R+P Post 7: Our Film's Title and Plot Outline

Title: The title of our film is 'Unlawful.' This connotes the story, genre and main character perfectly. It is ambiguous in relation to the narrative, as it plays on the word 'lawful' which is used in marriage - an event in our film. Furthermore, it is simultaneously ironic as being a detective, our protagonist is suppose to uphold the law; yet she commits crimes.

Synopsis: Stacey, a female detective seduces her husband-to-be, before killing him to live happily alone with his earnings. Meanwhile, she has been put on the investigation team to find the killer and so has to cover up her tracks...

Our film follows the main character, Stacey, who is a police detective in her early 20s. She has a complex mind and is constantly unsatisfied. Below is the plot to 'Unlawful' in more detail:
Beginning - Stacey stalks a rich businessman and gets him to fall in love with her after one blind date. This results in their marriage.
Middle - Stacey kills her husband and inherits his money. She is then put on the case for his murder and has to constantly cover up the truth. As she was his wife and she is a detective, she is not suspected.
End - Several months pass and Stacey is living happily with her money, until a new detective is put on the case and gets suspicious. She then puts her charm on him but the film finishes without revealing whether or not he finds out what she's done.

Film References:

As the beginning part of 'Unlawful' is heavily based around the concept of femme fatale seduction, we looked at some existing films to help develop our ideas. In 'The Last Seduction,' Bridget Gregory is a scheming, manipulative woman who uses men for her own benefits and to get out of sticky situations. It demonstrates the power women can have over men, perhaps through their intelligence as well as sex appeal. Our character is quickly able to seduce a rich man into marriage, showing how enticing her nature is.

Our film also treats money as being an urgent desire in life and even though our character has money, she is not satisfied and wants more, reflecting the ability that money has to make you a materialistic and self conceited person. It is quite like the real world in some ways. This can be likened with the film 'Belle.' In that society, marrying into a family of wealth was all that mattered above everything else, enhancing the idea that money is the most important thing in life.

Finally, in 'Unlawful' we aim to capture an element of romance through the brief relationship and marriage, which is common in film noir. In the 1950 film noir 'In a Lonely Place,' Laurel and Dixon spark love interest before the truth of Dixon's past life starts to unravel. Correspondingly, the seemingly innocent romance our protagonist shows towards the businessman in our film is soon revealed as shown to be something very different.