..

            The ending of the novel does not satisfied me at all. I was expecting something different maybe more action more drama or something with a bang at the end. The conclusion was unclear and kind of mysterious. What really happen at the end?? Did they getaway with murder and was on their retreat to Mexico? Did they get married? Or did Walter and Phyllis committed suicide? Whatever it was I did not like it. 

            Walter and Phyllis should have received different treatment in my eyes. It was obvious that something was going to happen to the both of them. But never picture that the ending that, it ended up to be. Like I have been talking about Phyllis being the femme fatale and Walter being the ambiguous protagonist (on others blogs), we all knew that Walter was going to be in trouble at the ending for hanging around Phyllis, but never pictured death or married to the black widow. Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton “Towards a Definition of Film Noir,” said on the article "Sordidly or bizarrely, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey.  In every sense of the word, a noir film is a film of death."  So I guess I was expecting death, I was expecting death upon Phyllis, the bad, crazy woman but not Walter. 

Black Widow...

Phyllis falls perfectly under the description of an femme fatale in this tale. From the beginning I have called her the black widow because black widows are shy in nature but become fatale. Phyllis has been acting dumb since the beginning to get what she wants. The black widow waits for its catch, in this case Walter gave alone. She grabs him and won’t let him go. This is why I say that she is the mastermind and the femme fatale. Something that a femme fatale must have, manipulative, tricky but nice personality.

 She makes Walter believe that he is the control in the planning in which he has but that is what she wants. She tricks him in planning and doing her job without her doing anything. She acts like she was no clue in what she is doing; therefore Walter comes in and "takes" control. In chapter two she has the idea to kill her husband but she claims that she really can’t go through with it. "I haven’t any reason. He treats me as well as a man can treats a woman...we can’t. Its simply --insane." she acts this way after she plants the seed into Walters head to kill her husband. She waits for him to pop up and to take the roll of the mastermind. In a way he dose. He falls right into her trap. "Yes, its insane. We’re going to do it. I feel it... but you're going to do It." and this is the part where she gets happy ending. "Yes, god help me, I'm going to do it" (18).

He takes his roll really serious that he begins to coach her. "I showed her that her only chance was to talk dumb, not start the car, and wait him out, until he would get so sore, and so worried over time, that he would make a martyr out of himself. She kept at it. Just like she was coached" (43). I find it ironic that the student is teaching the teacher here. He has no clue that what he is telling her to do is what she is doing to him as he thinks.

Phyllis is the femme fatale and a perfect one I say. When Walter lacks in his own plan she pops up like a true mastermind. " That man must have weighed 200 pounds, but she had him on her back, holding him by the handle...his head was hanging down beside her head. They looked like something in a horror picture" (51). She had to carry her death husband because she thought that Walter was going to flake. When Walter asked her why was she carrying him and why didn’t she waited for him to carry him, she replied "where were you? Where were you?" "I was there. I was waiting-" "did I know that? Could I just sit there, with that in the car? (52). She got mad because that was his job and she had to pick up her picky to do something she wanted him to do.

Frustrated and deviant, half predator, half prey, detached yet ensnared woman, the femme fatale (Phyllis) for ya. 

Femme Fatale

By reading the first three chapters of "Double Indemnity" by James M. Cain, I got a better understanding of the term Femme Fatales. "Femme fatales - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women" (Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir:  Themes and Styles” handout). 

Watch This! [:

            

The Usual Suspect is one of the best movies in the world! To me at lease. I saw that movie when I was young and fall in LOVE with it. This movie can be found under the neo-noir. Film noir can be describe as "crime-infested, shadow-draped, black-and-white movies" as the article The Neo-Noir 90's describe it. Even thought this movie is not in black-and-white, I dose have the elements of film noir in it or neo-noir which mean new modern noir (color). 

The Usual Suspect starts off with police looking into a crime that happen on a boat the exploded on a pier in San Pedro. The police discover 27 bodies and money ($91 million) on the boat. Five man were arrested in New York and brought to the station together for questioning. These five man are pros in their crimes and they all agree to work together on a job that pays well. They all worked for a mystery guy, legendary mastermind criminal name Kaiser Söze. One of the elements of noir, mystery. The unknown is what made this film so enjoyable to watch. 

Later in the movie it becomes obvious that the five man did Söze wrong and now Söze wants revenge. Another element in noir, vengeance. The suspicion increase all through the movie as five man begins to turn on each other for continued existence. 

Of course there are only two people who survive massacre and fire on a ship docked, Verbal Kint, a crippled con man and a cruelly burned Hungarian terrorist. And of course Kaiser Söze. Knit, the only one that can talk, narratives the story throughout the movie, which is classic in a noir film. The movie itself is flashbacks and makes believe by Knit. 

Narratives are frequently complex and convoluted, typically told with flashbacks, which this movie has both.

Even though this movie dose not have a femme fatale or is in black-in-white, its still the best Noir movie! There is lot of action and doomy and dangerous sense. The love that face hat this movie has a weird but great ending, something that was not expected, a nice twist at the end! The movie itself well keeps you on your toes asking one question throughout the entire movie- who is Kaiser Söze?

 Hint Hint*** go rent/buy/see this movie! you will LOVE it!<3