The femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson from “Double Indemnity” was attracted me, she and insurance agent Walter Neff who is the hero in the film, conspired to kill her husband in order to get a huge indemnity, and the purpose of doing so is because cannot stand with her husband, wanted to escape the shackles of the family. Femme fatale is beautiful and sexy, for men, she is dangerous. Since she can bring a man completely different feeling, so that men are willing attracted, be tempted, so took the road of betrayal of the family, so she must be punished in order to restore and maintain the balance of the traditional family system. In the film “Double Indemnity”, the insurance agent Walter Neff was outset by femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson’s temptation, with her plan and execute the murder, but in the end, he found Phyllis Dietrichson was trying to kill him too, he took the money and left, he shot Phyllis Dietrichson the lady who was already conquered by him without any hesitation. With respect to the boring stability of family life, although femme fatale touches men’s heart, but never assume the role of wife.

1984/film noir

obstacles in front of film noir protagonists/Winston

surveillance –
cf. NSA

trying to protect us

“to a certain extent, we do have freedom of speech”
as long as you don’t go against the government

for our safety

militarization of police

surveillance cameras

newspeak – purpose is to limit thought

Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish

discipline selves

internalize gaze

trust — government

whether we like it or not, we’ve always been watched

should privacy exist?

dystopic

Brazil – differences, similarities

In this 1944 American Film Noir film the protagonist Phillip Marlowe is hired by Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma Valento since he was released from jail. As the story goes on Phillip is dragged into a bigger problem than he originally though. He witnesses a murder of someone trying to get back his jewelry. Then has Marlowe goes in deeper he sees there is more to the store then a lost girlfriend. Phil meets Helen Grayle his femme fatale who turns out to be Velma. She has coned an older man into marrying her and plans to kill him and take his money. He tries to stop it and in the end Moose, Mr. Grayle and Velma end up dying in an odd love triangle. But Marlowe ends up getting Ann Grayle the girl he has had his eye on since the beginning of the movie.

“The Set Up” is a film noir centered around boxing, the intense movies protagonist goes by the name, “Stoker” who is a aging boxers nearing the end of his fighting career and thinks he’s only a fight away from breaking his streak of bad luck. The film opens and closes with the same shot, across the street from a dark Paradise City and a clock. The dressing room where all the boxers rested before and after the fights was filled with emotions. You could clearly see who was nervous, who was excited, and who was worried. Each person in the room is specifically portrayed to be a certain way, from a overly confident fighter, to a young new fighter who’s nerves are rattling. This movie was half persistence and half romance. The fighting scenes were lengthy and as real as possible, they were almost like watching a real fight. However even though Stoker is standing strong punch after punch he cant seem to get over the fact his wife did not come to support his show which is the first time during their marriage that she has done this. Throughout the fight Stoker peeks back towards the seat he saved her in the fourth row anxiously, but she never shows up.

Midterm dicussion

1984

— compare Winston to some of the noir protagonists that we’ve seen.

Similarities
—– cf. Sam Spade — diff. from all others around him; diff. purpose than those around him following rules;
—– cf. Dix in Asphalt Jungle – dream of horse farm – cf. Winston’s dream — family, real love
—– cf. protagonists w/femme fatale — cf. Julia –
—– masks his feelings — cf. sam spade
—– alone a lot
— Walter Neff doing one job, working against it on the side; Winston working for the Ministry, wants change
— Winston’s personal quest — diary —

Can we consider Winston a detective of sorts w/in his own society? looking for clues to past, to see through the party’s lies
— cover-up — perpetrated by autocratic government
— winston putting 2 and 2 together
— looking for clues, leaving clues

Differences
—– W. wants others to take charge — more passive from film noir protagonists — more aggressive, take charge
—– physically — in film noir – 20s, 30s — strong. Winston 39 — has ailment, acts old — sees himself as ugly>
— film noir protagonists tend to work for themselves;
W. works for party
— noir protagonists – need to find evidence; W.’s job involves destroying evidence (rewriting records/history)
— their job is to find the truth, his job is to alter it

