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Key things I liked:

I absolutely adore the black and white monochromatic look, it just brings such an air of contrast and drama, the main character’s expression in this is sullen, and he is evidently working on a case. The detective I wish to create is an investigator, though cynical in outlook, is nothing if not a curious answer-seeker. I also liked the inclusion of the single lit desk lamp.

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Key things I liked:

This image shows the promising inclusion of the “Fem Fatal” synonymous with the Film Noir genre. This seductive temptress is fundamental and prominent in film noir pieces, as she acts as a means to bewitch and tempt the titular character down wrong paths. She is characterised by her seductive demeanour, seeming innocence, manipulation and eventual discovery of her sinister intentions/actions.

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Key things I liked:

This almost cartoon image struck me as it is starkly different from other like images. It has bright colours and an alluring sense of mystery and action. The cover displays a keen-eyes detective in the throes of an action sequence with a gun aimed. It reads the Detective in bold, just as my character is. It has the classic detective’s Fedora; a symbol of mystery. Furthermore, only the legs of the hinted Fem Fatal are shown, her hands gracefully holding a cigarette.

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Key things I liked:

Double Indemnity was the first film I ever watched in the genre of Film Noir, and I was immediately captivated. It's a fantastic film from 1944, and essentially created the whole film Noir genre. It's strongly characterised by its biting and witty dialogue that's incredibly snappy and concise. The “detective” archetype, who in the movie takes the form of an insurance claims commissioner, a two faced fem fatal who leads him down a tricky path, and the authority figure of the Company as the Claims Manager. I loved how the main character “Neff” is slowly degraded by the weight of his crimes whilst being caught up in the mystery and investigation surrounding the mystery. Though he is more chipper than I’d like to categorise my character, I liked his morbid outlook by the end of the film. I also completely adored the Fem Fatal, “Phyllis”, who was truly superb and an utterly convincing lead.

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Things I liked:

I have always felt such a strong personal pull towards the Sherlock Holmes character, and all adaptations of his archetype, I simply can’t get enough of it. This image shows a far more traditional take on Sherlock Holmes. Distinctly characterised by his Cap, trench coat and thick cigar. The motif of cigarettes and cigars are essential to both the detective characterisations and Film Noir films. Additionally, nearly always do the Fem Fatal’s smoke a skinny cigarette. Not only was this use of cigarettes a testament to the times, but also show how something so addictive can be the secret malevolent vice of the character.

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The Implied Audience within my stimulus is the police commissioner, inspiration for this character can be seen from this film poster. I liked his expression and the magnifying glass motif.

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This image shows Keys, the archetypal equivalent from Double Indemnity, he is short, opinionated, brash, bossy, but incredibly loyal and persistent. He can always can be seen smoking a cigar and wagging his finger to get his point across.

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I want to potentially play with the image of the Police Commissioner character being a younger female who the detective had pre-existing history with. This would subvert the expectation of the Commissioner being a big, burly guy. This image is of Karen Webb, NSW's first female Commissioner. The choice of making the Commissioner female would also perhaps give her a motive for intercepting the investigation, as if she took credit for the case, she could bolster her position in the work force. As a disadvantaged female, using ulterior ways to get where you want to go can, be essential.

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KEY IDEAS:  Unsolved disappearance of a prominent celebrity chef, Willi Koeppen. Speculation around foul play, financial issues, and ties to crime.

KEY THEMES:  Mystery and intrigue. The elusiveness of truth. The impact of societal pressures. The enigmatic nature of unsolved cases, constant public intrigue.

CHARACTER: Willi Koeppen: A charismatic yet enigmatic figure, well-connected and influential, yet surrounded by rumours and controversies. A described 'violent drunk', with a volatile personality, able to be in the limelight and the centre of attention, but was known to have an overbearing and explosive other side.

LANGUAGE: Investigative and descriptive, with a focus on creating suspense and exploring various theories.

CONTEXTT: 1970s Australia, high society, and the culinary world.

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It was a Saturday night in the summer of 1976 and celebrated chef Willi Koeppen turns up to the restaurant in a foul mood. He'd been drinking, and after sacking one of the hostesses, he accuses his wife of having affairs and threatens to throw himself off the restaurant's balcony.

Later in the night, Mr Koeppen disappears. And so begins a four-decade long mystery involving one of Australia's first celebrity chefs, set high in the hills of the Dandenong Ranges in a kitsch German restaurant called the Cuckoo.

