Double Indemnity

Brutally good noir from Billy Wilder, 1944
There is a wonderful pacing with the slow, slamming score, long takes, hidden man of the opening scene. This creates a great looming contrast to the classic noir a thousand mile an hour that follows.
Technically, we have the noir lighting which is a relucatance to fill light, and to light anything except the heads in much detail. We usually have a key light that hits the side of the face, perhaps the front, and a slightly angled backlight, high angle, touching the hair and back of the head. Basically just three-point without a noticeable fill, and with the light a bit harsh. Wilder adopts long shots outside, nice long waist and plan-americain stuff indoors to establish space (not much depth here, though bits and bobs). Wilder then settles in to a distinctive shot-reverse schema, with the overtheshoulder on one allowing about a quarter of the screen, just allowing a view of the eyes and a soft noises. So quite a bit of the interlocur on an angle that is far as we know is relatively distinctive to Wilder.
The plot here is nicely put forward, with a pleasing lack of moral mucking about at the start. The script is very funny at times, not a misstep, and very fast. Wilder is really a writer who can compete with any, in a very select club. As we get into crime and punishment territory, with wonderfully expressive but not over the top performances (MacMurray, Stanwyck, Robinson).
There is much to say about the noir genre, about punishing women. In relation to Wilder, we can see a man jumping with a morally questionable level of enthusiasm into a woman's plan, and not displaying much willingness, beyond a certain self interest, to escape. Wilder is often accussed of cynicism; this strikes us as true, there is literally no one happy at the end, though this is quite a quiet cynicism, not ezxactly revelled in. A classic noir.