"We're both rotten." "Only you're a little more rotten."

The term "protagonist" can be misleading. The connotations that come with it are that the main character is a hero, or the force of good, while the "antagonist" provides obstacles, and works against the hero, being a force of evil, or injustice. However, in film noir, a movement characterized by the "fatal experiences of men" and the "femmes fatales whom they pursue", a protagonist is morally confused and psychologically damaged. Often this noir protagonist follows his own moral code. And so, those "femmes fatales"(French for "deadly women") are seductive women who lure men into dangerous circumstances for self-interest. The classic example of a film noir is Double Indemnity. 

The noir protagonist is Walter Neff, an insurance agent, who at first sight has a romantic interest in our femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson, the wife of a very wealthy man. What makes these two characters classic noir elements? Well, we have no evidence that before meeting Phyllis, Walter led a moral life, and after he does meet and converse with her, he agrees to killing her husband in order to be with her. But he’s not that simple. He’s doing it because she says he treats her poorly. And that’s not all the good intent we see in him. He calms Lola down and befriends her after she’s concerned about Phyllis’ agenda. Of course, this could also be seen as him trying to keep things quiet. So, as many other noir protagonists’ intentions, it’s unclear. However, there is one thing he does for the entire film that shows his remorse for his actions. He’s confessing his crimes to his associate, Barton Keyes. His narrating of the events is him coming clean. So though we see him as a flawed character morally, he could also be interpreted as just a cynical sort of hero who simply follows his own moral code, as immoral as it sometimes may be. We see at the end of the movie Keyes telling him that he was closer to him than just someone at the opposite desk, and Walter responds, “I love you too”.

             The character of Phyllis Dietrichson, on the other hand, is simpler. It’s obvious that she’s had a crooked agenda the entire time. She killed a woman to marry her wealthy husband, used Walter to kill her husband for the insurance money, and then told another man that her daughter no longer loved him, and that he should kill both her and Walter so there would be no more chance of anyone talking to the police. She’s a classic femme fatale who seduced and dragged our Walter Neff into a plot he’d never leave.