Outline for Presentation

Fight Club

I.                   An insomniac office worker, who also acts as the films narrator, portrays the movie through first person and allows viewers to see life through his cynical perspective. He is soon introduced to Tyler Durden, a free spirited soap maker who seems to be living the care free life the narrator has only dreamed of. This film is best described on the IMDB website under the “Motion Pictures Rating” as “Rated R for disturbing and graphic depiction of violent anti-social behavior, sexuality and language.”

II.                Characteristics and conventions of the film that link it to Classic Noir

1.      The tone of Fight Club stays true to Noir by using dark lighting and grungy settings in a seemingly beautiful city. 

A.    The narrator’s unfortunate apartment fire leaves him to live in a condemned building that soon feels like home than his showcase apartment ever did. The dimly lit building and dirty interior stay on course with Noir’s shadowy and distorted scheme.

2.      Classic Noir is being depicted through Immoral Corruption

A.    An assignment for the group members of Fight Club turns horribly wrong when Bob is shot in the head by security. The narrator is shaken by the loss of his friend in which he yells at the group member, “This is a man and he has a name, his name is Robert Paulson.” The members begin to chant “His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson.” This shows that Fight Club is no longer just a group; but it has grown into a full pledged terrorist organization.

B.     In Paul Schrader’s “Notes on Film Noir” he explains how “Characters are more corrupt, themes more fatalistic and the tone more hopeless.” The sick realization that human nature has been skewed in the film leaves the audience in a traumatized state, recognizing that Classic Noir is being depicted through immoral corruption.

III.             Elements of the film that deviate from Classic Film Noir and link it to Neo Noir

1.      Explicitness through sexual scenes and language

A.    The director of Fight Club was not shy about showing the sexual relations between characters. The first sex scene is portrayed though the narrator’s dream. It is an erotic and raw scene that viewers soon realize is only the beginning. The raunchy level of sex escalates throughout the movie as does the dialogue. Marla is proud to admit “I haven’t fucked like that since grade school.”

2.      The Characters: Ambiguous Protagonist, Femme Fatale (Male)

A.    According to Sean Lindsay: “David Fincher”

“Tyler is very much the Homme Fatale whose charismatic demeanor manipulates the actions of the narrator.” Tyler holds nearly every characteristic of the femme fatale. He is mysterious, gorgeous, fun loving, irresponsible, and manipulates the protagonist into taking part in the crime. Fight Club falls under the Neo Noir category by taking these roles and using modern twists to keep the genre growing. The narrator falls into the of the protagonist but what really stands out as Neo Noir is Tyler taking on the part of the Femme Fatale.

 

 

Blog #8

Assignment 1:
       As I start to read both of these short stories, I can almost picture myself in them. Being able to relate to both stories setting in Los Angeles area I can picture what is happening. First as I start to read The Kidnapper Bell, he did a great job in describing the Los Angeles river, "Graffiti-covered cement. A hint of water. Chain link, barbed wire, corrugated steel." (218). With little detail your are able to picture where he is at and what he is seeing. As in City of Commerce, I am really able to relate towards the end when he begins to talk about the freeways, " I was on the 5, going north" (239). I started to laugh as I read this because I was just on this freeway and then read the story, especially as I read a little lower on the page, "The traffic report said that there was an accident at the 101 interchange. I wasn't moving" (239). I was literally on this freeway and stuck for an hour because of an accident. So being able to relate to these stories and being able to picture them, made for a better read I'd have to say. Both stories give many details on the landscape and where there are at, which makes it that much better because you are able to picture the story as you read.

Assignment 2:
      The Gold Coast section was probably one of my favorite reads in Los Angeles Noir. The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones by Scott Phillips, was just crazy to me. I believe it describes noir the best it was just a straight up sick and twisted story and reminded me almost of Double Indemnity with the protagonist falling in love with this girl that he barley even knew. The femme fatale using her sexuality an manipulative ways to try and convince the protagonist to help with the murder of a celebrity. And the end really leaving you with wanting more. What You See, I'd say was not noir, even though its murder was sick and twisted too, it didn't have a protagonist really or a femme fatale, I thought anyway. I wasn't sure what was going to happen in the story and then when I read the end I could definitely see the noir side to it but I would not recommend this for someone who wants to read a story relating to noir. The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones, is a great story that definitely falls in the noir genre and tells a great story.

Blog #7 Option 3

As I start to read Los Angeles Noir I realize that this is definitely not a pg13 book that anyone can read. This book is an R rated book for sure. With the weird, sexual and dark stories it tells, gets your imagination on another level. As I start to read the first story "The Method" by Janet Fitch I can almost imagine myself in the story. I definitely recommend this short story over Patt Morrison's Morocco Junction. I say this because the whole time you are left with wanting to know more about what is happening and you would have never expected the result; at least I didn't. The Method also fits more into the Noir genre as it tells about a girl who moved to Los Feliz, California from Kearny, Nebraska to pursue a career in acting. She meets a man at her job in which they become boyfriend and girlfriend or should I say more of rather sexual partners. He uses her to try and commit a murder for him to an old famous actress Mariah McKay. Well turns out she finds out that he doesn't love her and is using her and she turns the table on him and poisons him. As she watches him die she tells him how she was onto him and wasn't going to be made to look like a fool.

