Blog 7- Blog option 2

Blog option two: How does having a female as both protagonist and first-person narrator affect these narratives?  Would you still consider these stories as noir?  Why or why not?

    When I first began to read The Method by Janet Fitch, I decided right away to chose blog option 2. I think having a woman be the protagonist is a nice breath of fresh air. I was just getting used to Neo-Noir's vulgarity in the new stories. Now with Holly in The Method being a woman and being so raunchy and raw was pretty entertaining for me. It took the classic noir depiction of stay at home women in the 40's to a neo noir perspective; The new Era of women- Holly was an independent single woman living by herself in the city. 

     Is a female protagonist still considered noir? I would have to say it is. While I was reading the story, it reminded me of Sunset Blvd. Same washed out actress, the location and even the gloominess of it all. As Holly walked in Mariah's house she describes is as being "dark and smelled of mold". The Method, like other noir stories, also escalated quickly. She got seduced (surprisingly) pretty fast by Richard (Anthony), suddenly was willing to kill, then suddenly turned crazy and killed him. So I think besides a protagonist female, I would label this story Neo-Noir.  I'm actually enjoying the neo-noir stories a little more, especially in these short stories. I kept predicting which of Holly, Richard or Mariah were going to die. It's somewhat nice now to not know the outcome of the story in the beginning.

Article Review; Blog 5.

    A blog post written by Thomas Caldwell titled "Notes on film: Double indemnity" gave me a lot more facts and insight about the film and the origins of film noir. Caldwell opens by informing us that Double indemnity was actually one of the first or even the first true film noir. I enjoyed getting to know a little about the origins of how film noir was inspired by the depression and the war, and how the dark images and thoughts were transpired by these events. Even some early traits of film noir are traced back to 1910 from German expressionist films, these film makers eventually came to the U.S when the Nazi's took over and shared these traits. The french actually were the first to recognize the trend in hollywood naming it "Film Noir" translating to "Dark film".

   I mostly was interested in the comment he wrote to a viewer when asked why the Femme fatale character was very popular to women at this time. He replied stating that it showed strong empowerment to women because of how the "social norm" back in the early 90's were of Men being superior. But in the case of film noir stories, the Women seem to have more of an upper-hand. I remember the class discussing these topics of Rosie the Riveter and how women emerged to defining themselves more than just a housewife. All in all, It was nice to read about the roots of film noir and the reasons behind this film movement.

Zero Draft Questions; Blog #4

Question #3
       I feel when a film opens with the ending or after the climax part in a story it automatically draws the audience in like how Double Indemnity opened in their first scene showing the main character, Walter wounded. We are now curious to how Walter came to this conclusion. In the novel, the story is told in chronological order minus Walter narrating his story. When I was reading the first few pages of the book, I wasn't really interested as much as I was in the beginning of the film because the book just opening with some boring insurance salesmen talking about his job and other information about other characters. It wasn't really an attention grabber like how it would be if the story opened with a death or an outcome that the readers can be curious about. The ending in the beginning is also good for a film noir movie because it's a popular trait. It's usually about knowing the main character's predicament or death first, then they narrate to the audience of how it was led to that point. It's also usually a first person point of view.

Question #9
      There are definitely noticeable changes of Barton Keyes' character between the film and novel. In the novel, we do see a closer bond between Huff and Keyes other than just being coworkers.  Keyes' character is a tough "hardboiled detective" but it seems he has a soft spot for Walter. When the company does a routine investigation on Walter about the murder, Keyes immediately sends a message claiming he is innocent and has nothing to do with the crime. Though there is an apparent connection between the two in the novel , the film emphasizes it greatly. The biggest emphasis would be the narration. Walter is confessing in a recording to Keyes about the murder, Therefore the film is directed to Keyes. It is gravitating more towards Walter's and Keyes' relationship because it's somewhat like a conversation between them. There was even less chemistry between Walter and Lola in the film because it was focused more between Keyes and Walter.