Voice-overs and Flashback in Film Noir Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Voice-overs and Flashback in Film Noir - Essay ExampleOne of the stylistic features common to many noir films is the subroutine of extraordinary level devices like voice-overs and flashback sequences. These structural elements are included to underscore or otherwise complement thematic elements of the film. Flashbacks too became an effective medium of call back and recreating the past, a nonher significant flirtivity in psychoanalytic practice. Apart from the psychological dimension, voice-overs could also be used to emphasize the eerie or dark emotional state of noir films. With the right tone, the narratorial voice could easily intensify the feeling of doom and generally dark settings of the typical noir film. Flashbacks were also useful in creating suspense or experimenting with the narrative flow, allowing for creative use of plot. This paper will seek to further explore the role played by these two specific stylistic devices with reference to iii films Double Indemnity (19 44), The Big recreation (1946) and D.O.A (1950). Double Indemnity has a similar opening to D.O.A with the film starting in medias res to reveal a harassed-looking William Neff enter his office room and begin recording his confession addressed to Keyes on his Dictaphone.. The confession triggers off the flashback which presumably will explain the events that lead up to the take out that Neff has just confessed to. Interestingly, just a few minutes into this flashback and the confession of Neff also appears as a voice-over superimposed over the past retelling of events. This film employs some(prenominal) devices then, to build-up its atmosphere. The first of the flashbacks serves to describe what can already be seen on the screen, hardly with added detail like how the room smelled and how the sunlight made the dust visible. More importantly, it allows entryway to Neffs mind and his initial impressions of Phyllis Dietrichson. This voice-over and the next also let the auditory sen se know the level of engagement with the crime that Neff had at the beginning and how the plan to murder Dietrichson is initiated entirely by his wife. However, the voice-over that marks the return of the narrative from the past back into the present, with Neff still at the Dictaphone, reveals to the audience that Neff too had been thinking about committing murder since as an insurance agent he believes In this business you cant sleep for trying to figure out all the tricks they could pull on you. another(prenominal) than tell us about who did what in the murder plot, the voice-overs also give us significant insight into the criminals mind in this case, Walter Neffs. As said in the introduction, this was a period of great faith in Freudian psychoanalysis and the idea of exploring ones sub-conscious was quite popular. The Dictaphone-taped confession acts as catharsis for expunging sin. This is especially evident when Walter says that although he knew everything had gone off perfec tly he still felt that it could all go wrong. He claims to not be able to hear his own footsteps that he was walking like a dead man. This is a classic instance of the psychoanalytic notion of guilt becoming the driving force behind a persons actions and being the ultimate reason for that person to give himself or herself up. The Big Sleep does not use either voiceovers or flashbacks but there are several silences in the plot where Marlowe is seen tailing or waiting for action to happen, which act as narrative fillers. Insights into Marlowes psyche are not spoken or recounted as clearly as in Double Indemnity but as Marlowes character is sketched out to be hard-boiled but honest, what he says in sincerity can be taken by the audience to be true. For instance,