The persistent assumption is the 46-year-old simply walked off into the dense mountain ash forest that surrounds Olinda and took his own life. But there have been many other rumours about Willi Koeppen. One involves escaping to an island off the coast of Queensland with escorts. There have also been two supposed murder confessions - one from a dangerous underworld figure, and another, more recent allegation, that came from a wildly jealous love rival.

In the coroner's court in Melbourne this week, it was apparent the mystery is no closer to being solved. The court heard that despite police investigations over the past 42 years, Mr Koeppen has disappeared without a trace. Police believe he was murdered, but his cause of death may never be established because his body has never been found.

When he opened the Cuckoo with his wife Karin in 1958, Willi Koeppen was a big deal in Melbourne. He'd migrated from Germany after completing an apprenticeship at Berlin institution, the Hotel Adlon, and in Melbourne, he became executive chef at the glitzy Chevron Hotel. He hosted a popular German radio show before he introduced cookery to Australian television with his own black-and-white show The Chef Presents.

"We just didn't know and if you don't know, you can't grieve. You can't express anything," he said.

"He may well have taken off somewhere, that was certainly the theory of the police - that he'd nicked off - so you started to think, well, maybe he had."

Now Andrei is certain foul play was involved.

"I believe somebody else was involved ... and in my mind, and in my heart, I don't think that he is alive. I think that he probably perished that night in February 1976."

When Mr Koeppen turned up at the restaurant drunk, depressed and abusive on the night of February 28, 1976, local doctor Bernard Butler went to the Cuckoo to help quieten him down.

In typed statements found within the original police brief, it's apparent Dr Butler and Mr Koeppen had a rocky relationship. The police investigator at the time, Brian McCarthy, who went on to become a respected homicide detective, wrote that Mr Koeppen had apparently blamed the doctor for introducing his wife to her lover, a local lawyer.

But Andrei believes the doctor, who was a friend of the family's, was more like a counsellor to his father.

Mr Koeppen and Dr Butler were seen drinking and talking quietly on the restaurant's balcony into the night. Karin had left the restaurant and gone to a friend's house and, in the early hours of Sunday, February 29, Dr Butler said he and Mr Koeppen went to his home, which doubled as his clinic, less than a kilometre down the road.

Mr Koeppen's youngest daughter, Daniela Koeppen Rosenfeld, was 10 years old then. She remembers constantly asking where her father was and no one being able to explain it to her. She thought no one was looking hard enough for her dad.

"Even up until I was 21, I remember thinking maybe he'd just turn up on my 21st birthday. That he would walk through the door. I would wait for that moment," she said.

The case would lie dormant for decades, with the original investigator concluding it was likely Mr Koeppen was alive. But something would happen that took the case down a bizarre path.

In 1991, standover man and underworld executioner Mark "Chopper" Read released a book. In it, he wrote that ruthless serial killer Alex Tsakmakis boasted to him in prison about his involvement in Mr Koeppen's demise.

"It tells a story and it's not Tsakmakis," she said.

"There has been a massive injustice here and someone has gotten away with murder."

A second apparent confession to Mr Koeppen's murder has also emerged in the last four years.

The Age has learnt that police interviewed a man in South Australia who they were told claimed to have killed Mr Koeppen and dumped his body. He was wildly jealous of Mr Koeppen, detectives were told, and Mr Koeppen's relationship with a woman the man was obsessed with.

"They are stories. They're all hearsay and there is no evidence. We haven't actually had anybody say, 'I was there, I was a part of it'. We've got this Chopper story and well, is that legitimate? People lie."

Daniela is sitting in the Cuckoo restaurant of today. The tables, filled with busloads of tourists, are still covered in red and white check cloth. The wooden walls are adorned with cuckoo clocks, flags of the world, deer antlers and pictures of Bavarian landscapes.

Lunch service today - a buffet of schnitzel, sausages and sauerkraut - came complete with an accordion-playing Russian who easily convinced a stein-laden table to participate in a clapping song.

Daniela runs the restaurant, now in its 60th year, after taking over from her mother Karin.

Both Andrei and Sabina say it's hard to get Karin, now deeply religious, to talk about what she thinks happened to her husband. Daniela said her mother, who left war-torn East Germany for Australia, likes to focus on the "good times".

"She remembers that he was the love of her life. She really did love him," she said.

His disappearance is still so entwined in the restaurant. Customers will ask about what happened and Daniela says his presence is everywhere.

"I'm still walking his steps, downstairs to the kitchen, up here. It's exactly where he was," she said.

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The Cuckoo affair: What happened to Willi Koeppen?

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It was a Saturday night in the summer of 1976 and celebrated chef Willi Koeppen turns up to the restaurant in a foul mood. He'd been drinking, and after sacking one of the hostesses, he accuses his wife of having affairs and threatens to throw himself off the restaurant's balcony.

