Common in film noir are the binary oppositions between the characters' personalities and the visually mesmerizing images that often explode on the screen before the audience's eyes. The high key lighting of a beautiful countryside, the low key lighting of a large city, a face half consumed by shadows, or a woman dressed all in white with a soft angelic glow can say as much as an entire scene of dialogue . But some of the most discussed and debated elements of film noir involve the oppositional roles between femme fatales and good girls. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay On the surface, the femme fatale would appear to be a figure of pure malevolence: lying, cheating, and killing her way to the top in pursuit of a position of wealth and power. But upon closer examination, one can see that the femme fatale's actions are often driven by a painful past, an unhealthy relationship with an abusive lover, or a multitude of other reasons. Just as femme fatales cannot be labeled as purely evil, neither can the good girls who stand before them on screen be labeled as entirely innocent. In contrast to the dominance of femme fatales, it is often easy to overlook much smaller acts. of deception, but many of the good girls of film noir are much more complex than they would seem: from dishonesty to disguises, the good girls of film noir are often ultimately persecuted by the protagonist, because they represent a realistic compromise halfway between the excesses of the femme fatales and the purity or dullness of a true “good girl.” Contrasted with the intense sexuality of femme fatales, good girls appear to be “desexualized,” dressing rather conservatively (Oliver, Trigo 29). Murder, My Sweet's Ann Grayle, for example, dresses mostly in cotton or tweed suits of singular colors, never showing any thigh as Helen Grayle does to get Philip Marlowe's attention. Double Indemnity's Lola Dietrichson dresses similarly, as does Out of the Past's Ann Miller who never wears low-cut dresses like femme fatale Kathie Moffat; Ann's shirts and blouses always cling to her neck above her collarbone, and she never even shows her forearms. This basic conservative dress code for good girls hides their sexuality, placing them in figurative shadows behind the brightness and urgency of the feminine. Thus, it is not at all surprising that these good girls are little noticed or have less impact on the protagonists at the beginning of each story (although Philip Marlowe occasionally comments on Ann Grayle's "good figure"). Instead, what is more impactful than the overt sexuality of femme fatales, are the bad girl tendencies of good girls that are hidden beneath their conservative clothing. In order not to be looked at by every man who crosses their path, good girls rebel in their own, but subtle, way. In Double Indemnity, when we first meet Lola, she is innocently playing Chinese checkers with her stepmother Phyllis. After getting bored of the game, Lola tells her father that she is going skating with a friend and leaves the house after promising him that she will not see the delinquent Nino Zachetti. But after insurance man Walter Neff leaves the house that evening, saying goodbye to both Mr. Dietrichson and Phyllis, he opens the car door and finds Lola sitting inside. He informs Neff that he doesn't plan to go skating, but he needs a ride. to be able to meet Nino Zachetti for their date. Our first glimpse of Lola is as a young, innocent girl, perhaps in her late teensteens or early twenties, but we quickly discover that beneath her conservative attire, high-pitched, soft voice and fluttering eyelashes, she's a woman who won't. surrendering to the demands of his father's patriarchal authority. A similar situation of mistaken identity occurs after Marriott's death in Murder, My Sweet. Investigator Philip Marlowe is immediately "confronted with a woman who claims to be a journalist and wants more information," but as Marlowe soon discovers, she is actually Ann Grayle (Palmer 77). Like Lola's innocence in her first appearance, Ann Grayle is gentle in her approach to Marlowe. She is calm, cool and collected, but the fact that Marriott's death has just occurred is what informs Marlowe. When she insists on visiting the Grayle household with Ann, both Marlowe and the audience quickly forget about Ann as the bombshell Helen steps into the foreground, her commanding, hyper-sexualized screen presence immediately casting a shadow over "good girl" Ann . , thus moving it to the background. In the cases of Lola and Ann, we can clearly see that this good girl persona is simply that: an act, dress, or disguise worn to hide their true selves or motivations. They are neither overtly threatening nor deviant in any way (especially compared to femme fatales), but there is definitely more to them than our first impressions. Adding to our idea of ​​their goodness or innocence is the fact that both Marlowe and Neff call them Lola and Ann "jokingly" in both films; Marlowe himself “repeatedly asks what the fate of the 'boy' will be…” (Palmer 81). Normally one would associate the word "child" with some sign of childhood purity or innocence, so when Lola and Ann are called "child" by the protagonists, it reinforces their good girl character and we still see them as relatively pure. in contrast to the femme fatales who have control of the screen. In Out of the Past, it's easy to see Jeff's Bridgeport loving Ann Miller as a dull, flat character compared to Kathie Moffat's. But like Lola, Ann Miller also rebels against patriarchal authority. Her mother and father can be heard screaming about their disapproval of Ann's relationship with Jeff when we first meet her. And when Jeff is later accused of murder, Ann yells at her father, refusing to tell him about Jeff or the current situation. Afterwards, Ann sneaks out of the house early one morning to meet Jeff in the woods, although he is chased by both the police and Whit. During their brief meeting, they are spied on by Jim who himself represents the law; Faced with these risks and consequences, Ann still asks Jeff to run away with him. While Ann Miller, Lola Dietrichson, and Ann Grayle have the ability to be both deceptive and provocative, one thing remains constant about each of the three. films: they provide a sense of comfort to the protagonists and at the same time represent a life of normality, balanced between the characters of good and bad girls. In Out of the Past, the flashback narrative of Jeff in the car with Ann "serves to locate Jeff's relationship with Kathie as the traumatic past that he must repress in order to live a 'normal life'" (Krutnik 104). Author Leighton Grist sees Jeff's relationship with Kathie as a transformation from “seeker hero” to “victim hero” (207). As the victim, Jeff tries to confront not only the law and Whit, but also attempts to absolve himself of all his misdeeds and lies with his repentance and admission to Ann. Ann therefore represents Jeff's last chance for salvation and a life away from his criminal past. Ann's leaving home to meet Jeff is another prohibitive action that somewhat mirrors her past romance.