Prospectus: The Femme Fatale is a unique and important type of character tied to the Film Noir that is rooted to the culture and era of the given time in which the film was made in. But is the femme fatale necessary? This video essay will delve into the history and meaning of the femme fatale and how it’s evolved since its inception.
The following are the main points I want to hit in my video essay project with the sources from my annotated bibliography being fit into each of the given points. I found that I can easily divide the sources evenly into these three points.
- Femme Fatale is an inherently important type of character to Films Noirs.
- This section I’ll look into specific films and use examples of the femme fatales in these films. (That I haven’t finalized as of yet.)
- Beckman, Frida. “From Irony to Narrative Crisis: Reconsidering the Femme Fatale in the Films of David Lynch.” Cinema Journal, vol. 52, no. 1, 2012, pp. 25–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23360279
- Bronfen, Elisabeth. “Femme Fatale—Negotiations of Tragic Desire.” New Literary History, vol. 35, no. 1, Winter 2004, pp. 103–16. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2004.0014
- “Projecting Trauma: The Femme Fatale in Weimar and Hollywood Film Noir.” Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature & Culture, vol. 23, 2007, pp. 224–243
- Wager, Jans B. Dangerous Dames : Women and Representation in the Weimar Street Film and Film Noir. Ohio University Press, 1999
- Femme Fatale is a archetype/trait that is rooted to the culture and era in which the film originates from.
- This section will be displayed and talked about as a timeline-esque way where I’ll give pinpoint examples of the gradual evolution and compare and contrast each given defined era.
- Dick, Bernard F. “Columbia’s Dark Ladies and the Femmes Fatales of Film Noir.” Literature Film Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 3, July 1995, p. 155. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9510244287&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
- BOOZER, JACK. “THE LETHAL <italic>FEMME FATALE</Italic> IN THE NOIR TRADITION.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 51, no. 3/4, 1999, pp. 20–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688218
- BRAMMER, REBEKAH. “Futuristic Femmes Fatales.” Screen Education, no. 80, Summer 2015, pp. 98–103. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=111508469&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
- Femme Fatale is an outdated trait; women can be more than this role in noirs.
- Use this section to build towards a closing statement with the repeat of the thesis questioning if the femme fatale is an outdated trait shrouded in subtle misogyny. Close with talking about women’s roles in modern noirs that aren’t femme fatales.
- Grossman, Julie. “Film Noir’s ‘Femme Fatales’ Hard-Boiled Women: Moving Beyond Gender Fantasies.” Quarterly Review of Film & Video, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 19–30. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/10509200500485983.
- TRENCH, MARIANNE SCHAEFER. “Fixing the Femme Fatale.” Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 41, Oct. 2019, p. (Sp)10. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=139111250&site=ehost-live&scope=site
- Nelson, John S. “From Femme Fatale to Femmes Focales? Feminist Protagonists in Film Noir.” Conference Papers — Midwestern Political Science Association, 2006 Annual Meeting 2006, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27208968&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Message for Brett: For my overall project, I’d like to continue working on the idea of my video essay and to flesh it out into being a full-length video spanning around 15 minutes. I’ve been backlogged on meeting some of these deadlines in regards to the initial plan and proposal for the original video essay portion of the assignment. I do apologize as my allergies got the best of me and threw off my initial plan of action in publishing certain portions of this assignment. Now that I have it under control, I’ll speak with you and email you a plan that I have to get myself back on track and hold myself accountable.
