90210

Morocco Junction 90210 would definitely be a story I would recommend to my friends. Its starts out as a jewelry heist and up until the end you think you know what’s going to happen, but then it takes a dramatics twist and BAM, you’re wrong, and everything you thought you knew was wrong. Morocco Junction 90210 was an interesting read because of its surprising ending and the way the narrator takes you through the story giving you facts and information about herself. These facts may seem of little importance sometimes, but in the end, with the knowledge we have about Minerva’s persona we understand why she keeps her newfound discovering to herself. Throughout the story I sensed that this was going to be a murder mystery, where in the end she would put the pieces together and we’d have our killer. The fact that didn’t happen was probably one of the reasons I loved this story, these kinds endings fascinate me, they make me go back and find clues that I may have missed or things I didn’t pay attention to. The dramatic twist was great, and I loved the way it fit into the stereotype we have of Beverly Hills. We have these rich people who don’t talk about all the bad things that happen and will do anything to keep their secrets hidden, embarrassed to be ridiculed by their peers. Some even go as far as killing themselves, as is the case with Eloise. She was so ashamed of her past, she knew that if it were discovered she would be shut out by her peers and her family would be left to bear the weight of her mistakes. Overall it was a good story to read, it made you think that Beverly Hills may not be the only place where people would rather die than clean out the skeletons in their closet.

Dangerous day in Silicon Alley

Two completely different stories, they are both set in LA, but the two worlds couldn’t be any more different. Well the settings definitely had a great impact on the narration of the story. ‘Dangerous Days’ was narrated from a person living in the ‘ghetto’, an area where a lot of Mexicans and African people live. There are gangs everywhere, people with shaved heads, others with pants around their knees, high crime rates and the streets are usually ruled by gangsters. In this story our protagonist seems to be tougher (and eye for an eye) than the protagonist in ‘Midnight in Silicon Alley’, he grew up in a neighborhood where if you didn’t push you got push around.  That is why when Yippie was killed he didn’t hesitate to go after the killer, he lives in a world where someone doesn’t have to be blood-related to be your brother.  Mr. Chen on the other hand is a man who likes to follow the rules, even though Cravitz is a cop he tends to make his own rules. In ‘Midnight in Silicon Alley’ the setting is completely different than ‘Dangerous Days’, here we see life in the suburbs, low crime rate, people dress more professionally to got to work, and ‘slang’ is rarely used among the citizens. Chen is more reserved and doesn’t like conflict, he actually thrives in following the rules and keeping order, that is why he prefers the suburbs. Cravitz would drive himself crazy in the suburbs’, he is the type of man who likes action and thrives on getting things done by any means necessary.

New vs. Old

Classic film noir and neo-noir films have many of the same characteristics; you can say they follow a specific set of guidelines. They all have a protagonist, femme fatal, and there is always the detective; someone who is not bound by law but by his own conduct. They both give off the illusion of bleak and distorted sceneries, giving off the feeling of a very dark and menacing world.  Classic noir and neo-noir films were and are directed at a specific audience in time. Even though classic film noir and neo-noir have many of the same characteristics, the neo-noir films ‘integrate new ideas and influences from contemporary film styles to provide a news spin on the loneliness and uncertainty that is felt by many of the young and disenfranchised of today’ (Robson). In neo-noir we see the femme fatal is an independent woman with almost man-like qualities that seem to be accepted by that society, in contrast with classic noir, that kind of independence is gained through moral degradation. In classic noir crime doesn’t seem to ‘pay’ for woman but in neo-noir we see the women get off scot free. Women are portrayed as smarter than men and in the end seem to manipulate the situation to their advantage gaining them freedom at the expense of the protagonist. One of the greatest differences between the two would have to be the skin color of the characters involved, in classic noir almost all of the characters involved are white and in neo-noir there is a diversity of races that can be seen portraying the protagonist, femme fatal, or the detective.

#5

Unexpected

Wow. Well I would have rather Walter gone to jail, than kill himself at the end. It just made the story feel so final. They say that hope is the last thing you should lose and in the end we all expect a happy ending, or at least we want to know that there is going to be more to a story than just an abrupt end such as this. When we read a story and in the end the character goes to jail for the crime or the character is let go, and the last we see of him is him riding into the sunset we are usually left with a sense of satisfaction. We know that the story isn’t over for them and when we read about a character and relate to him like we did with Walter Huff, knowing that he was going to kill himself and that there wasn’t going be more to his story it made me feel more “connected” to him. It brought out feelings of sadness that I wouldn’t have felt had the story just ended with him getting on a boat and sailing away. I didn’t like the end, but I think it was one of those endings that you don’t want or expect, yet love to read about because the truth is that not everything in life is in black and white. The ending was definitely appropriate since throughout the book there was so much planning involved, everything had to be done this or that way, but it all seem calculated, in some way so it’s only fitting that they themselves chose how to end their lives. I loved that Walter was given a “second chance” and at the end of the novel I was rooting for him because a part of me felt that he deserved an opportunity to get his life back together. He “got away” with murder but then when he sees Phyllis it makes it seem like he ran into a wall, he realizes that try as he might he can’t run away from what happened. I think Phyllis being there brought back all the feelings of hopelessness and a sense of nothingness within him. He was never going to be happy. He saw as in trying to be would be unachievable so in the end deciding to kill himself was just like going with the flow. Overall I loved the book and it has definitely become one of my favorites.