— compare the settings between 1984 and some of the noir texts we’ve seen/read
— urban cityscape — W. still in large city
— both corrupt societies
— contrast – noir films – dirty, gritty part of city and luxury environments. gave people lower down something to aspire to. in oceania, everyone lives in dirty dilapated broken-down environment — nothing to aspire to
— two settings – proles and party figure

— tensions between the individual and society in 1984/noir texts

– W. resents party for rewriting history – newspeak, doublethink
— applauds wrongdoers – people going against the government
— but doesn’t have the courage to stand to stand up on his own
— Sam Spade – stuck between the law, trying to prove his case and what happened to his partner — cf. Winston – putting on face for the party, also trying not to forget information from the past –
— Thought police
— W. wants relationships, wants to feel loved. cf. noir protagonists
— police vs. thought police. in noir – some corrupted. not about reporting to govt as own personal gain
— thought police can be the neighbor, know not to trust them
— VISIBILITY
— thought police – pure surveillance

ambiguity
noir – don’t know who is good or evil. cf.
— doublethink – thoughts ambigious

— language – what is distinctive about noir language? how does language differ in 1984?

— 1984 – creating Newspeak, dumbed-down version of english so that ppl can’t express
— expressed in negative things vs. the good

— language in noir is usually direct == shocking in its directness

— doublethink – opposite == FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

— find three separate paragraphs or lines in 1984 that you think the class should discuss as a whole

The Set-Up is a 1949 film noir movie that is based on American boxing, it is starring Robert Ryan as Stoker Thompson, and Audrey Totter as Julie Thompson his wife. This is unlike all of the other film noirs we have watched in class because it is not solely based on crime, and murder like the others are. This is based on fixing a boxing match, between two boxer’s managers, and one boxer learning the consequence of not going through with the fix.

We are introduced to Stoker Thompson an older boxer way past his prime fighting to keep his head afloat and he has the mentality that he is only one big win away from a title shot. His wife does not want to hear it, she has been dealing with this for too long and is tired of seeing him get beaten badly. Throughout the movie you go through a perfect image of a film noir city/ setting. There is a lot of perfect silence throughout the film that really drives the point of certain scenes. It starts out in a dingy lockeroom for Stoker contemplating his fight and hoping his wife shows up. As he enters the ring with a young gun he realizes that Julie is not there, which then leads him to fighting his heart out for Julie to prove that he is not done that he has more fight left in him. His manager sees that he is clearly winning each round and may have a shot at beating him in the third round he tells Stoker take a dive that if you do not we will be in a lot of trouble. He is not going to take a dive he does not find that satisfactory. His manager and trainer leaves before the fight is over because he nearly has won and it’s inevitable that the knock out is going to come.

As the fight is over and he is approached by the other manager and gangster he realizes how much trouble he actually is in, and it is time for him to leave without being seen. He finds a door to an alley but eventually gets caught. As they hold him down he gets beaten so badly they even break his hand to the point he cannot fight anymore. Julie is worried she looks out the window to see Stoker in the gutter by the arena and rushes to his aid. Stoker realizes the stupid thing he has done and comes to the conclusion that his career as a boxer is over. This was a really good movie in my opinion I enjoyed it, I liked the change of pace it had as a film noir genre there was not that much murder and you reflected with Stoker through the whole movie. The movie device of silence was well placed throughout the movie and really made it complete.

Out of the Past is a film noir that was released in 1947 starring Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey, and Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat. This was one of my favorite film noirs we have watched in the class for many reasons. The story was great for starters, but I enjoyed how they retold Jeff Bailey’s past. It was also a change of pace compared to other film noir movies there were crimes and murder but the way they introduced it in the story was enjoyable. There is the classic film noir characteristics in this movie such as shadow, sleazy characters, questionable motives and actions.

