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  • Essay / The image of the femme fatale in the film Double Indemnity

    The femme fatale according to all accounts and the dictionary definition is an attractive woman who uses it to seduce men who, unknowingly, enable her to bring disaster to their ordinary lives, usually for money or for criminal activities such as murder. This behavior of female characters in films can also be known as vampirism in more modern terms. The femme fatale is a staple of the cinematic category, or cinematic period as some say, film noir. The genre of film noir is defined very clearly by its criminal point of view, “the presence of crime which gives film noir its most constant characteristic “the dynamism of violent death”, this is how Nino Frank described it. , and the point is well taken… Oddly and sordidly, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey. In every sense of the word, a film noir is a film of death.” Here the interest and necessity of such a dark female character is affirmed not only by what defines the film, but also by the fact that the main point of reference in the history of previous cinema, the moral center of the audience, is completely skewed by the sympathetic character. bad guys and corrupt cops, as well as the addition of equally radical women. In the movie Double Indemnity, Phyllis Dietrichson's character is no different and in some ways more unique as she is responsible for the downfall of another "bad guy". Because of this ability to seduce and then control men with only her promiscuous glances and empty promises, Phyllis becomes one of the most prominent examples of the femme fatale. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayPhyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, fits the role of the femme fatale as she intelligently recognizes how she is perceived by the men of the film and uses that to his advantage. Her character is certainly objectified, as she realizes that men's lust for her is the key to their minds and uses it to get what she wants. Phyllis voluntarily presents herself as a sex object. She uses her seduction to marry a rich man, then have what was a good man turn bad and murder him, to reap the rewards of the double insurance claim. At no point does she directly attack the men she meets to gain power over them, until the very end when she attempts to kill Walter, the man she used to kill her husband, when he discovers what she has slyly planned for him. Her power over the men in the film is not something physically demanded by her character, it is established the very moment they look at her figure and let her deceptive words poison their minds. For example in Walter and Phyllis' dialogue where she says: Walter: Why haven't you shot yet, baby? Don't tell me it's because you've been in love with me all this time. Phyllis: [crying] No, I never loved you, Walter, neither you nor anyone else. I'm rotten to the core. I used you like you said. That's all you've ever meant to me. Until a minute ago, when I couldn't get that second shot off. I never thought this could happen to me. In the dialogue, this is Phyllis' way of telling the truth, she tells Walter that he never meant anything to her and that the other men she had used to put her in the position she was in had found herself either. This quote directly incriminates her as a classic femme fatale using her physical beauty and to seduce men.