Essay on Money, Death, Sexuality: Phyllis's Unfulfilled Satisfaction in 'Los Feliz'

The themes of the film include money, death, and sexuality. Phyllis, as a female character in the film, combines with Walter to murder her husband. Phyllis's satisfaction is not fulfilled even though she has a lot in her life. The greed for money makes Phyllis combine effort with Walter in killing her husband. As much as Phyllis still had a massive building in Los Feliz, again, they end up formulating an accident insurance policy scheme for them to gain money after the death of Mr. Dietrichson.

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On the other hand, the theme of death is evident in the film by Phyllis murdering people to replace them not only in terms of money but also in love life. Honeysuckle brings about death as a theme in the movie; Walter talks of not knowing honeysuckle smelled like death. How Walter frames the confession at the beginning of the video indicates that the relationship between the two would lead to at least one death. Furthermore, the theme of sexuality is evident across the film. Phyllis uses her body to gain access to most of the things in her life, including wealth and partnership.

Barbara uses her sexuality to control men in her life through her femme fatale acts. She engages in sex to get what she wants. Barbara does not have any earthly use and becomes intent with her performances. She enacts conflicting problems and values that sexual desires stir up and make people do what she wants, whether they are in the mood or not. Barbara lures men with her supernatural powers that lead to their downfall. She uses Walter in killing her husband for money through the insurance policy (Amanda, 2015). She collaborates with various men characters in the film to achieve her objectives by seducing them into sexual desires. Through affection, she manipulates the men; for example, in Odysseus's crew, she turns by detaining him for a more extended period with her charms. Sexuality is, therefore, practiced by the women in the film, especially when they want to obtain what they want.

I agree that film Noir is the first to promote feminist ideals in history through films such as Double Indemnity. After the world war, the film showed how women could live their lives by controlling men. It promotes feminists' contexts through the way Barbara achieved everything she wanted by manipulating men around her. It allowed women to stand up for themselves and get what they wish to through deceiving men. The feeling of paranoia, loss of innocence, bleakness, mistrust, and fear demonstrated to the Film Noir (Spicer, 2016). Being films that ware made in the 1940s after World War II, the directors brought about the female characters who led to the promotion of feminism. A good example is from the film Double Indemnity, where feminism is encouraged by Barbara, who acts as Phyllis. The women character has been made to promote feminism, whereby she uses her looks not only to get money but also favors.

References

Amanda, F. (2015). When sexual manipulation is the most feminist move of all. Femme fatale.

Spicer, A. (2016). Film noir. Routledge.