Compare The Way In Which 'Double Indemnity' And 'Blade Runner' Use Film Noir Conventions.

Authors Avatar

Sam Rawson E7                Started on: Sunday 26th January 2003

                                Completed on: Sunday 9th February 2003

Compare The Way In Which ‘Double Indemnity’ And ‘Blade Runner’ Use Film Noir Conventions

Introduction

In 1944, shortly after the Second World War, a flood of American films could be found in France.  The critics noticed many recurrent images throughout these B-movies, which were smaller films shown before the main feature.  The films became known as a genre: film noir.

Film noir is French for ‘black films’.  We tend to relate the colour black to death and pessimistic thoughts.  This ties in with the negative theme of the films and the outlook of the characters.

The physical symbols that make up the genre of these films include mirrors, staircases, Venetian blinds, fire escapes, telephones and bright neon lights.  The camera shots are often dramatic and very angular, and among the scenes used are rain-lashed streets, fog-bound train stations and empty echoing buildings.  The use of lighting is a very important feature of these films and contains very sharp contrasts of light and darkness.  This is known as chiaroscuro lighting.  The empty echoing building shows how alone the people in this world feel

Plot Summaries

Summary of ‘Double Indemnity’

The story converges around top insurance salesman Walter Neff.  The narrative is told by the use of male voice over (MVO) and flashback.  Neff meets the seductive Phyliss Dietrichson and after a few meetings they confess their love for one another.  Phyliss convinces him that they should kill her husband so they can share the double indemnity claim.  Double indemnity is a clause in an insurance policy that doubles the payment in cases of accidental death.  Neff kills Mr. Dietrichson and throws his body onto the train tracks, whilst posing as him.  This made it look as if Mr. Dietrichson died by falling off the train.  Neff’s boss, Barton Keyes, suspects that something is wrong.

Neff visits the Dietrichson household, and both himself and Phyliss are planning to shoot one another.  Phyliss manages to shoot him first, but only in the leg.  He shoots her twice and she is dead.

We then go back to Neff recording this story into his Dictaphone and see Keyes in the doorway.  Neff tries to escape but collapses in a doorway (because of his wound) as Keyes telephones the police.

Summary of ‘Blade Runner’

The film is a Neo-Noir, which is modern version of the traditional film noir.  This narrative is not told by use of flashback, but as the story progresses with MVO.  ‘Blade Runner’ centres on the mysterious Deckert.  He is an ex-bladerunner; people who track down and retire (kill) the replicants.  He is rehired by his old boss to track down and kill four replicants: Zhora, Roy, Leon and Pris.  These replicants were made by Tyrrel and have been made with a four-year life span.  He also made another replicant, Rachel, who does not actually know that she is a replicant because she had memories implanted into her brain. The replicants want to find a way to prevent their demise and go in search of a way to do this.  Deckert kills Zhora, Roy and Rachel shoots Leon, then Roy dies at the end.  Deckert and Rachel leave the city on a train.

Characters

Women

The femme fatale seduces men to get them to do what she wants.  She may say that she is in love, but it is all a ruse for her benefit.  Though the women in film noir are predominately these manipulative individuals, some also fall into the category of the nurturing mother figure.  Nurturing mother figures truly love the man they say they are in love with and care for him deeply.

What’s In A Name?

In ‘Double Indemnity’, the femme fatale is Phyliss Dietrichson, although throughout the film she is referred to as Phyliss.  A couple of times at the beginning, Neff calls her Mrs Dietrichson, but from then on she is called ‘baby’ or other clichés.  The fact that she is known by different names reflects upon the idea that she is two-faced, and as Neff only begins calling her by different names after he has got to know her, this says that she is not what she may seem at first: she is not a caring wife.

Her first name, Phyliss is English and German and is the name of a minor character in Greek mythology who killed herself for love and was transformed into an almond tree; the Greek word ‘phyllis’ means foliage, so clearly her name doomed her from the start.  Though Phyliss Dietrichson may not have killed herself for love, Neff kills her partially because he thought she loved him and she did not.  Her name suggests her destiny at the end (being killed) right from the start.  The fact that the Greek word ‘phyllis’ means foliage also insinuates that she is actually rather weak, however strong she portrays herself to be.

Her surname I also believe is quite important.  ‘Dietrich’ is German for ‘picklock’.  A picklock is someone who picks locks, and this ties in with her manipulating Neff into getting what she wants: her husband dead.  Her name is German and at the time of production the Germans were still not (to put it politely) England’s favourite people in the world.  Therefore upon hearing her surname, the English would associate her with the Germans and have an evil perception of her before she even spoke.

Join now!

The femme fatale in ‘Blade Runner’ is Rachel, a replicant.  But she is not as obviously the femme fatale as Phyliss; she has many qualities of the nurturing mother figure as well.  She has no surname that we know of, same as all the other characters in this film.  Her forename is a biblical name meaning ‘ewe’ in Hebrew. This was borne by the beloved wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and of Benjamin, at whose birth she died.  The fact that the name comes from the bible in a positive fashion already says that she is not ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Avatar

This is not a legitimate conclusion to the essay, based upon its title. what is required is a brief precis of the manner in which the two films either conform to or subvert the codes and conventions of the genre. Equally, the speculation upon whether Deckard is a replicant is irrelevant, unless you want to tie it into a discussion of masculine stereotypes in film noir (in which case it becomes very interesting indeed!) Finally, the sub-headings that are used to structure the essay are not necessary. I actually think that the structure itself is very good as a result of the logical progression imposed by those headings, but it would still have been so if they'd been removed. A better solution is to tell the reader right at the beginning of the essay: I will analyse the male and female characters and compare them to the stereotypes expected in the genre, and look briefly at the aesthetic and symbolic content of elements of the mise en scene, including the use of lighting and design to create mood, meaning and character... There is some excellent research and some intelligent reflection throughout the essay, and there is even the beginning of a critical appraisal of the ideological schemata of the genre e.g. you've noticed how misogynistic and pessimistic is the world-view it presents. 3 stars