Double Indemnity Cinematography analyis

With reference to a sequence from the film made between 1930–1960 which you have studied, analyse how cinematography (including lighting) creates aesthetic effects. [10 marks]

Billy Wilder’s 1944 film noir ‘Double Indemnity’ establishes the criminal, uncertain, and dark tone of the film typical of its genre within the opening scene. In an overhead wide establishing shot, a car races thought the dark urban streets and through a red light occupying the majority of the frame, the compositional diagonal lines of the streetlamps offering a symbolic pathway of light positioned away from the car enhancing a desperate criminality to the spectator. The camera tracks – in an overhead shot - a figure (Neff) exiting the car and walking towards a building, the lighting coming through the glass silhouetting his figure, making him an object of anonymity to the spectator. Once inside, the camera tracks Neff walking through the building, moving into a POV high angle shot of the deserted offices below, further creating an atmosphere of quiet suspicion and uncertainty.

Followed in a low angle shot from the offices, the camera moves with Neff’s walking towards his office, the compositional cross constructed from the low-key lighting on the railings in front restricting him in the frame and connoting a visual sense of danger. Iconic of film noir aesthetics, a double shadow is cast through the low-key lighting, metaphorically suggesting how Neff has a split identity and the idea that he is walking towards darkness as well as being followed by it, furthering that visual expression of suspicion and uncertainty typical of film noir.