Saw this on Xfinity earlier. Danny
Devito, “Noir” in the title – the film is obviously satire, but
I think its use of flashback storytelling is interesting. Both Out
of the Past
and Double
Indemnity also used
flashbacks. In both of those films,
the flashbacks seemed didactic and confessionary. Even though
Walter Neff's confession did little to exonerate his character,
and despite his stated desire to escape, it still seemed to be as
much about getting the murder off his chest as gloating before Keyes.
Likewise, I think that Jeff's car-ride confession to Ann, in Out
of the Past, definitely
changes the way that we view his character. If he'd kept the business
about Fisher's murder and Kathie to himself, rather than telling Ann,
we might, for example, view his character is being dishonest and
unrepentant about his criminal past. I'm not sure what else to make
of the flashbacks, but they do seem to inject a bit of morality into
the otherwise questionable characters.
I actually just posted about this subject and I probably wouldn't have if I read your post first. But I agree, the use of flashback is intriguing. I do like your theory that they inject a bit of morality in the characters. You could look back into The Postman and your theory fits perfectly. Frank is confessing what he did before being executed and he seems to have redeemed himself morally by the end of that novel. Frank's confession is a purge of wrong emotions before his death. But again, I can't be sure why flashback is ever-present in these works, but they must have a reason for using them.
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