Question: The femme fatale is the most interesting aspect of film noir for me, it begs the question is the femme fatale trope revolutionary? Or it solely the perspective of women from the male-gaze?
Topics/subjects: I will be looking into the evolution of the femme fatale, how they differ from ordinary women in films. Since most film noir films are directed by men, I want to look the character archetype from a female perspective.
Course readings: Dickos “Women in noir”, Dickos “Neo Noir”, Raymond Borde and Etienne Chautmeton’s “Towards a definition of Film Noir” would all be useful readings in helping construct my argument. I will also search our database for more articles and sources that could be used for evidence in my video essay.
Films: Winters Bone, Pulp Fiction, Blow the Man Down, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity.
All these films have strong female characters, both “good” and “bad” depending on how the viewer chooses to see them.
I am excited to see where this would go. Would you also reference “feminine rage” in this essay? I’ve had this train of thought this semester on if “feminine rage” is in some way shape or form connected to the femme fatale. I recommended this to Chase, but the film Vertigo is a good one to look at for the “good” vs “bad” debate. I refer to the woman in that one as a “forced” femme fatale.
This is super interesting! Hadn’t thought about the femme fatale in that way, nor about the male gaze and its evolution in film. Would you be considering comparing the noir femme fatale to referencing other genres as the neo-noir or rural-noir, or just leaving it at that? Some of those that we’ve seen (most recently comes to mind is the rural-noir) has female main characters as well, although I’m unsure about the male gaze in that one.
Worth noting: both Winter’s Bone and Blow the Man Down were directed by women. Would a compare and contrast structure be useful here?
What’s interesting to me about this is that you are looking at the perspective of the femme fatale through the male director rather than just the femme fatale herself. This makes me think of female leads, children, specifically. Something to think about that you might not have is can a child be a version of a femme fatale? I think of The Last of Us. Maybe even Stranger things. Like if there is a category for a child fatale. Like the odd movie Orphan.
I like how you’re looking specifically into the evolution of the femme fatale trope, as opposed to the trope shown in a fixed period of time. One film you should also consider looking at for your research is Sunset Blvd. Interesting that you want to look at the femme fatale from a female perspective; I think you could go a long way with this.