Potential thesis:
The combination of German expressionism, the gender roles of the time, stereotypes created by films, and expectations for women during the 40s-50s created the femme fatale. This character image, over time, has evolved to where there is now a definition and somewhat understanding of the femme fatale of film noir. This character is truly one of the greatest examples of female perseverance, as it acts as an example of both societal conforming and breaking of the ‘norm.’
Topics/subjects:
- Femme fatales
- What is she? What is she not?
- Relevance in film noir?
- How have the depictions become typical for women today?
- Where do we see femme fatales in regards to film today?
- How have femme fatales evolved? or declined?
Course readings:
- Dickos, Women in Noir
- Dickos, NeoNoir
- Christopher, Into the Labyrinth
- Porfirio, No Way Out
Films:
- Out of the Past
- The Maltese Falcon
- Scarlet Street
- Sunset Blvd
- Double Indemnity
- The Tragedy of MacBeth
- Pulp Fiction – both female characters
- The Lady from Shanghai
- Kiss Me Deadly
- Winter’s Bone
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Nocturnal Animals
This sounds fun! Defining the femme-fatale is something we spent a lot of time on in class and I enjoyed our discussion it’ll be super interesting to read your blog, It would be super cool if you brought in some aspects of neo-noir and how the social context has changed, just a thought though.
Your proposal and very well thought out and organized. The selections of media are perfect and can really add to your thesis. The list of films I would have recommended are already on your list!
The femme fatale is a part of noir that I find extremely interesting, so this is definitely something that I feel like is very engaging and well thought out.
All the readings and films selected seem as if they’ll be helpful with adding depth to this thesis. They show different types of femme fatales, and offers their characteristics and why they act in the manner that they do.
– I enjoy meta-based analysis, so analyzing the concept of the femme fatale sounds quite intriguing!
– I wonder if theres something to said about the nature of the “strong female character” in relation to the femme fatale. Can a femme fatale be weak and/or strong? Does a a strong female character automatically equal a femme fatale, or is that just Hollywood reinforcing its hegemonic apparatuses? To that end, perhaps a film that may not directly consider noir but has a strong female lead or character may be worth you effort. Unironically, I think Fiona from Shrek 1/2 might something to look at.
For your proposal, this was explained very well. When initially reading this topic, I was a little bit misled, with you opening on German Expressionism. Maybe rearrange that line to another part of the proposal statement. However, I do find your wording of the proposal strong, especially with the comment on preservation.
Your selection for topic/subject, I feel that you ask some broad, but specific enough questions to help lead into your overall proposal. The aspect of the evolution of the femme fatale is something I’m exploring as well with my topic proposal.
Your helpful readings are actually a good arrangement of sources that you could use. I do wonder in what aspect could you utilize the ‘Into the Labyrinth’ reading.
For your films selected, you probably have the biggest list ready, compared to the other proposals I’ve seen. I might be slightly biased, but I’m feeling that The Maltese Falcon and Sunset Boulevard are probably going to be some of your best picks out of those films; or at least in my opinion.
I really love your defined clear argument on what you believe created the Femme Fatal Image.. I believe adding on all of these elements you choose to explore will provide a clear lay out on the formation and criteria of the Femme Fatale. I like how you wanted to explore what a femme -fatale “is not”, because in several films we watched this semester, i was not sure or not wether some female roles were able to be classified as femme fatale. So I am very interested to see how in depth you go in defining the fine details of this concept. Your course readings are spot on , those are all the ones i would like to see in the video essay, as well as the films mentioned: it will be interesting to see the difference amongst these female characters in Noir.