blog #4

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity of 1944 is the epitome of a noir film: murder, a femme fatale role, of course lota and lots of smoking, and it is filmed in black and white. Neo-noir films aren’t too far off from a noir film, they’re just more up to the times of technology in film that weren’t around during the noir film era. Roman Polanski’s neo-noir film Chinatown of 1974 is similar to Double Indemnity in the sort of storylines of the lead male characters. Nothing really interesting or action-packed has happened to Walter of Double Indemnity or Jake of Chinatown in their careers. Walter is just an insurance man and Jake works as a detective for women who are suspicious of their husbands having an affair. However, being in the positions these men are in, they both somehow just end up in these extremely sticky situations that just so happen to lead to involving murder- something neither of their jobs originally entailed. Devil in a Blue Dress is similar to both of these films because all three include a femme fatale: Phyllis, Evelyn, and Daphne. Los Angeles isn’t really perceived as a great dreamy place in any of these films. For example, especially in Chinatown the whole movie is focused on corrupt aspects of Los Angeles lies about the water and drought.