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?