Double Indemnity - Chimezie Ononenyi
Double indemnity is an interesting movie that tells a story of the times. Several film noir was also applied in order to get the point of the movie across. The one particular film noir that stood out was femme fatale. Knowing that it was not accepted to view women’s bare skin in the 40’s, one would agree that femme fatale was a genre of its own; it would stand out as opposed to today’s Hollywood movies that almost contain some aspect of femme fatale in every single one.
It was not hard to tell that Walter would fall for Phyllis and her murder plan after a few seconds of her appearing on screen. The first shot of her did the job. Not only that the camera was shot from below her, looking up at her like it was a sunshine that Walter could not resist looking up to. There is no doubt that she is a very good looking female. Her facial expression and her body language while responding to Walter definitely shows that she had him. Another femme fatale ‘fatal’ hit to Walter was displayed through the angle of the camera shot of her coming down the stairs to sitting with legs crossed. The bare skin and the cigarette even made the hit more powerful. Walter fell for her and was willing to do anything to take her away from her husband. There is no doubt that femme fatale did not play a big role.
Double indemnity is a positive characterization of women during the time the movie was produced. Knowing that it was a time when women had not much power in the society, it is understandable that femme fatale was one strength that they had to rely on in order to get what they want. If it was not for her sexual ways to getting him to agree with her, Walter probably would not agree with her murder plan.