Equilibrium

SemiNoir is a continuing series of short academic essays dealing with film noirs watched and reviewed in the seminar 'Film Noir and American Culture' at the University of Tuebingen.

To be quite honest: Until this moment I did not really know which aspect of the movie to take and focus on. I do not know what this means for the movie or my reception of it, however, I think this noir is a little bit overrated in its general reception. On the one hand it shows not only very good performances, but also Wilder's talent of directing. After having seen this one would probably not believe that Wilder did some of the funniest (!) movies ever, in particular One, Two, Three. If you keep this in mind and take a look at Double Indemnity, at first one would think that the noir has no sign of comedic elements, however, if one takes a closer look at it, there is a lot of comic relief (e.g. the scene with Keyes and the foreign truck driver) – even the way Keyes (E.G. Robinson) is behaving one can find comic relief in it. On the other hand Double Indemnity is not as interesting and versatile than, for example, my favorite noir so far, Out of the Past (whose dialogue is simply brilliant). I think it is the most 'comprehensible' noir, and maybe this is the reason why it is so well-known and well-received. However, it is still a very good noir, indeed (and there is a lot of 'meta' to it – e.g. as we discussed the father-son conflict, the father figure, the insurance business, the sexuality, Nino, …).

Furthermore, the aspcet I am most interested in now is the title and how it is connected to the movie. To be quite honest again: I did not know what these two words meant until I looked it up. In addition, it is also mentioned in the movie itself, when Neff (Fred MacMurray) tells Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) that their planned 'assasination' would be "A double indemnity. The insurance would pay twice the amaount insured." So the title indicates the central motif for our two protagonists – in other words this means: doubled money (for the murder). Yet, 'double indemnity' does mean something else for Neff and Phyllis. For Phyllis it is a double 'insurance'. She has nothing to fear, because she is double insured: firstly, she can blame Neff for the murder any time (although she is a complice), and secondly, she gets rid of her husband. In other words: she does not only get a double indemnity, but a double double indemnity – she gets rid of her husband, she can blame Jeff for his murder and gets not only the single amount of (insurance) money but the double amount. It is almost the same for Jeff: he can show that he is intelectually superior to his 'father', Keyes, gets the girl (Phyllis) and finally the money. In the end, however, they would have to share the money so that it is no double but a single indemnity for each one of them …

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