The character of Bridget Gregory in the movie The Last Seduction shows her to be the ultimate femme fatale character, encompassing all three of the classic femme fatale traits from the Christopher’s “Women as Seen in the Film Noir” that we talked about in class. Within the other movies we watched, the femme fatale characters only desired one of three things: “lust for exciting sex, a desire for wealth and the power it brings, [or] a need to control everything and everyone around her” (Christopher, 162). As we discussed earlier, Brigid from The Maltese Falcon wanted money and Gilda from Gilda wanted control (over Johnny). However, Bridget Gregory is interesting because she wants (and gets) all three of these things. She achieves her “lust for exciting sex” through her relationship with Mike and the numerous places they have sex, such as outside the bar (33 minutes) and in the high school gym (47 minutes). Bridget also achieves her desire for wealth quite early in the movie, when she runs off with the money from the drug deal (10 minutes). She spends the entire movie struggling to keep it by fending off her husband who is trying to track her down. At one point, she is even sleeping naked covered in the money she stole, a sure sign of her newly-acquired affluence. Thirdly, she achieves her need to control throughout the entire movie. She is always pulling strings, especially with Mike. She pretends to get in a fight with Mike in order to convince him to murder Clay (1 hour 43 minutes) She also bakes cookies for Clay’s hired watchman so that she can put nails behind his wheel to pop his tire (1 hour 31 minutes). Bridget’s easy and blasé attainment of all these different desires shows that she is a powerful femme fatale and a force to be reckoned with.

Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction is the quintessential femme fatale but since she does not exist in a storyline centered on a male, she makes it out alive while the male characters are the ones who are arrested or die. Bridget fits most of the characteristics of the femme fatale that Christopher lists in his article “Women as Seen in the Film Noir.” Bridget definitely “has an independent or rebellious will” that is shown throughout the film as she continuously uses everyone around her to her advantage (161). In her disregard for the rules, she slowly gets Mike to throw away the rules as well, beginning in his office when she first proposes that they sell murder to unhappy wives (46 minutes). Bridget’s indifference towards the rules is what gets her what she wants. The motives that Christopher outlines for the femme fatale also motivate Bridget. First, she gets involved with Mike purely out of “a lust for exciting sex” and continuous the relationship for the same reason, before she figures out how to use him in her plotting (162). Second, the main goal for Bridget is to get away with the money, going along with Christopher’s motive of “wealth and the power it brings” (162). Not only does Bridget want the money, she also wants the satisfaction of taking it from her husband, showing her dominating power over him. This desire for power goes along with Christopher’s third motive: “a need to control everything and everyone around her” (162). Bridget definitely wants the money but ultimately she just wants control. This is seen in her complete ease in every situation and scene in the film. Unlike the male protagonist or femme fatales we have seen in other film noir who seem to have more emotion or at least more reaction when things do not go exactly as planned, Bridget is completely cool the entire time, making the audience wonder if this really wasn’t what she had planned all along. For example, at the end of the film when Mike and Bridget’s husband Clay think they have her figured out and trapped, Bridget shows barely any emotion or shock (1 hr 39 minutes). The emotion is more annoyance than anything else. Then she gets to kill one man (Clay) and get the other arrested (Mike) while she walks away without a scratch. Her cool demeanor and emotionless reaction might be because she knew Mike wouldn’t be able to pull off the murder, or maybe even hopping it. Going back to her need for power and control, Bridget has both here and in the end.

Post 1: In both The Asphalt Jungle and Into the Labyrinth, two women are portrayed in sexy sequences with low cut tops and portrayed to be very flirtatious. While comparing these two forms of media, women are often seen as extremely iconic objects while comparing them to the men. While previously watching Double Indemnity, a woman was also seen to be flirtatious yet appealing to the main character. In this specific film, the woman makes the excuse that the man “leaves his hat” at her place in order for her to show up at her house. The opening of Into the Labyrinth, Christopher makes a point to say “Picture first, flickering before you, impeccably photographed in rich tones of black and white, a sleek young woman with long dark hair, a cream- colored dress, low-cut and sashed, and a large, flat white hat the conceals her.” (Christopher 1) While this specific scenario goes into great detail of this woman, it compares to the scene in The Asphalt Jungle where the woman is laying seductively across the coach and then proceeds to make a move portraying that she throws herself on the man. I find this interesting, that in both forms of media, women are seen as very sexual, and almost as if they pressure the man to fall for them. This has not changed over time and is still present in media today. Whether we mentally make note of it or not while watching films, women are often shot to be wearing revealing clothes that fancy a man. With times changing this form of feminism will gradually progress with time to be less noticeable throughout media.

The femme fatale character in film noir is an important element within this genre, though not essential. Femme fatales can be found in the characters Brigid O’Shaughnessy of The Maltese Falcon and Phyllis Dietrichson of Double Indemnity. These women often complicate the protagonist’s life, using their emotions and femininity for their own gain. In Double Indemnity, Dietrichson convinces protagonist Walter Neff to help murder her husband, promising him her love in return for this deed. However, it soon becomes clear that Dietrichson never really loved Neff and instead used him as a way to get rid of her husband. Such devious female characters weren’t new in the 1940’s, however. This type of character can be found in classic mythology as well. The Greek sorceress Circe ensnared Odysseus and his men through her feminine guile (and magic), turning many of them into swine and keeping them on her island for an entire year, thus preventing their return back home. As Christopher notes, the femme fatale of noir could often be “…a Circe—spinning webs of deceit and leading [the protagonist] directly to danger” (7). This dangerous quality so common of femme fatale characters can also be exemplified within Brigid O’Shaughnessy of The Maltese Falcon. She attempts to toy with the protagonist Sam Spade. After being cornered for her lies, O’Shaughnessy acts blustery, shy and submissive: traits of a stereotypical “proper” woman of the 1940’s and 50’s. Spade doesn’t buy into this act, but her attempts to distort his perception of her shows how cunning she is.

