Second Coming

          In the documentary "Film Noir", Kathryn Bigelow says, "It's A character who is on a downward spiral from which he cannot emerge".  This quote applies to the movie because it describes what Frank and Cora are going through throughout the whole movie.  First it starts with Frank, as soon as he lays his eyes on Cora, he he knows his life has changed.  The affair they have only gets deeper and deeper as they fall in love and plot to murder Nick.  This applies to the main message of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" because no matter what happens, even after COra dies in an accidental car crash, Frank is suspected and will get executed.

          In the documentary the best description that identifies Cora from "The Postman Always Rings Twice" as Janey Place describes, "She's is she is very smart, powerful and she's extremely sexual".  What makes Cora a female fatale is her power status of being married to the owner of an estate.  She is also very smart in coming up with the plans to murder Nick.  She is not a very typical female fatale though, because a common female fatale is more of a black widow type.  Where the female uses her sexuality to get something for herself.

Cora Scene @ beginning of film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGFer3-Aguw


The shadows and light help create this "good vs evil" feeling.  The light sources themselves become part of the scene.  In"The Postman Always Rings Twice"they used the lighting in a very controlled, dramatic way.  Scenes could be shot in the day and the actual scene would be set at night.  Tilted angles also give a film noir feel. A specific moment from the film is when Frank and Cora go to swim at the beach.  It seems like it is night time, but it was actually day time when that was shot.  Another example is when they are in the diner, the "Venetian Blind" technique is used.  The venetian blind technique was used to alter space psychologically using light techniques.

Neo Noir compares with Film Noir in many ways.  They both use similar plots.  Like a hard working woman who wants it all and they lure in a innocent man and takes him downhill.  Our week 4 film "Body Heat" uses a storyline where a typical woman gets into an affair with another man and she is currently married to a rich man.  They both plan to murder her husband but ends up using the man like a tool to get what she truly wants.  They use very seductive sexual music in many scenes to depict a sexual female fatale feeling.  Many scenes in the movies have many shadows and use the venetian blind technique in the lawyers office.