Double Indemnity

To start the title of this film had me hooked. It screams noir and double indemnity is a genius title for this film. The film features an insurance salesman, his wife who wishes her husband were dead, and one other fellow who is a claim adjuster. From research this film was up for 7 academy awards although didn’t win a single one?!? It is also known as setting a standard for the noir category and the films that followed.

From a design standpoint this film is incredible. The opening scene of the film sets the stage not only for the rest of the film but films to follow. It opens at night, of course very gloomy and foggy and has a car violently driving through the streets creating a suspense factor and something full of danger. The film is full of dark interiors, the use of shadows, creepy mirrors, fog and awful weather creating danger, angles of filming that set it apart from other films and many scenes that are disoriented and confusing. Double indemnity fully embraces the use of space as almost every scene has shadows that fill the empty parts and other simple things like lighting that you wouldn’t normally see. I think the heavy use of shadows mirrors the use of flashbacks as if the creator of this film wanted to show two people in one scene.