Film Analysis: Cinematic and Literary Influences - Essay Example

Film Analysis: Cinematic and Literary Influences Introduction The film Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944) is a Hollywood film directed by Billy Wilder. The script was created by Wilder and Raymond Chandler. As far as literary influence is concerned, the film is based on James M. Cain’s short novel with the same title. The novella had appeared in the form of an eight-episode serial in Liberty, a popular contemporary magazine. So, referring to the literary genre, the theme of Double Indemnity is largely based on crime thriller (Chandler, 2002). But as a film, the cinematic sphere of this movie is much wider and even complicated at certain sequences and instances throughout the script. Film experts like Naremore (2007), Schatz (1999), etc. have marked this movie as one that was considerably influenced by European cinema. According to Naremore (2007, p. 88), Double Indemnity is highly influenced by the culture and cinematic approach of the Weimar Germany – “not so much in its photographic style (which reviewers of the time compared with the prewar French cinema), but in its imagery of Fordist Amerika.” However, it should be mentioned here that the film is based on an American novella written in American backdrop. Experts like Schatz (1999) acknowledge the effect of a passive German influence from a wider perspective with more American input. Schatz (1999, pp. 236-238) holds that Double Indemnity can be analyzed as a movie of the “War Era”, when Nazi Germany emerged as a prime enemy of the nation. Primarily, the film is still remembered as a trend setter in the genre of mid twentieth century film noir (Palmer, 1994) developed in the format of a stylized crime drama combining sexual motivations, alienations of urban life, and psychological twists. Representation of Urban Life Experts like Naremore (2007) have emphasized on the mechanistic treatment of the plot as seen in the film we are analyzing. On the other hand, experts like Johnston (1998) have stressed the complications of interpersonal relationships and contemporary gender stereotypes. However, Manon (2005, p. 18) has employed “psychoanalytic theory to identify a fetishistic imperative in the perfect crime that Walter Neff endeavors to commit in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity.” By supporting the continual manipulation over ambition-attainment and pleasure, Walter Neff connects to a “virtuoso cover-up” (Manon, 2005, p. 18), which represents classic noir trickery. Finally, the film-spectator is compelled to fantasize beyond what is being shown. However, gender relations as depicted in the film have been quite stereotypical and passive. In Wilder’s movie, we find two aspects of man being visualized with the help of the feminine characters. Wilder’s search for sex and happiness is manipulated by Phyllis, who does nothing less than ultimate seduction to lure Walter inside her plan of getting rid of her husband Mr. Dietrichson. So the director uses the female character of Phyllis to unfurl masculine sexuality and its impulsive nature. Again, at certain stages, we find Wilder feeling sorry about the would-be orphan daughter of Mr. Dietrichson, Lola. Lola is Mr. Dietrichson’s daughter from his previous marriage, and has no blood relation with Phyllis. So the director again uses the female character of Lola to portray Wilder as a mixture of good and bad instincts according as the masculine concept of manliness with its compulsive, fatherly nature. (Johnston, 1998; Wilder, 1944) So women in this film are passive subjects of portraying a man’s tendencies: his sexuality, his kindness, his weakness, and less evidently, his badness. Therefore, the stereotype of femme fatale overshadows the necessity of a balanced approach to explain gender relations through the film. However, Wilder’s focus was not on gender relations but on crime drama. So the blame cannot be put on Wilder; the film just blatantly reflects (and possibly acknowledges) the stereotypical femme fatale concept of contemporary cinematic world and depicts Phyllis (the main female character) as the evident wrongdoer. Last but not least, some primary resources on the film can be used to explain that how the film connects to urban life. And in this context, the basic questions are: Was Wilder willing or aware about relating his film to the contemporary urban audience of America? Had the script been developed to cross-correlate the potential spectators with the environment of the film? According the Chandler (2002), the co-scriptwriter of the film, Wilder’s focus was neither on creating an intellectual urban artwork, nor did he want to introduce lots of material for psychoanalysis, debate, and controversy. Wilder confessed to Chandler that he was not consciously building a trendsetter in the genre of film noir. Likewise, he had not done incisive or detailed research on the urban audience’s taste as well. Most possibly, the influence of German filmmaking and Weimer Germany’s views on America led to the depiction of American urban life without any conscious mediation of the director or the scriptwriters. Wilder