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
in which crimes takes root. 1 This unrepressed woman is the ultimate embodiment of raw manipulation who, charged with fears, becomes the ultimate reflection of her surroundings while still symbolising the Femme Fatale’s inability to be humanised or caged.
From the first introduction of the Femme Fatale in both texts, the power of their sexual presence has already been fully established. They have been cemented and objectified in the male protagonist’s obsession2 In ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, the rolling movement of a lipstick case catches Garfield’s attention. The source of the movement is subsequently established as the responders view the camera working its way up her incredible legs to her full breasts to her superlative face.’ 3 Garfield is immediately viewed to be not in love with her wit or her character but ensnared with lust. This infamous screen entrance is the ultimate depiction of the Femme Fatales alluring manipulation.
From creation, Eve, the ultimate temptress, and all the subsequent Femme Fatales, they have all obtained a blatant disregard for upheld societal values. This characteristic has shaped the Femme Fatales motives and boundaries. Post-war America was fraught with the dangers of freedom and the realisations of potential. Film Noir demonstrates the violent consequences of recognizing the variety of perspectives on offer in stories of modern life. As well as examining the difficulties of balancing post-war realities of female drive and ambition with traditional gender roles.4. The promise of the American Dream was one which nearly all sought after. The Femme Fatale is depicted in both texts as once having aspired for such a reality. The situation we witness the Femme Fatales to be in however now view marriage as a place with an absence of love, constraining and boring.5 Locked in a loveless marriage, Phyllis Dietrichson tells Walter Neff of the constraints of her marriage, ‘He keeps me on a chain so tight I can’t breathe.’ It isn’t at Femme Fatale’s inability to love or rejection of love that turns a woman into a Femme Fatale, but it is from the feeling of un-fulfillment, especially in her husband’s affections that morphs her into the being of the Femme Fatale. This mutual agreement of rejection from both her husband and her society, shuns the Femme Fatale into a situation in which she shields her own emotions and elicits those in others. Her cornered position, enables her to open up a world in which she only strives for omnipotence. This role enlivens a sense of freedom, in which she embodies a fake sense of freedom and happiness. Through this façade of freedom, Phyllis and Cora as well all other Femme Fatales are able to manipulate their victims into a false sense of hope. This manipulation often comes through her sexuality. The brazen shield which is puts on herself near always shields the responders from her emotions. ‘We are never shown the emotions of Phyllis Dietrichson. Only in the scene where Walter is killing her husband do we see a satisfied smile.’6 This safeguard which the Femme Fatale creates enables the deception of the good wife to be had. ‘Women were identified as objects and mystified in their role as social agents. They were deemed passive, valued only in wifely vocation. Transgressions from this would threaten the male patriarchy.’7Phyllis Dietrichson isn’t an oppressed character. She has accepted the limitations of her society and knows her own weapons to which she will work with. She fetishises herself deliberately to get exactly what she wants.8. Her coldness and her self-awareness are her powers. A Femme Fatale never wants to steal a man’s power because she knows that her power is far greater than his.9 The dark power which the Femme Fatale possesses is merely a projection of the male desire and anxiety. Men need to control women’s sexuality in order not to be destroyed by it.10. This is often the case with the male protagonists in Film Noir. They become so entrapped by the Femme Fatale’s spell that their demise is imminent.
In Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Phyllis Dietrichson shoots Neff and then begins to confess, ‘I never loved you Walter, not you or anybody else. Until a minute ago when I couldn’t fire that second shot. I never thought that could happen to me.’ The confession of her love and her subsequent murder leaves her manipulation of words lingering after her death. As responder, this enlightenment, establishes this Femme Fatales power even after death. Her haunting memory of manipulation is near her ultimate weapon. The Femme Fatale shows few signs of weaknesses or fears in her games of manipulation, and seldom as responders are we privy to her emotions.
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 ultimate constraint to which she cannot bear. Cora is then conveyed getting a knife in which she intends to kill herself with.
The fear of abandonment, portrayed to be felt by the Femme Fatale is an ironic twist on the notion of a solo woman.
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
contemplate.