This is noir, dark, evil, sexual and cruel, with the story being read in first person, through the protagonist, this time not being a male but female, Holly. She shows the cynical, obsessive, frightened and insecure loner struggling to survive when ultimately she loses. In the end it almost as she works as the femme fatale as well, in a way with her manipulative ways by tricking him into having sex when she slips the poison he had given her to poison Mariah and then she ends up using it on him. As he slowly dies she whispers to him "Am I good enough now, Richard? (121)”. This shows the immoral and cruel side to noir. This short story without doubt gave me chills.

On the other hand Morocco Junction did not. I was very bored for most of the story and had to stop reading and come back to it several times, although the end was very intriguing, but it did not remind me at all of noir. Except for the fact that maybe there being a detective which is who you are reading under the whole time. The whole thing had me very confused at times until the very end where I was able to understand more and finally caught my attention. But I would not recommend this short story; it was very bland and if you’re looking for something more towards the noir style this is not it. Overall I recommend The Method, it gives you a better insight to what noir is and shows you the gloomy yet immoral side of what a true noir story is all about.

Blog #5 Different Perspective

            As I search to find a review online, I find it really hard to choose one.  Almost every review has something great to say about both the novel and film for "Double Indemnity". I started my search on google and came across a site called goodreads.com. I found many great reviews but one definitely caught my attention.  Reviewer Jeffrey Keeten starts off with a quote "I had killed a man, for money and a women. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the women." he explains how the is one of the great Noir lines of all time, and that he could stop his review right there because that line sums up the movie and i'd have to completely agree.  As Jeffrey starts to talk about both the novel and film he goes into speaking about the Femme Fatale Phyllis, how she could be one the most viperous examples in history. He explains the difference in the way Phyllis was portrayed in the film as being more of a deviously manipulative than in the novel which I have to agree on, maybe because we were able to actual see and visualize her. Then he starts on about Huff and gives a great example of Huff's relationship towards Phyllis as " She being the carrot and he is the greyhound running around the track." Jeffrey believes that there is no hesitation about Huff and that he's not sure what was more important to Huff pulling off the perfect swindle or winning the girl; in which Jeffrey agrees to him pulling off the perfect swindle. I'd have to agree with him if it was directly related to the novel but as I watched the film they made Huff and Phyllis out to be as if they were truly in love with each other whereas in the novel they seemed to only be in love before the murder and used it as an excuse for the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger.

           Jeffrey Keetan finishes off his review with greatly recommending both the novel and film. He says that he generally liked both but much rather enjoyed the novel because there was more depth to the characters and more subplots that can be incorporated into the flow of the novel, but even a movie that butchers the original source material can be a great movie. I believe Jeffrey did a great job in describing his view of both the novel and film and was able to put them into words that everyone could relate too.  Overall I definitely recommend this site, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the reviews. For the most part all of the reviewers loved "Double Indemnity" as did I and would recommend both the novel and film. Both leaving you with wanting more but yet it being just enough. 

Blog #4 Novel VS. Film

As I watched the end of the film of "Double Indemnity" I started to notice many differences compared to the novel. Not only did it end different but there were many scenes that they had changed around and even added more to it. I didn't like the ending to the film, it seemed rushed towards the very end, almost as they just wanted to hurry up and end it. Even though I feel the same way towards the novel, I liked the way they ended it better, it was a short ending with lots of detail. Although I did like the fact that in the film they had Walter kill Phyllis. Just saying she was one heartless woman, who got what she deserved and that was to "die in pain". That sounds horrible to say but when you can kill multiple people for no reason what so ever then they deserve whats coming towards them, in one way or another.  As I said that in the movie they had added more scenes, such as in the novel Phyllis and Walter did not see each other after the murder until they were on the boat, whereas in the movie they had seen each other multiple times. In the film Phyllis and Walter were portrayed out to be as if they were still in love with each other unlike the novel they had moved on after the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger and only kept in contact to make sure they were on the same page so they wouldn't get caught.

 Both of the endings left me with wanting more, with the novel I wanted to know that they actually jumped off the boat, this novel had been so detail oriented the whole time that in a way I was expecting them to tell how they did it and they did sorta but I wanted more haha. With the film I felt like they missed so many things and could have made it so much better. Both endings seemed appropriate for film noir, but I believe the novel did a great job at giving so much detail in the little things like at the very end where they describe what Phyllis is wearing, "She's made her face chalk white, with black circles under eyes and red on her lips and cheeks. (114)" This quote gave me the chills and creeped me out. Film noir describes femme fatale as a mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, manipulative and desperate women and I believe that Cain did a fantastic job in describing and portraying Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis is just that if not more. Film noir is described as dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love and they emphasize the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of human experience. As I refer to the last sentence in the novel, Walter says his last words " I didn't hear the stateroom door open, but she's beside me now while I'm writing. I can feel her. The moon. (115)" With such little words Cain ends this novel with just that, "Film noir".

