Film Noir - Eric Nelson
Film noir is less of a genre and more of a dialogue. It defies classification and is more of an idea, or rather many ideas. These ideas include censorship versus the reality of society, racial diversity, film techniques, the use of lighting to foreshadow the type of events to come, and the femme fatale.
The only minority I can recall from the movie was the guy washing the car. This shows that minorities didn’t get star roles and paints a pretty good picture of the type of jobs they held.
Phyllis’s character portrays the femme fatale to perfection. She is cunning and seductive. This lady knows what she wants and how to get it. She is a first-rate liar and an expert in the art of manipulation. She acts subservient, but is really in control at all times. One could argue against this and say that she is in a subservient position because she can’t get anything without the use of men and she has to serve men in order to get what she wants. However, I think as the femme fatale she is really not doing anything she doesn’t want to because if she didn’t want to do something, then she wouldn’t do it. All of these characteristics make her a great femme fatale, but they also leave a negative impression of women. It makes women look like lying, self-serving, deviants.