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This article details some more contemporary celebrity chefs and their most notable achievements. All to create some beginner ideas and to widen my perspectives on potential real life celebrity chefs to draw upon. Good for Dot Point 2.

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Which of the country's culinary players have seized the social-media moment and captured the Instagram zeitgeist? We have the lowdown on Instagram's top 15 most-followed Australian chefs.

13. Neil Perry - @chefneilperry
Posts from Sydney culinary pioneer Neil Perry (@chefneilperry) make for an intriguing itinerary, detailing his relentless travels around the world (China one day, South Africa the next), countless collaborations with Qantas (which might help with the relentless travels) and growing Burger Project. His daughter, freshly minted restaurateur @josephineperry, gets her share of shout-outs, naturally. Followers: 11.8K

7. Gary Mehigan - @garymehigan
This guy seriously loves to macro. Melbourne chef Gary Mehigan (@garymehigan) thrills his MasterChef fans with close-ups of his food and travel adventures, including his recent trip to the Tsukiji fish markets. He's also quite gifted with the tilted selfie. Followers: 29.6K

2. George Calombaris - @gcalombaris
Melbourne chef George Calombaris (@gcalombaris) comes in at a close second place, documenting his adventures beyond the MasterChef judging table as he hits the beach, attends numerous A-league games, preps his new Sydney restaurant for opening and documents the kitchen fun at The Press Club, Alba white truffles and all. Followers: 71.2K

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Top 15 Australian chefs on Instagram | Gourmet Traveller

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Which of the country's culinary players have seized the social-media moment and captured the Instagram zeitgeist? We have the lowdown on Instagram's top 15 most-followed Australian chefs.

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Key Ideas:

Moral Ambiguity: Characters often exist in a morally grey world. They are often morally questionable or dubious themselves, susceptible to influence be it romantic or monetary despite being highly self-assured.

Crime and Investigation: Central themes involve solving crimes with complex narratives, lots of interlinked stories, very often playing into Chekhov's Gun theory.

Key Themes:

Corruption and Betrayal: Trust is a rare commodity, hard to earn, often betrayed.

Fate and Despair: Characters struggle against inevitable doom.

Character:

The Detective: Cynical, world-weary, driven by a personal code.

Language:

Hard-Boiled Dialogue: Short, sharp, and filled with slang.

Context:

1940s-1950s Hollywood: Influenced by German Expressionism, reflecting post-war disillusionment.

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Film noir (; French pronunciation: ​) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s.

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Stem location: Commissioner's office/police cubicle

Implied audience in stem location: The police commissioner is the implied audience, and the audience would be addressed in some police cubicle location

Architecture Features: Lots of grey very boxed in, the detective is very old-timy whilst the commissioner is very fresh-with-the-times.

Sounds (Human and non human): Pens clicking, people slurping coffee cups

Other people present: Not within the stem location

Mood of Location: Clinical, hard working, focused, quiet

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Four Deuces by Alex North is a moody, instrumental piece from the film "A Streetcar Named Desire". The music exudes tension, mystery, and a sense of foreboding, which aligns perfectly with the atmosphere of a film noir setting. The haunting melody and dark, jazzy undertones evoke a world of shadows and secrets.

Within my Solo:

Atmosphere Creation: Use the song to underscore scenes of intense investigation or moments when the Detective uncovers dark secrets.

Emotional Resonance: The music’s tension can mirror the Detective’s inner turmoil or the suspense of the investigation.

Scene Transitions: The song could play during transitions between key moments, enhancing the noir feel.

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Bernard Herrmann's theme for "Taxi Driver" is iconic for its dark, brooding, and atmospheric qualities, perfectly capturing the sense of alienation and tension in the film. The music combines orchestral tones with a haunting, almost hypnotic melody, evoking the inner turmoil and obsession of the main character, Travis Bickle.

Within my Solo:

Inner Monologue: Use the theme to underscore the Detective's thoughts, reflecting his obsession with the case.

Building Tension: Play the theme during key moments of revelation or when the investigation takes a dark turn, heightening suspense.

Character Study: The music’s intensity can mirror the Detective’s own psychological depth, showing his brain's process whilst figuring out the mystery.

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"Private Eyes" is a pop-rock song about suspicion, surveillance, and the feeling of being watched. The upbeat tempo contrasts with its theme of distrust, where "private eyes" are always watching, catching lies, and observing every move.

Within my Solo:

Surveillance Theme: Reflect the song’s idea of constant observation in the Detective’s approach, always watching suspects, catching their lies. This song would be good to use as he scouts an unsuspecting witness.

