Bog Entry #2

Towards a Definition of Film Noir

The quote that I have chosen from Notes on Film Noir is by Paul Shrader that states “nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel”. I decided to choose this quote because all of these five words to me seem to be real characteristics that I can actually see from the novel Double Indemnity. From page 3 to the end of page 33 I was mostly paying attention to how James M. Cain would be telling the story as if I were to be him and act his part. To me I can see why Paul Shrader would state that it’s nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel just for the fact that James M. Cain acts all of those parts all in one and also towards himself.  The way that I find the novel Double Indemnity so far is weird and cruel at the same time. The reason why I state this would be because in the first two to three pages he’s looking for a man that he’s interested to negotiate with over an insurance policy but yet has no luck in finding this man that goes by the name of Mr. Nirdlinger so gives up and starts speaking with the wife Mrs. Nirdlinger over it. I can see how nightmarish comes in the picture because just to think about it, it could actually happen or already has happened in real life to people without even knowing about the whole situation. Now the erotic part starts on page 13 where Mr. Huff starts to get to know Mrs. Nirdlinger and cross the line with her. Also this novel it’s ambivalent because both Mr. Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger start to lead one another based on their relationships. Lastly, Paul states that it’s cruel because Mr. Huff and Mrs. Nirdlinger want something bad to occur to Mr. Nirdlinger and they both are trying to figure out a way to make it happen and get money for it.