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”.