On a separate note, although femme fatales play vital roles in many films, they are not necessary for a film noir to work. For example, in The Asphalt Jungle there are no femme fatales to speak of. The few female characters in this film are rather good-natured and have no deceptive elements to them.

In The Asphalt Jungle, Dix Handley is a man stuck in the city of crime as Christopher describes in his article “Into the Labyrinth.” Dix takes out his feelings of being trapped in the city when his only desire is to get back to his home, Kentucky, on his farm and away from the risky, fast-paced life of the city on his ever faithful love interest Doll. He treats Doll aggressively, almost as a symbol of his dislike and wishes to ride himself of the city though she helps him every time he asks. Doll’s role mirrors Christopher’s description of one kind of female in noir: “In every labyrinth, as in every film noir, a woman plays a critical role. When she is a Beatrice-type, she is almost too good to be true. Nurturing to a fault, loyal beyond the bounds of common sense, she is like the faithful guide who appears suddenly in a nightmare” (20). This is exactly what Doll is to Dix. First she lets Dix bring in an injured man, Doc, after the men’s jewelry robbery and instead of asking question (Dix offers no explanation) she lets them into her apartment (1hr 19 min). Dix doesn’t seem to particularly like Doll but she continues to be his means of escape and he relies on her. As Dix is planning his escape to Kentucky, Doll gets him a car and sets everything up but then insists on going with him. She holds his fate in her hands, as she knows where the car is and threatens to not tell him unless she goes too, to which he replies “I don’t get it I just don’t get it” before allowing her to come (1hr 38 min). Her faith and desire to Dix is clearly not reciprocated yet she is unwavering until the end.

Students will compare and contrast noir films of their choice. One from class as well as one from outside. If they choose to compare and contrast a film from class and a different media text, one aside from film, that is also alright. For example, a novel, graphic novel, TV show, etc. Anything the student can make an argument for as “noir”.

• Compare and Contrasting must include: thematic elements such as mis-en-scene, lighting, camera angles, editing techniques, narrative themes, and visual motifs.
• To further develop the student’s project, they could include background information about the separate films. For example: what was going on in the world during the time they were filming or when the film was being released, fun facts about the actors or stuff that occurred over filming.
• Evaluation Criteria: the student’s comprehension of the film tactics, the effort and completion of the description they put in to discussing the film.
• Proposal is due Feb 23rd by class. After this, must have meeting with Brett some time before final project, which is due on March 24th. Students will each do a powerpoint presentation comparing and contrasting, which must last 10-15 minutes each.
• Weighting: 20-30% course grade.

 

 

For this assignment, students will either work collectively or in pairs/trios analyzing/comparing/contrasting different films (can be assigned or voted) of noir (both original or modern style). The goal is to generate a presentation based off these different ideas and evaluated through discussion of their style, their possible influence/reason for creation, and evolution of their noir in each respective time period. In this project, a concrete textual analysis of lighting, cinematography, mise-en-scene would be ideal for digging into a deeper understanding for what the creators of the film were attempting to encode for an audience to decode.

A proposal for this project would be due either Thursday Feb. 25 or Tuesday March 1st. The final presentation of this project would be due on March 17 or March 24. The weight this assignment would be carrying would be no more than 30% of our Final Grade.

 

Description

For this assignment we will choose one of the following elements of noir and make a supercut of all the examples from films either we’ve watched in class or others outside of class. These elements are taken from this infographic but this assignment could be for any other element that we noticed.

1) Character types

2) Heavy smoking and/or drinking

3) Stolen money or valuables

4) Urban location

5) Bleak view of humanity

6) Asymmetrical composition

7) Deep focus

8) High contrast lightning

9) Use of reflections

10) Extreme high/low angles and close-ups

Pulling different parts of many movies that share this one elements would show how this elements is used either the same or differently throughout film noir. Also, we could find this characteristic in movies that might not be considered noir as a sort of counterpoint or, if we wanted to go farther into comparing noir to other genres, how the elements of noir influence other films.

Along with the supercut video, we would write a short essay explaining the element we chose and how it is used throughout noir, including any cultural significance it might have for the time period or how to is different from the classic hollywood films. How is the element used in each movie? What does the use of a supercut through each of these scenes tell us about noir?

Evaluation Criteria

This assignment would be evaluated based on explanation of the element chosen, clear examples, and understanding of how this element fits into the category of noir.

Schedule/Due Dates

This assignment would need as many as three due dates.

Week 5: Proposal of element chosen. (Why is it important to noir? How does it appear in                 the films?)

Week 6: List of examples (title of movies with specific sense)

Week 8: Supercut of the characteristic video and essay

Weighting

This assignment could be 15% – 20% of the overall grade.

For 30% of our final grade, students will be paired with one other student and assigned a specific film that allows the group to dig deeper and create a 10 minute presentation as to why this film falls into the film noir category. After the presentations I think it would be beneficial to discuss how these specific films have similarities and differences as well as other elements that fall into this genre. Groups will be graded on their ability to portray their specific films and how they interact with other groups when comparing and contrasting.

I think a topic proposal discussing your groups film choice and the elements you wish to research should be due on Thursday, February 25th. Presentations would then be due on Thursday, March 24th.