Kenneth Sweeney describes Billy Wilder's cinematic
adaptation of James M. Cain's, Double
Indemnity as, "... perhaps the quintessential film-noir thriller from
the 1940s," in his review of the film for DVD Playback. Sweeney explains
that, "The consistent use of sharply contrasting lighting, sparely decorated
locations, bold shafts of light diffused through window blinds or cigarette
smoke, and a generally expressive, darker slant on the proceedings... went on
to influence dozens of films made in the noir tradition for another
decade." Although Double Indemnity was not one of the first works to be
considered Film Noir, the uniqueness of the vision and style that was produced
under Wilder influenced many of the films that followed.
This film, viewed through the lens of a
noir novice who is more familiar with the works of neo noir, seemed a bit odd
and forced. It was strange to learn that this film, from nearly seventy years
ago was a significant influence on some of my favorite films such as Brick and Sin City.
With a bit of effort I can see the echoes
of the smartly written dialogue of Raymond Chandler and dark shadows of Hans
Dreier and Hal Pereira within these films. The genre of noir generally becomes
defined by the very characteristics which seem so strange in their original
form.
I like that you voiced your opinion of the film based off of personal experience with noir. I don't think I personally agree with your second paragraph though. I can see how double indemnity was an "influence" on those films. With brick it’s hard to see because the main character is such a detective dragged into danger and huff is not at all. I think that the femme fatals correlate. Huff was with the femme fatal but loved the good girl and gave himself up for her; the main character in brick loved the "good girl" but was being chased by the bad girl, and for a short period was with the femme fatal. You’re right that it is hard to say that those films were directly influenced by this story but I think that their content was influenced. The original film noir characteristics cross over and that’s how I think they influenced. All in all, I enjoyed your post getting my brain thinking.
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