The Femme Fatale Research Paper

The Femme Fatale in Film Noir

The pages of Film Noir are plagued with the corruption of political power and sexual depravity. This infestation has inspired a generation of screen-writers to forge the notoriously daring characters and settings of this dark genre. The Femme Fatale is not just the quintessential character eliciting fantasies of omnipotence and fantasy, but the subject of her narrative. Birthed from a society which lusted for wealth and exalted sexuality, the Femme Fatale has engulfed the stereotype of the defiant woman to become the ultimate reflection of her social context. The two war-time noirs, ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ and ‘Double Indemnity’, explore the inherent bareness which is nurtured forth from the dark recesses
Film Noir is obsessed with the slippage between the past and present and how a prior misdeed can come back to haunt you. In ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, after committing a murder, Cora and Garfield are seemingly free from suspicion and speculation until the ‘Postman’ finally knocks twice for both of them. The depicted Femme Fatales are both fearful of being abandoned and outplayed. A mutual agreement with her society who also shuns and fears her dominance and influence, the Femme Fatale’s mask is one which she cannot afford to take off. The Femme Fatale is born from the male patriarchal society in which women are shunted and confined in order to accommodate male superiority and dominance. The male dismissal of ambitions for a woman’s fuller life is alternatively a projection of their own fears and desires, resulting in a woman who is a ‘normal’ product of her surroundings. This is reflected in the scene from ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ where Cora’s husband announces that without her consultation he has decided that they are selling the diner and moving to Canada. Cora’s anger at not being consulted in the decision turns to horror when she hears about how they must care for his paralysed sister, implying a direct link between Cora’s lack of power within the marriage and paralysis.11 For the Femme Fatale this lack of power is
The femme fatale is the expert manipulator, ensnaring many an unbeknownst man into her trap of false hopes. The Femme Fatale is a woman who, without her male counterparts, wouldn’t be able to gain her freedom or feel satisfied in her role as a free, undefiled woman. However this being said, the Femme Fatale wants nothing more than to be alone. Her acts of freedom, are that which almost completely isolate her from the knowing love of men and as well as isolating herself from truly loving herself in fear of endangering her position as manipulator. The Femme Fatale fears little, but to let herself truly fall in love would be to take off the mask of power and hand it to another person, something she would never