Blog # 3 "Double Indemnity"

WOW, is all that I have to say about the ending to this novel. At first I had a feeling that Phyllis was somehow going to try and kill Walter but did not expect to find out how many other people she had killed previously to the murder of Mr. Nirdlinger. The ending of this gave me chills, and creep-ed me out it was not what I expected at all. I didn’t think there was going to be so much going on. One minute I’m thinking it was definitely Phyllis trying to kill Walter but then Lola and Sachetti come into play and now I’m thinking it’s them. I think that Keyes played a major role in this and I had my mind set that he was the detective the whole time, because he had guessed the entire murder and was trying to figure out who did it. Then when he started talking about all the other murders that Phyllis did, and how Sachetti was friends with her the whole time because he was trying to find out that she was the one who murdered his father and three children. That’s when I changed my mind; Sachetti plays the role of the detective in this novel. He had to become close with Phyllis so that he could try and get her to spill the beans about what she had done. “Sachetti elected himself a one-man detective agency to find out what it was all about (106)”. In order for Sachetti to figure out that Phyllis did it he had to become close with her, very close and that’s what a detective does. A detective is sneaky and slick and finds a way to get information with out the assassin finding out.

The ending to this left me a little confused, and I had to go back and read it again. At first I didn’t like how the ending played out, if left me wanting more details. But now that I think about it, that’s how Phyllis and Walter should have died. They committed suicide in shark infested waters meaning they died miserably, and as they should have. One thing that also made me happy was to hear that Lola and Sachetti got married. They have both been through so much trauma in there lives that they can both relate to each other and move forward with their lives. This book left me wanting to read a part 2 just so I could find out if the case would have been solved and for Keyes to get the satisfaction that he was right all along.  

Double Indemnity is a great example of Film Noir, with it being a dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Not only there being one main murder but we find out that the femme fatal “Phyllis” had murdered multiple people. She is a gorgeous woman with a deceitful and manipulative personality, as Keyes describes her as “pathological”. Even though this novel seemed a little fast-pasted at time, it kept my anxiety high and wanting me to read more and more.      

Blog #2 "Double Indemnity"

James M. Cain's novel, "Double Indemnity" tells a story about a dark, deceitful and yet suspenseful murder. Walter Huff an insurance salesman out of Los Angeles, California meets a woman by the name of Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis is wanting to buy an accident policy for her husband. At first Walter was a little bit suspicious of Phyllis because she didn't want her husband to know, but Walter was amazed by her beauty and fell in love with her and as she did with him. He had a plan and that plan was to get her, and in order to do that he arranged the perfect murder and gave up everything he had ever lived for. Over time Walter and Phyllis planned out the murder of her husband, thinking about every possible detail that they could so it would be the perfect murder. Walter schooled Phyllis on everything and told her exactly what to do and say to get him right where they needed him. The plan was set now it was time to put it into action. Mr. Nirdlinger was heading to his school reunion and was supposed to drive but had broken his leg and wasn’t able to, which had worked out to Walters benefit. Because he couldn’t drive, Phyllis convinced him to take the train in which she drove him to the station with Walter hidden in the back seat, in which he proceeded to break Mr. Nirdlinger’s neck with his crutch. Walter was dressed exactly how Mr. Nirdlinger was and took his train ticket and got on the train. Phyllis drove the car with the body down the road to a dark place, where Walter got off the train and helped her place Mr. Nirdlinger on the tracks as if he stumbled and fell of the train. They thought they did it and planned it perfectly. But people started getting suspicious, especially Walters co-workers. One thought it was suicide, when the other new it couldn’t be and he knew it was murder.

 As you compare “Double Indemnity” to film noir you can see many characteristics. Film noir is described as, “nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel”. And James Cain’s novel “Double Indemnity”, I think is exactly that. Some characteristics such as, it taking place in a large city, femme fatale, crime, cops, guilt and paranoia play a major role in Double Indemnity. Film noir stories were developed around a male character who encounters a beautiful but promiscuous and seductive femme fatale who used her feminine charm and sexuality to manipulate him, often ending in a murder. Double Indemnity is just that as this quote shows it, “What I was doing was peeping over that edge, and all the time I was trying to pull away from it, there was something in me that kept edging a little closer, trying to get a better look.(14)” This quote explains how Phyllis was able to manipulate Walter into helping her with the murder of her husband. This is what film noir is about duplicity, guilt, and loveless love.