July 13, 2024

Double Indemnity

Why didn't I like Double Indemnity? I like film noir, and Billy Wilder is a thoroughly modern director who made two of my favorite movies - The Apartment and Some Like It Hot. (He also made the stunning Sunset Boulevard.) I think maybe it left me indifferent because, while it was the first best movie of its kind, it has been done again and again, and sometimes better, in the 80 years since.

An insurance salesman is seduced by a femme fatale into killing her husband, but soon after he's drawn into their plot, he struggles to avoid getting caught, and realizes too late that the wife can and will let him swing for them both.

I also was thoroughly pissed off that this screening began late on purpose. Unbeknownst to me, the movie was preceded by an introduction from a local film professor. I like a little context-setting, maybe a few bits of trivia, but instead, she delivered a 15 minute lecture on the history of film noir. I can sit through know-it-all pedantry from an academic who likes the sound of her own voice, but she addressed us as if we were all 19-year-old freshmen, instead of mostly adults who came out to see a movie we knew and liked already. Also, this introduction began at the time printed on the ticket. I absolutely resent it when movies deliberately start late. Big movie chains are notorious for starting their advertising, then trailers, at the time printed on the ticket, so the movie starts 20 minutes late. I come to theaters like the Mahaiwe partly to avoid this exploitation of my time. This is a corollary of how I resent when events start late, punishing those who follow the rules and rewarding people who can't get their shit together. BLERGH