The law of cinema and death

"There's no reprieve in film noir. You just keep paying for your sins."
-Martin Scorsese-

I love that line. For all it's moral murkiness film noir ("black film") is the most uncompromisingly moralistic of genres. Reap what you sow? Be sure your sins will find you out? They will in the typical film noir—in two hours or less! Looking for grace? You won't find it here. Noir is all law minus the gospel. There's no third act redemption, just the dawning realization that one has played the fool. Often these parables center around a male protagonist led astray by a wily seductive female as in Double Indemnity (1944), written and directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder with a writing assist from Raymond Chandler. The dialogue alone makes this film a treasure.

Barbara Stanwyck is the femme fatale and Fred MacMurray is the one reaping a bitter crop after his wondering eye gets him sucked into an insurance scheme that ends in murder. In the opening scene here we watch as he arrives at the offices of Pacific All Risk Insurance Company after hours to dictate a confession to his boss and father figure played by Edward G. Robinson. Actually what we're seeing is the end at the beginning. There's a final coda that we'll see later on, but for all we know Walter Neff—insurance salesman, 35-years-old, unmarried, no visible scars—is still sitting in that dark office pondering his transgressions.