me because it was so long and there was so much information in it. At one point I did not know if the article was still talking about neo-noir or about an overview of Fight Club. What I got from the article was that neo-noir has the same aspects as noir, but it was based more towards todays culture and todays audience. The aspects from noir are taken and turned into more fitting scenarios of today. Also that films are made today that are based in the 40s and 50s but are still more fitted for our audiences today and are geared more towards our lives today. A big aspect that is used in neo-noir is feminism and masculinity because our culture today regarding these topics is much different than it was a long time ago. This is where the Fight Club references came in in the article. I also learned about postmodernism and this was a confusing topic for me. What I got out of it was that postmodernism is that it is the difference between what is real and what can be reality. That a person would have to determine what is real and what is portrayed as real. I think that noir and neo-noir are similar because they share the same type of rubric. However neo-noir is much more modernized in a way. Neo-noir is more directed to our lives now so that we can relate. The same aspects from the 40s noir are seen in neo-noir, but neo-noir introduces different aspects that we can relate to.

Blog #5

 The article that I read was Multiple Indemnity written by Penelope Pelizzon. This article talks about the time period that film noir started and it also gives a little background about the film Double Indemnity. I liked the beginning of this article because it talked about the original ending to the film. The original ending was supposed to show Walter entering the gas chamber for execution and the film ends with shots of Keyes face showing multiple horrified faces. The article states that this ending was changed because it was too gruesome for Hollywood at the time and it had to be changed. I think that this ending would have been much better for the film and the book. To me both endings that we saw just do not end with a bang. Excuse the pun. But I do feel that this ending is more appropriate for the world today since there is really nothing that films do not show now. Although this article was not really about how noir relates to the novel or film, I chose it because I have parts of it that I can use for my paper.

Blog 4: Zero Draft

   There seem to be a set of rules that come along with what classifies film noir as noir. Double Indemnity definitely shows these qualities, but in some ways the novel did not seem as dark as the film. The ending of the novel seemed awkward, like it just did not belong. It was as if the original writer was fired and a different writer took over and finished the book. In the novel, we do not see that Mr. Neff is dying, but since we have an idea of what noir is, we assume that he is dying or will die. The more classical style of noir would have illustrated someone dying or someone that has already died. In the film, we see immediately that Mr. Neff is dying, and I believe that this follows noir more. In the ending of the novel, we do not see Mr. Neff die but we see him very close to death and it is assumed that he does die. The end of the novel is very vague and confusing. It is assumed that he will die but that assumption is based entirely off of knowing what noir entails. The ending in the novel seemed much more peaceful and it is as if he is accepting his death, but in the film he at least tries to escape and does not want to accept that he is going to die. Since noir involves darkness, death, and despair I believe that the films ending was definitely more appropriate for noir.
   I think it was entirely appropriate for Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton to classify Double Indemnity as, "nightmarish". The entire storyline seems nightmarish. Everything starts out promising but soon turns to hopelessness and distress. Just like a dream, all of your inner most desires come out and start to tantalize your mind. All of a sudden, everything takes a turn and becomes very horrifying. Just like for Walter Neffs' story. He saw everything in front of him and he saw an advantage to take for his happiness even though he knew how dangerous it was. Walter felt that he had total control over the situation. He felt like he had everyone just melting in his hands. As soon as he found out that he was indeed not the person in charge, he immediately saw his world crash and become extremely frightening. As with every nightmare, he just wanted to wake up and see everything disappear. The worst part of Walters' nightmare however, was that he could not wake up.
 

Blog Two: Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity is a very fascinating book. My first thoughts when hearing about this book were just that it was some regular, basic school text. Having read pages 1-70 I now know that I was wrong. To me this book definitely fits in as film noir. Obviously because of the time frame the theme is black and white. Is it the classical story of a sexy seductress wanting to kill her husband for money, and by using a man to help her she is setting the story up as film noir in all aspects. As Ansen and Weingarten stated in "The Neo-Noir '90s", "but noir is a stylistic safety blanket that lets us deal with crime and chaos without saying whats really on our minds." This statement definitely shows true for Double Indemnity because lets face it, who hasn't thought of killing their husbands for money? That is such a dark, uncaring thought, and it just shows how related this book is to noir. The entire book gives off a sense of darkness, secrets, lies, sex, corruption, and danger. Another aspect that proves this book fits with noir is how the widow puts on this facade that shes happy. She has the big house, the luxuries, the money-making husband, and the sex appeal to woo any man. Behind the scenes she is not happy, she seems a little insane to kill a man for money, she uses her sex appeal to draw in a middle class man with no drive, and although she looks innocent enough she has all of the aspects of a very dangerous woman. I will definitely be finishing this novel today, it is very interesting.

New Neo Noir '90s

The first time that I ever heard about noir was from Mr.Toth. I had no idea what this word meant, but I was intrigued immediately because of how interested he seemed in it. After reading the article "The New Noir 90s", I have almost a total understanding of the basics of noir. Noir is something that I have always loved. It is the dark, sultry, crime-infested, rebel against whats right attitude. Film noir is classified as black and white films that show the dark, sexy, dangerous side of how things were going in the '40s and '50s. Everything was supposed to be pleasant and the goal feeling of those eras was the perfect, white, loving, family life. Film noir showed a different side to this. The tone of these films is dark, dangerous, sexy, and menacing. Most of this style came from novelists from Europe, who brought over the noir style, and directors soon took over to film noir to show a different view of society. Noir is also shown to be a sort of fashion. The dark dresses, the cigarettes, the black heels, and the red lipstick. When film noir became popular again in the '70s and '80s, people were not as intrigued and it seemed that directors were only resurrecting noir for the nostalgic effect. In a way, noir is a way to let out that dark and dirty side that everyone has but they don't want to show. I still have so much more to learn about noir, but I am very excited to further my knowledge on this subject because lets face it, who doesn't love a good crime infested, dangerous, sexy film?