represented American urban life with the help of machines ranging from Dictaphone to train. He also showed sentimental apathy in the main characters of the film that are very much typical to the concept of “dark city” (Spencer, 1984, pp. 3-8) in American noir films. And ultimately, the director felt that he “was lucky” (Chandler, 2002, p. 114) to have achieved perfection in visualizing America’s contemporary urban life, which was hugely appreciated by the audience of 1940s. The Mood/Atmosphere The complicated but melodramatic nature of Double Indemnity can be analyzed as a mixture of French photography and German expressionism. And most importantly, the film does not become some sort of blunt or clever imitation of European cinematography. This happens principally due to the factual representation of contemporary America in a very prominent an assertive way. In the film, Wilder depicts American urban life as a process of “industrial dehumanization” (Naremore, 2007, p. 88). In the film, we see the main character of Neff Walter is betraying his supervisor Barton Keyes under the infatuations of fast money and soulless love. So Walter becomes a psychologically complex revisionist hero, who ultimately confesses his crime which was done under the evil and seductive influence of his lover Phyllis. And lots of metaphors such as “end of that trolley line”, “gears had meshed”, etc. (Wilder, 1944) add more mechanical and physical intuition to the overall mood and setting of the movie. The mechanistic, robotic nature of contemporary American urban life is further manifested through the sequence of Walter’s confession to Keyes using a dictation machine. This sequence is sustained pat by part as a contrivance of synchronizing the major flashback portions of the film that construct much of the cinema. And even in the dark enclave of dehumanization combined with an inhuman act like murder, Walter’s “interoffice message, which is not only a confession of guilt but also an admission of love” (Naremore, 2007, p. 90) comes as a melodramatic consolation. Extensive use of light and shade infuses suspense in the black-and-white environment. Shades of black and grey create the melancholy of a mechanistic atmosphere, where humans also look like a disciplined part of the surroundings such as the office cabin, railway locomotives, papers, machines such as the Dictaphone, etc. And this sort of visualizations with extensive use of shades of black rather than patterns of grey had been typical to American film noir seen throughout the 1940s and beyond. (Palmer, 1994; Spencer, 1984) The Financial Context The financial context of the film is reflected in the film itself. The film has a crime drama in the city, which is refined by the dynamics of complex urban life. On a number of occasions, metaphors describing or correlating machine behavior and mechanisms have been used by the scriptwriters. Hence, the environment encompasses the key elements of industrial economy. And greed for more money and sex combined with criminality shows the dark side of capitalism. However, this sort of direct correlation is quite uneasy since during the 1940s, America’s economy was turning around once again and in a few years, the signs of poverty left by Great Depression were going to be faded out. Conclusion I like this film mainly for its entertainment value and clever visualizations. Although the film is a crime drama presented in the typical American style of 1940s and 1950s filmmaking, it is independent. Despite deep influences of European cinema, the film does not become a caricature of how America was depicted in continental Europe. Rather, it develops a more sophisticated approach suitable for the educated American middle class of all time by intricately focusing on contemporary industrial economy of the country. The level of sophistication achieved in the various departments of filmmaking such as scriptwriting, photography, acting, etc. has established this film as a classic. However, I think the film could have been made a little more sensible and balanced by shedding off the stereotype of femme fatale. If Wilder had depicted the character of Phyllis with a deeper intellectual treatment, the crime drama would become more exciting to watch. References Chandler, C. (2002). Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, a Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. Johnston, C. (1998). Double Indemnity. Women in Film Noir (pp. 102-103). London: British Film Institute. Manon, H. S. (2005). Some Like It Cold: Fetishism in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Cinema Journal, 44(4), 18-43. Naremore, J. (2007). Modernism and blood melodrama. More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts (pp. 63-95). Berkeley: University of California Press. Palmer, R. (1994). Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir. New York: Twayne. Schatz, T. (1999). Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1094s. Berkeley: University of California Press. Spencer, S. (1984). Dark City: The Film Noir. Jefferson: McFarland. Wilder, B. (Director). (1944). Double indemnity [Motion picture]. U.S.A.: Paramount Pictures Corporation. Read More