Jeff Bailey is introduced as a gas station attendant that is trying to live his life then as the movie stats his past comes for him, an old friend stops by and tells Jeff that an old employer of his Whit Sterling wants to meet with him and to go to this address. As he is on his way to Sterling’s house he tells his current girlfriend the history that has led up to this meeting. She is worried for him since she thinks he is going to be murdered for having something to do with Jack Fisher’s death and not being honest that he found Kathie while in Mexico. Jeff is surprised to see Kathie there and realizes that Whit knows the whole story that Kathie, Jeff’s femme fatale has double crossed him while taking the money and now Whit wants Jeff dead. As the story goes on Jeff realizes that it is Kathie at the root of all the problems. Jeff returns to Whit’s house to find him dead and Kathie with the smoking gun, so Jeff calls the police because he knows he is next. Kathie takes Jeff and all the money and leaves and encounters the police on the way out she shoots Jeff then she gets shoot resulting in their deaths. As the movie comes to a close Ann questions if Jeff ever loved him or was he still in love with Kathie his femme fatale.

Jeff Baliey makes for a great film noir character with morals, and a heart as he is trying to remake his life and escape his past it catches up to him and leads to his demise.

Double Indemnity is a movie filmed in 1944 starring Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, and Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Deitrichson. The term Double Indemnity stands for a type of clause in certain insurance policies that pays double when the death is caused by a certain accidental means. This is a perfect example to a film noir for many reasons. Some of those reasons are that they follow a certain character doing unmoral things, and being dragged in by his femme fatale, also the shadows and sleazy settings throughout the movie, the places they meet and interact, and even how they organize and go through with the murder.

The film starts off with us being introduced to Walter Neff and trying to renew Phyllis’s husband car insurance and she inquires about accident insurance. Walter is then dragged into an elaborate murder organized by both parties. As they complete the murder, Walter realizes what he has done and tries to fix some of his mistakes by not getting certain people in trouble, confusing his mistakes so after he dies the truth will be known, and he even goes as far as killing Phyllis the women who he thought he loved throughout the movie. A classic line from this movie is who knew murder smelled like sweet honey suckle which symbolizes he was drawn in by her sweet scent and beauty, then committed a murder that was not warranted of a man that did nothing wrong. As the movie ends his boss Keyes catches him and calls the police and the movie ends on the scene of him possibly enjoying his last cigarette and bleeding out. This movie has a classic story line that was adapted from the novel written James M. Cain it will be enjoyed for many years to come and still recognized as one of the best film noirs every created.

As a classic film noir, “The set-up” has the elements of such a character: the hero through their own efforts to win a resounding success, but his final outcome is a significant and disastrous failure. But Stoker is different than Walter Neff in “Double Indemnity”, the theme of this story is also different than those murder types of film noir, Stoker failed not because of moral and legal norms beyond “personal struggle” caused, on the contrary, although he failed, but won dignity. However, in this dirty town and this dirty boxing gym, people vent by trying to watch other people’s physical abuse, the result is eternal boring after a brief comfort to him.

The screenwriter of the film created many really interesting and key secondary characters, especially the man tussle that was made ​​out of control, standing stands hoarse middle-aged woman, this impressive supporting cast so profound that her extremely ruthless compares to Stoker’s extremely depressed wife in stark contrast. And that blind guy, and the fat guy was sitting in the stands and kept putting popcorn  into his mouth, also a man was in emotional excitement, completely ignoring his wife around him, why they are so in love with boxing? They obviously do not respect what the sport ideals, they all have their own lives, but without exception, and came to this place to vent ruthless internal stress and anguish.

This semester we were introduced to noir with the film Maltese Falcon. In the film our protagonist is Samuel Spade who is accused of killing his partner Miles whom he is not very fond of. The film also includes a femme fatale Miss Wanderly. In the story an important puzzle piece would be the Original Maltese Falcon model that everyone seems to want their hands on.