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Double Indemnity

Honeysuckle Murder: (A Memorandum on) Death in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (and the Futility of Writing About It)

Travis Woods·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Double Indemnity | art by Tony Stella
A crackerjack pulp thriller that alternately smirked and shocked its way into defining both a expanding cinematic genre and a director’s burgeoning career with its gallows vantage, Double Indemnity also maybe lets slip the secret of life as it nuzzles up against (and makes a joke, seduction, and parable out of) death itself.
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Unhappy Accidents: Insurance and the Business of Living in Double Indemnity and The Apartment

Susannah Gruder·
Issue 87: Billy Wilder
Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter in THE APARTMENT
Wilder makes a huge jump in genre between these films—from an existential noir to an off-beat romantic comedy—but the two share a kinship; both can be read as cautionary tales for what happens when you mix business with pleasure. 
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The Nine Lives of the Femme Fatale

Angelica Jade Bastién·
Issue 18: Noir
The femme fatale isn’t obsessed with the destruction of men, that is a byproduct of her true aims: to find a sense of autonomy in a culture that wants to keep her powerless.
Read More
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