Femme Fatal

A Femme Fatal is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations.

From the website Artandpopularculture.com


From the beginning we read about the way Phyllis seduces Walter into her web and gives him a sense of power which gave her the ability to control him. In the beginning of the second reading we see how Phyllis gave Walter the opportunity to kill her husband all the while making sure that to him it seemed as if it were his idea. She is still trying to seem helpless and is trying to give him a sense of power as if he were still in control of the situation. She lets him talk down to her as if she didn’t know what she was doing, in the end she knows that if they ever get caught she can play the defenseless woman who couldn't defend herself against the mean bad man. When the plan to kill her husband is put into play she follows all of his instructions just like he taught her, or some would say just like a pro. While Phyllis is taking Walter to the train station we catch a glimpse of her cold nature as she pretends to talk to her husband as if she wasn’t just about to kill him. "A woman is a funny animal", Walter quoted this as a way of describing Phyllis while he watched her naturally interact with her husband, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. To me this meant that women can act naturally as if nothing were wrong even in the direst of situations. The first time Phyllis ever shows signs of being unstable is after they disposed of her husband's body. "I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake", what Walter meant by that was that even though Phyllis may be trouble and might one day cause his destruction he still loves her. When Walter talks to Lola he finds out that Phyllis was there when the first Mrs. Nirdlinger died, this is when he starts to think that maybe he had been played all along. In my opinion Phyllis has all the characteristics of a Femme Fatal she's a beautiful woman who seduced Walter and will in the end, end up being his demise.

Duplicitous

"The females in film noir are either of two types - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women women; or femme fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous,."

From the website Filmsite

Double indemnity introduces us to Phyllis Nirdlinger, the wife of Mr. Nirdlinger the Los Angeles representative of the Western and Pipe and Supply Company. From the very beginning we take notice of her prying nature especially when it comes to Walter and his line of work. She was vague and alluring when talking to Walter about the other insurance company, the Automobile club. It seemed as if she were testing him and trying to gauge Walter’s reaction to the fact that her husband might switch insurance companies. We see the way she was studied by Walter, and by his inner thoughts we can tell that as much as she is trying to convince him of her interest towards his work it isn’t working. This makes her a mystery in his eyes, one that he isn’t sure he wants to figure out. We know that she is gorgeous because of the many references that are made by Walter, “Her brow wrinkled up, and I saw that there was nothing washed-up about her” “Under those blue pajamas was a shape to set a man nuts…” “She had on a white sailor suit, with a blouse that pulled tight over her hips, and white shoes and stockings. I wasn’t the only one that knew about that shape”, these sentences describe a sophisticated woman who knows how to dress to impress. While talking to Walter, Phyllis starts to show us her duplicitous behavior by asking questions and then retracting as if wanting to know but then unable to deal with the answers. Her behavior is obvious, not only to us but to Walter as well; he has seen too much in his 15 years in the insurance business to be fooled by Mrs. Nirdlinger’s concern yet manipulative behavior. She tries to befriend him and tries to figure him out by inviting him for tea while the housemaid (Belle), Lola (the stepdaughter), and Mr. Nirdlinger (the husband) are out of the house. She later realizes that her nonchalant act didn’t work on Walter so she panics and leaves. Not long after she comes back and tries to play off her intentions, she tries to convince Walter that what she said was misunderstood but after she sees that he is willing to help her, she calms down, drops the act, and starts to listen.

the neo-noir ' 90's

My reading started with a brief description of the beginnings of Noir films. Noir films were first introduced after World War II and have then become a lifestyle for people all over the world. The term Noir was given to these films to describe their dark and dangerous alluring aspects. These films were created during years of peace and prosperity by writers who let go of their psychic imagination and created a world where the lines between good and evil seemed to have crossed. According to David Ansen and Tara Weingarten, Noir has made a comeback not only in the most critically acclaimed movie of the year, “L.A. Confidential”, but in our clothes, music and advertisement ads. Also many celebrities are bringing Noir back including Carly Simon, Tom Ford, and even Ralph Lauren who is incorporating this style in his shoe designs. The return of noir could also be interpreted as a way for people who instead of saying what’s on their minds could voice their opinions through their sense of style. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammet, and James M. Cain were a few of the novelist who inspired the noir vision. Shadowy glamour, rained-slick streets, heroes deracinated and weary, and sexy ambiguous women are some of the elements included in noir films. Some noir style movies include “Deep Crimson” “Double indemnity” “The Big Sleep” “In a Lonely Place” “Kiss Me Deadly” and “One False Move”.