Live: GENDERED ARCHETYPES IN FILM 5: The Femme Fatale

MON 11 APR – 19:30 TO 21:30

Lumière Cinema, Bassin 88

Kevin Toma
Film Critic and Composer

The story of the femme fatale goes back centuries; from the Bible and the Greek myths to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But nowhere does she reveal herself as well as in the cinema. Although it is not really revealing herself, as the film femme fatale uses not only her beauty, but also her mystery to entice unsuspecting men to their ruin. As an enigma incarnate, she appears in all sorts of film genres, from horror and SF to westerns, but her most important cinematographic form is undoubtedly the film noir. Sensual, intangible and murderous in equal measures, the femme fatale would seem to be an essential ingredient of these hard, stylised crime dramas from classical Hollywood. But are such clichés actually right? How has the femme fatale developed throughout film history? Does she just represent the male fear of strong women, or does she deserve to be seen as an autonomous creature, who is mainly trying to gain and safeguard her own freedom? Film journalist Kevin Toma gets to the bottom of it, using a wealth of film excerpts.