Director Billy Wilder left his native Austria to escape the Nazis, and after his emigration to the United States, was the quintessential American director. He started as a scriptwriter for Ernst Lubisch and others then began the line with The Front Page, later filmed as His Girl Friday.
Double Indemnity (1944) was Wilder's third, but stylistically first serious film, and credit for the birth of film noir is replaced, literally "night movie." This term describes a visualStyle and mood of a type of dramatic film, usually crime that is much more granular and more realistic than most movies before that time.
Film noir was mostly shot at night or in dark interiors, there are a lot of use of shadows, dimly lit corners, light of blinds, bars, in characters, which may be directed to the simulated emergency, and with backlight . smoke Indemnity used both cigars and cigarettes, with a cigarette when it is stretched, or even relax after sex.
Film noirhas its origins in the 30's detective stories, which was often printed as Pulp Fiction for cheap paper it was this dark side stories with sex, violence and shady characters. The heroes were people with common street wisdom, often with a hard upbringing and a parent best.
Soldiers from the Second World War and a film audience that had survived the Great Depression, calling for more adult films in the topic, theme and style. Wilder was impressed by pulp writer John KainStory of "Double Indemnity", the same author of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, but it was considered unfilmable because of the Hayes Code censorship autocracy. The script was through years of rewrites and applications before the shooting was allowed in 1944. The Hayes Code suppressed first sex in movies, then violence, socialism, and later was used, a verdict of more than 28,000 works of art over!
Wilder then had a difficult time casting the lead parts, two murders, adulterers. HeBarbara Stanwyck was the whole time, but eventually she had to question, to get them to the image-shattering, and role they're asked, "Are you an actress or a mouse?" After several refusals by actors, including George Raft, who had a knack for turning a breakthrough part as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, he persuaded Fred McMurray on his screen image from light romantic comedy to break, something more serious attempt. His first scene with Stanwyck when she meets in her apartment and she in a towelout of the bathroom, using his comedic skills along with some great dialogue and timing.
Wilder also convinced actor Edward G. Robinson, a non-actor character role, meaty enough for at least two major speeches that Robinson absolutely nailed. Crime writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye) has been implicated for its realistic dialogue, many here clearly above all the first scenes between Stanwyck and McMurray. However, Chandler was an introverted person, andWild extrovert, so they do not get along at all and never worked together again. Ironically, they were jointly nominated for an Oscar for her screenplay. Chandler Wilder later used as a model for its best picture winner The Lost Weekend, is a severe alcoholic, his life destroyed.
Double Indemnity was nominated for Academy Awards was this 7 (but do not like Going My Way Picture and won a total of seven):
BEST MOTION PICTURE - Paramount
Director - BillyWilder
Actress - Barbara Stanwyck
Cinematography (Black and White) - John Seitz
MUSIC (Music Score a Drama or Comedy) - Miklos Rozsa
WRITING (Screenplay) - Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler
Sound Recording - Loren L. Ryder, Sound Director
Other classic film noir Out of the Past, The Night of the Hunter, Panic in the Streets, DOA, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man, Touch of Evil, The Lady FromShanghai
Modern film noir: Wait Until Dark, Diva (France), Chinatown, Shoot the Piano Player (France), Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Blood Simple, Body Heat, House of Games and The Silence of the Lambs.
The style is also evident in other parts of the classic films like "In the Heat of the Night, The Godfather, Mean Streets, Batman, The Hustler, The Departed and No Country for Old Men
Billy Wilder's filmography includes: Stalag 17, SomeLike It Hot, The Apartment, The Spirit of St. Louis, Witness for the Prosecution, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, The Fortune Cookie. Wilder has been for 21 Oscars, 12 nominated in writing, 8 in the line, and won six. He won for directing, producing and writing The Apartment, for the management of The Lost Weekend, and for the writing of Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard.
