Influence of Film Noir

It came to identify both the narrative-cinematic style of those films and also the historical period during which they were produced (Schatz 112).

The style would have an influence long after that historical period ended. Indeed, it continues to have an influence today, though the underlying social dynamic that produced it in the first place changed long ago. Yet, there is something in the film noir that appeals to and expresses darker aspects of the human soul and so has a resonance still. One of the key elements is the use of the femme fatale as a lure for the male, and much of the moral ambiguity in the style derives from the reaction of the male to this lure. An examination of the roles of Phyllis Dietrich in Double Indemnity and Veda Pierce in Mildred Pierce will show how this type of character is used.

Film noir is more properly called a style rather than a genre:

Film noir was itself a system of visual and thematic conventions which were not associated with any speci

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on, and one of the reasons is because she has the power to make men do what she wants. She never has to lift a finger herself because of this power, and it is a power she guards jealously. She opposes her step-daughter's boy friend because he is interested in the girl and not in her. Neff becomes her key to escape from a marriage she entered into only for the security it offered, and she will feel more secure when she is more in control. She becomes enmeshed in the obsessions she herself has created, however, until she and Neff finally embrace and shoot one another in a parody of sexual climax that finally leaves both dead. They were indeed doomed from the moment they met, doomed by her lust for money and his lust for her, and it is significant that both are destroyed by this final act of perverted lust. In Double Indemnity there is also a contrast between social worlds, with Neff on the outside looking in at the wealthier class with some envy. Social class is an important motivating force in Mildred Pierce (1945) as well and is a particularly strong force in the life of Veda Pierce. Mildred, her mother, has fought to build a business in a world where women rarely manage to accomplish this feat, let alone do so with the su
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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