Behind the Shadows

The low-key lighting is the most distinctive characteristic of film noir, and it is a crucial element of Double Indemnity’s cinematography. Double Indemnity is an exceedingly dark film with characters emerging from the darkness. And, the shadows cover the faces of the characters. The shadows from the low-key lighting mean more than a defining feature of film noir. The use of shadows in Double Indemnity reveals the protagonist’s evil mind and symbolizes the character’s moral descent.

Walter Neff, as an insurance salesman is an anti-hero who is full of contradictions.

Walter is a complex character with a combination of a ruthless murderer, and a weak protagonist with a guilty mind. The anti-hero who is the protagonist led astray by greed, and lust gets into a bad situation because his moral fiber goes in the right direction when he is tempted by money and a woman, as in the case of Double Indemnity.

When director Billy Wilder tried to illustrate Walter Neff’s evil mind, he put Neff in shadow or used shadow to reveal his mind.

Billy Wilder used shadow to portray Walter Neff’s depths of depravity and greed in a montage where Walter Neff prepares before the murder of Mr. Diestrichson. In a straight-on close-up shot of Walter Neff putting a card in the doorbell, the shot is lighted by the crisscrossed shadow from the blinds, so that he would know if someone had looked for him while he was away. And, the crisscrossed shadow is a symbol of Walter’s guilty mind that represents prison bars because he is preparing for the perfect crime of murdering Mr.

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Diestrichson. After the preparation at his apartment, Neff takes the stairs in a low, angled long shot. It starts as a long shot but turns into a close-up as Walter comes close to us. Walter Neff is in a dark shadow while he comes down the stairs, and the crisscrossed shadows are on the wall. Walter Neff, as full of greed, is portrayed by putting him in a dark shadow, and also the crisscrossed shadow on the walls represents prison bars. Until the point of Walter preparing for the murder from the beginning of the film, he was never portrayed in dark shadow for the entire scene. This shadow plays physically shows that Walter Neff is a different, much darker person than before.

In an eye-leveled full shot of Dietrichson’s house living room, Phyllis is seductively sitting down on a sofa. The door opens, and the audience sees Walter Neff’s shadow precedes, then he walks into the house. There is sunlight coming into the house through the window, from direction right to left. However, when Walter Neff’s shadow precedes the door from left to right, we recognize that the shadow of Walter Neff is deliberately designed. The shadow of Walter Neff represents his evil mind that he is alluded to by his lust. When he enters Dietrichson’s house, there is Phyllis seductively sitting down on a sofa, waiting for Walter Neff. Then, he stops right in the light coming through the blinds. The crisscrossed shadows from blinds represent prison bars.

There is an eye-leveled medium-wide shot of Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson by Neff’s apartment door. The apartment door is opened, and they have a conversation right at the door. Neff is in shadow inside his apartment, and Phyllis is under the light in the hallway. Walter Neff used to go to Dietrichson’s house, and it is the first time Phyllis visited Neff at his apartment. It is uncommon to design to shoot a protagonist in shadows unless it means something important to the story. Another medium shot of Walter and Phyllis sitting on a sofa at Neff’s apartment shows that Billy Wilder deliberately put Walter Neff in shadow. On the other hand, Phyllis is lighted by a lamp next to her. The shadow illustrated how the unhealthy lust that Walter is driven by expresses his inner weakness that can then be taken advantage of. When Walter Neff is with Phyllis, he is powerless, and Billy Wilder put Walter in his shadow to portray his lust.

At the beginning of the film, Walter Neff is seemingly hypnotized by Phyllis’ beauty and allure. Then, his characteristics of greed and lust started to grow. Director Billy Wilder used shadow to portray Walter’s greedy and lustful mind throughout the film. Putting Walter Neff in their shadow, helped to reveal his evil mind and heightened the drama. By using shadow to reveal Walter Neff’s character, Billy Wilder successfully deliver how much weight the character carries and the difficulty of the character’s journey.

The use of shadow not only portrayed to reveal Walter Neff’s evil mind, but also symbolized the character’s moral descent. Neff is psychologically unstable throughout the film, which can be seen when Neff decides to help Phyllis kill her husband and commit insurance fraud. Throughout the film, Walter Neff fights a psychological battle with himself about the murder he committed and the insurance scam. In Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder used crisscrossed shadows to symbolize Neff’s moral descent.