'Film noir is usually talked about in terms of its historical resonances, its treatment of the genre and its uses of style, and these three trends in noir criticism continue to inform criticism about and of noir, contributing to the long, unfinished and arguably unfinished process of its discursive formations. It is a term coined by French critics after the end of the Second World War and new Hollywood products invaded the market; films with this term are often associated with black and white cinematography. In this essay I will discuss the distinctive styles and themes of film noir, which will be demonstrated through the films "In a Lonely Place" (1950) directed by Nicholas Ray and "Double Indemnity" (1944) directed by Billy Wilder. In a Lonely Place (1950) was based on a Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele and Laurel are just getting to know each other, but Dixon has been involved in the murder of a girl he had once met, Mildred. Laurel then suffers from her romance towards Dixon as she wonders if he killed Mildred. Double Indemnity (1944) is about an insurance salesman Walter Neff who meets Phyllis Dietrichson when asked to renew her husband's automobile policy. She asked to purchase accident insurance for her husband without his knowledge. Neff and Phyllis soon began to become lovers. They prepared a plan to kill Mr. Dietrichson in exchange for the life insurance money so that Phyllis could receive double the amount based on a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, everything doesn't go according to plan. The elements that will be covered are narrative, style and form, themes and character behavior. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Film noir has similar characteristics in their narratives, the "feelings of fear, distrust, desolation, loss of innocence, desperation and paranoia were readily apparent" in film noir, reflecting the "cold" Cold War period, when the threat of nuclear annihilation was ever present.' Therefore, the narratives were often complex and convoluted, and typically told with an ominous orchestral score in the background, flashbacks, witty and sharp dialogue, first-person voice-over narration. This could be seen from the opening scenes of Double Indemnity (1944) when Neff told the audience that he killed Mr. Dietrichson for Phyllis for money, but in the end he got neither the money nor the woman. In this scene, Billy Wilder used flashbacks to tell the story, so that the audience knows the fate of the main character. From this point, every scene in the film leads to a conclusion that the audience already knows. Since Rick Altman (1999) argues that the genre offers the audience a "series of pleasures", from Double Indemnity (1944), the audience receives intellectual pleasure from the character, Neff, so that they understand the film's plot much more. This is where Neff becomes trapped by the narrative he lives in, the film then enacts a sort of existential fatalism, which is the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. While in Double Indemnity (1944) Neff's fate is already told to the audience, in his film In a Lonely Place (1950) Nicholas Ray demonstrated a classic feature of film noir: the complexity of the narrative. Since Dixon was the last person to see Mildred, he puts himself on a list of suspects, from this the audience has to understand if Dixon killed the woman, which audience is forced to show their intellectuality during the film. In other words,they could show up as Laurel, since Laurel in the movie is doing exactly what the audience would do in her mind (trying to find solutions or clues to figure out the truth about the whole murder situation). Film noir developed during and after World War II, exploiting the postwar atmosphere of anxiety, pessimism, and frustration.suspicion. It was a style of low-budget American B-movie that capitalized on advances in film production in the 1920s and 1930s. Therefore, it could be argued that film noir is not a genre, but a "style of American cinema from the 1940s and 1950s characterized by detective protagonists, squalid settings, dark lighting, and a fatalistic tone." There are characteristics of film noir iconography, for example, the "Venetian blind" lighting is present in Double Indemnity (1944) where there is a medium low close-up of Neff before killing Phyllis. Soft lighting and Venetian blind lighting are used to show Neff a dark and suspicious side, these lighting styles add a chiaroscuro contrast to his face, connoting his moral instability over Phyllis. This also increases tension among the audience, as it allows them to suspect that something bad will happen to Phyllis. As we can see in most film noir, soft lighting is the vital part/style, as “noir functions as a literal and figurative zone of darkness, a place that must be illuminated so one can see.” This is because most films with noir elements are classified as crime or mystery genres. Therefore, low-key lighting allows producers to create enigma and tension in the audience, which makes the film more thought-provoking. Another reason for this is that film noir is black and white, so producers are more likely to use the advantage of different lighting levels to create different modes of tension for the audience. To explain this further, we can look at the fistfight scene between Dixon and the driver who accosts him in In a Lonely Place (1950), the contrast of the lighting is comparatively higher than normal lighting. Connoting his aggression from his inner body, which also reveals to the audience that Dixon's severe anger issues are no longer hidden. In addition to lighting, the characteristic of sound is also an identification in film noir. The sound used in a scene would generally be that of the diegetic traffic flow, with the occasional siren to fit the urban location, with the sirens also adding to the lower society of the film noir world. An interesting point when the scene involves women, the instruments tend to be high pitched with instruments such as violin and flute. This can be heard in Billy Wilder's production when Phyllis is coming down the stairs to meet Neff in the living room. The violin creates the effect of Neff's tired romance towards Phyllis, while the flute would be used to emphasize Phyllis' beauty. However, looking back at the scene before Neff kills Phyllis, it consists of background music and dialogue between two characters and also the sound of gunshots. At the beginning of the scene, Neff went to close the window behind Phyllis because he doesn't like the music coming from outside the house, but in reality the reason he closed the window is that he doesn't want shots to be fired. sense. The gunshots were loud enough to create contrast because the audience does not know that Neff has a gun, which provides emotional pleasure to the audience, as they were shocked by Neff's action towards Phyllis. In addition to this scene, the music is in counterpoint with the characters' actions, as it is a romantic and calm piece of music, not.