The Femme Fatale Character in The Film Noir 'Double Indemnity'

What makes a film a Film Noir is a particular tone, mood or semantic elements which embodies a particular look on life. The role of women in films has altered since Film Noir, given more opportunities within a film and also society such as the characterisation of the femme fatale and how it has altered into neo-noir. In classic film noir, the femme fatale never escape justice, Elizabeth Cowie suggests film noir is a genre with a sense of fantasy showing how a film noir hero is a man who “suffers alienation and despair and is lured by fatal and deceptive women”. Andrew Spicer states “the eruption of film noirs dark, cynical and often pessimistic stories into the sunlit pastures of Hollywood characteristically optimistic and affirmative cinema”. Film noir originated owing to the emergence of German Expressionist Cinema, incorporated the use of high key cinematography to fit the upcoming crime thrillers of film noir. The role of the duplicitous woman is evident within the character of the femme fatale especially in Double Indemnity. 

Double Indemnity is an example of the classic film noir with a stereotypical femme fatale, which simply translates into the danger of sexual differences. Suggesting how the man risks his desire of the ‘spider women’ which ultimately makes the male protagonist’s downfall inevitable. The interaction between Walter and Phyllis follows James Damico’s plot structure and his thoughts of character types within film noir; this as follows shows how the man meets a not so innocent woman who he is fatally attracted to, however, lead to her betrayal. Damico’s also infers the point how the femme fatale is the antagonist within film noir, therefore in a classic piece such as Double Indemnity, there is an element of justice where there is sometimes the metaphorical however usually the literal destruction of the woman. Moreover, Double Indemnity constructs the reality of the social order, the male universe of the insurance business which creates the trouble of castration for the male in patriarchy. 

The women within this film, especially Phyllis are used as a “signifier for the lack of, heterogeneity the fault inherent in patriarchy as an order”. This is further emphasised by Laura Mulvey, who contemplates “the female form which evokes castration anxiety for the male”. 

This presents how this is a running theme within films, especially in Film Noir, the femme fatale character, as in Double Indemnity, uses it to their advantage to reach the inevitable downfall of the male protagonist. Within Film Noir, women weren’t always considered the antagonist, the seductive women who cause the distress of a male.  

Works Cited

1. Cowie, E. (1997). Representing the Woman: Cinema and Psychoanalysis. University of Minnesota Press.
2. Damico, J. (2001). A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio. Thunder's Mouth Press.
3. Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.
4. Naremore, J. (1998). More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts. University of California Press.
5. Spicer, A. (2002). Film Noir. Pearson Education.
6. Sweeney, K. (2002). Celluloid Confessions: The Crisis of Confidentiality in Film Noir. University of Minnesota Press.
7. Telotte, J. P. (2008). A Distant Technology: Science Fiction Film and the Machine Age. Wesleyan University Press.
8. Vernet, M. (1997). Film and the Narrative Tradition. University of Texas Press.
9. Weber, J. (2015). Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia. Wallflower Press.
10. Williams, L. (1999). Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible". University of California Press.