DI - Mise-en-scene: Lighting (Assessment) Flashcards
The distinct use of ________ is one of the distinctive features of film noir and one of the most significant stylistic traits of Double Indemnity.
Lighting
The ___________ effects are employed in Double Indemnity and are evident in the opening scene as the wounded Neff makes his way to his office to begin his confession.
Chiaroscuro
The opening external shots show the dark city streets illuminated by street lamps and the neon sign of the _________ Building.
Pacific
As Neff enters the Pacific Building, his darkened, halting figure becomes a partial incarnation of the portentous shadow prefaced in the opening credits. In the _____, the only light is the rhomboid emanating from the elevator at obtuse angles.
Foyer
As Neff enters his office, the main light enters from the blinds, symbolically the source of light emanating from elsewhere. As he sits, a desk light provides the central light source, providing chiaroscuro illumination of the _____. Neff speaks, his hat still on, and this provides further shadowing effects for the face.
Face
Some of the symbolic and technical features of lighting are found in Neff’s first meeting with Phyllis. He drives to the Dietrichson household on a sunny afternoon in late May, providing us with one of the few images of a sun-drenched Los Angeles. _______ quickly moves the action to the inside of the Dietrichson house where lighting is restricted and once again the blinds diffuse the external brightness.
Wilder
In one of the first classic shots, Phyllis sits cross-legged on the armchair, the shadows partially resting across her chest and face, but her legs, accentuated by the anklet and the pompoms on her shoes are illuminated in clear light, beginning the fetishisation of the femme fatale.
What does fetishisation mean?
‘The substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. The erotic instinct is focused on the look alone.’
It is significant that as she gets _____ to elucidate upon his insurance portfolio, leading to the first tentative broaching of accident insurance, a distinct shadow is cast on the living room wall, strangely indicative of her ulterior motive.
Neff
One of the most distinctive and possibly archetypal uses of lighting in the film occurs when Phyllis first visits Neff’s apartment. Significantly, the now obsessed Neff stands in his darkened room, the dark encoding his mood of fatalism. The only light initially comes from the external street lights, and the mordant feel is accentuated by the rain falling outside. As he opens the door to Phyllis, once again light enters from the external environment of the apartment corridor. When Phyllis enters, Neff switches the lights on but the mezzo light seems to reduce the ______ light to create a harsher sense of realism.
Filler
The murder scene itself takes place at night and the darkness of the car is illuminated only by the oncoming traffic. The body is dumped on the tracks in the dark and Neff and Phyllis exchange their final kiss in half-shadow. As Neff makes his nervous, covert entrance back to his apartment, an ominous shadow follows him up the stairs. Against the ominous, night for day, lighting, the representation of Lola through lighting emphasizes her innocence and ________ decency.
Moral
Scenes with Lola take place very much in the more normalized world where filler light is used to soften some of the extremes of character and situation. Montage sequences between Lola and Neff on their coastal drive or laughing in a restaurant have a more naturalistic emphasis. Their friendship is not conducted covertly in darkness and even their night-time scene on the hill overlooking the Hollywood bowl is effectively lit in the background by a _________ image reinforced by the music.
Romantic
The penultimate scene of the film provides one of the starkest uses of darkness and one entirely appropriate to the mood. Before Neff arrives, Phyllis turns off the lights, enveloping the room in darkness. As they both double-cross one another, Neff intensifies the atmosphere by drawing the blinds and drawing the curtains to hide their actions from view.
If Neff achieves some redemptive effects in his scenes with Lola, then Phyllis seems to seek this after she has shot Walter and uncharacteristic sentiment grips her. Wilder illuminates her with more top lighting to create a more conventional romantic image, and here she may even temporarily occupy the softer tones of the nurturing woman. Yet typical of the film’s ___________ movement and Wilder’s heightened sense of irony, this moment is shattered as her eyes register the gun at her side, prior to Neff’s shooting of her and her final return to the shadows.
Contrapuntal
____-____ ______: more filler light is used to create a more realistic effect.
High-key lighting
____-_____ _______: the use of only the key and back lights to create the strong contrasts of light and dark, typical of film noir.
Low-key lighting
_______: a reversal of the temporal flow often used in film noir to give a sense of fatalism as events have already occurred, rendering the protagonists hopeless to the prevailing mood of inevitability.
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