Irony: Use the upbeat nature to contrast the dark, serious tone of the investigation, perhaps during a scene where the Detective feels in control.

Detective’s Paranoia: The song’s lyrics could underscore a moment of the Detective’s growing paranoia or realisation that he is also being watched...

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Daryl Hall & John Oates - Private Eyes (Official HD Video)

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"You Know My Name" from Casino Royale is a powerful, assertive song that captures the essence of James Bond's resilience, confidence, and determination. The lyrics reflect themes of survival, facing challenges head-on, and the cost of living a dangerous life. Though this is from a Bond movie, the themes of mystery and investigation along with suspense are heavily prevalent.

Within my Solo:

Character’s Resolve: The song can underscore the Detective’s unyielding determination to solve the case, no matter the risks.

Tension: This is the kind of song that could be played in the heat of a tense moment as its connections to fate vs self-instigated future are clear and could be used to help further the suspense of a scene.

Climactic Moments: The energetic and defiant tone of the song is ideal for moments where the Detective confronts suspects or pieces together the final clues.

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Casino Royale - Chris Cornell - You Know My Name

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Q5: Timeline for solo: Introductory STEM

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Q5: Timeline for solo: Introductory STEM

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Detective driving to meet with the commissioner:

This initial scene would set up the main character of the detective along with his relation to the police commissioner.

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This scene would show the Detective attempting to convince the police Commissioner to give him the case, set up of his previous history with solving celebrity chef related crimes (DP:2, Geoff Jansz). The police Commissioner is an old flame of his and they have a longstanding history. She leads him to investigate his first lead/witness which is Sabina Wakefield, Willi's daughter.

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Q5: Timeline for solo: DP 1/ partially DP 3

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Q5: Timeline for solo: DP 1/ partially DP 3

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Interrogation of Sabina takes place in scene 3. Specifically the Detetctive questioning about how Wili's wife and Sabina's mum Katrina could've been involved in the murder. Sabina is hesitant to reveal her basis, yet came off as adamant her mother wouldn't have killed her father herself. However she leads him to potentially questioning a local mob boss who Willi owed money to. At this interrogation, Sabina discusses half the perspectives of the case from her/her mother's perspective (DP:3)

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This time the Detective investigates a well known mob boss who proved increasingly difficult to get his hands on. The mob boss refused to say much but stated strongly that it would be foolish of him to have killed Willi seeing as he ever would've gotten his money back from him. Stating whilst angrily chewing on a small bowl of peanuts, "dead guys don't give money". This reasoning checked out to the detective who decides to go back to the commissioner to report current findings.

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Once re grouped with the commissioner who is jotting down all notes, the Detective still has the goal of seducing her and getting back with her, the feeling appears to be mutual as she plays in to it too. The commissioner then sends the Detective to investigate Bernard Butler.

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Q5: Timeline for solo: DP 1/ partially DP 3

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Q5: Timeline for solo: DP 1/ partially DP 3

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Through interviewing Bernard, he proves to be a dead end (haven't figured out the exact reason). However, he does provide more key moments enacted of the crime, specifically his evening drinking with Willi, (DP:3). Bernard does however mention Katrina's male affair lover, Franklin Russo, who the Detective takes as his next lead.

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Whilst interrogating Franklin Russo, the Detective feels like he is reaching dead end after dead end. As he has the previous investigations, he records the conversation, however Russo has a firm alibi rendering him unhelpful. However Russo spitefully comments about how during the time of Willi's disappearance, his lover affair Katrina was hanging out an awful lot with a "peanut eating punk" before swiftly moving on.

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Widely disheartened, the Detetctive's cynical outlook only grows, he meets back up with the commissioner to show her his findings from Bernard and Franklin. Through playing back the tapes, the commissioner puzzles out the unexpected piece of evidence that links the mob boss to Katrina and therefor has a suspicion as to what that lead could mean. The police commissioner tactfully diverts the Detetcive and plays dumb so she could further her own agenda and investigate the lead herself.

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On the way home from the dead lead she gives him. The Detective is really seeing no answers or connection, he turns on the radio to drown out his thoughts and on it hears that the Cuckoo Affair Case has finally been closed, solved by the Police Commissioner. He frustratedly pulls over and dials her, she is smug and reveals the final twist that she had just used him to track down leads all along, cementing her as the sabotaging Fem Fatal of this solo. As such the Detective accepts his fate and essentially we see him in the same place, just as alone and hopeless as he is at the start of the ensemble in true Film Noir format.