Double Indemnity - Scene Analysis

The scene opens with two camera shots which establish Phyllis and Neff's positions in the room. The camera first uses a mid-shot of Phyllis standing up, then a shot of Neff sitting down which immediately creates the impression of Phyllis's power and superiority over the male character.

When Phyllis sits down in the chair, a lot can be said about the character's costume. The audience's eye, however, is drawn to the anklet she is wearing because of light reflecting on the metal. The anklet suggests that she is a woman of loose morals and the positioning of her body is very suggestive, which supports this idea of her character.
As Neff begins to ask about her anklet, and she responds, a closer shot of the accessories and clothes that Phyllis is wearing is used. What strikes the audience immediately is the number of large pieces of jewellery, the ruffled shirt, the garish make up and her hair. All these aspects contribute to making her look as false and as fake as she could. This represents the facade that she is as a person and hints towards the secrets and crime that come later in the film.

Another aspect of the scene that hints at crime is the use of lighting and shadows formed by the venetian blinds. This effect is used a lot throughout the film and could easily mimic prison bars which represent a sense of entrapment within the situation, and, more literally, the justice of crime - which is what the film is heavily based around.
In the part of the scene where Neff and Phyllis are standing, facing each other and having a playful conversation, the use of shadows is very interesting. During the shots where Phyllis can be seen from the front, there is no use of Neff's shadow in a very prominent way, which suggests the innocence and how unsuspecting he is. However, when Phyllis can be seen facing Neff, her shadow is cast on the front of his jacket. This creates a sense of Phyllis's power and how she can almost consume Neff, the unsuspecting "fall guy". The low position of the shadow suggests the size and height of the shadow could be creeping up, which happens literally as the film progresses where Phyllis has a lot of control over Neff. This idea of the creeping echoes the idea of Film Noir's femme fatales being called "spider women" who lure the "fall guy" into their wen and entangle them in it. This is what Phyllis does both within the film's plot and in the symbolic way using the shadows.