Film Noir is known for its use of chiaroscuro lighting and the mise-en-scene of the family home. Both of these visual techniques reflect the Femme Fatale’s personality. Embodying every aspect of the movie, the Femme Fatale and her story are reflected throughout all scenic choices. The techniques of chiaroscuro lighting as well as the mise-en scene together intensify the atmosphere of the Femme Fatale’s radiating coldness and manipulation. The entrapment of the Femme Fatale, her victims and the resulting audience can be seen through the choice of settings. Familiar scenes including; train yards, gasworks, downtown New York, dock yards as well as many more. These are all surreal spaces, helping to dramatise the psychic isolation and confusion felt by the protagonist.12 An isolated highway service station is the location of ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice.’ Cora is the enslaved wife to an unloving husband. Reflected in the scene in which she is first portrayed to the audience, Cora wears minimal white clothing. Accentuating her figure, this white symbol is a purposeful technique used to convey her ‘virginity’ and innocence. This theme of being in an entrapped state of being, is the medium from which Cora gains her freedom. Her sexuality is her main choice of weapon and it isn’t an instrument which is forgiving. Unrelenting and demanding is this mode of transport that dreary the woman becomes, enslaved to herself through a circular bond. This dreary nature of circumstance is depicted through the backdrop. ‘Changeless monotonous beautiful days without end… unmarred by rain or weather.’13 This quote explicitly details the character of the Femme Fatale enabling an illustration of her character. ‘Changeless, monotonous, beautiful’ are all words which encapsulate the memory of the Femme Fatale. Even after her expected death the responders are still engaged to the idea that she is an eternal woman. ‘Unmarred by rain or weather’, also showcases the Femme Fatale’s ability even amidst greed, desire and hatred, she lives on. Through death she is also exalted as being a character who is unmarred. This juxtaposing motif of procured innocence verses unforgiving desire, is a theme which ultimately results the Femme Fatale’s demise however is one that endures.
Provided in ‘Double Indemnity’ is the first true reckoning of a fragment of boomtown ecology. The extended metaphor stretching through this text is the motif of the car as an embodiment of its surroundings. Double Indemnity exemplifies the culture of transience and automobility on which the city is literally built. 14The cars which appear throughout Billy Wilder’s film, are a cruel link between to America’s supposed promise of affluence. First appearing as the means by which the male protagonist, Walter Neff, earns his living this car is the same one in which the murder takes place. With its hard outer shell and soft interior, simultaneously protected form and vulnerable to outside perusal, the automobile appears as a form of mechanized alter ego for the hapless Walter Neff15

The Femme Fatale has always aspired and inspired generations of women and men to push boundaries and gain their ultimate goal of freedom. The Femme Fatale has always aspired to be somebody. Whether it be for Cora in ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, to be the empowered and successful owner of a diner, or for Phyllis Dietrichson to be rid of her binding husband, this desire to be someone they’re not, characterises their subjectivity and motives. Thus this passion disables the Femme Fatale from every being humanised.
The discussion of feminism is often linked to the Femme Fatale and the role that Film Noir had on this movement. This debate has some merit, as film noir depicts women in a fully exposed and raw position, as well as “the depiction of women in these films, by a complex and circuitous network of mediation, reflects such social changes as the increasing entry of women into the labour market,” the presence of this stock character can be seen as a need to place the American woman back in her ‘place’.16 The era of the Femme Fatale was born forth from a society in which men went to war and came back to find their sisters, mothers and wives empowered and in the workforce. This masculine re-balancing of the sexes through the creation of the supposed ‘evil’ empowered woman is in some readings is expected to act as a deterrent to the wondering woman.
Film Noir women are always presented as varied and complex, responsive to social changes that empowered and victimised them 17thus is their legacy. From a society which upheld the morals such as, ‘a man can be as strong as steel… but somewhere there’s a woman who’ll break him18, the fear of powerful women, was almost the trigger that created this iconic powerful woman. Even in film noir itself, we often collude with the male protagonist in our viewing alliances, further violating the spirit of the Femme Fatale. This super-imposes strict terms of the Femme Fatale onto them.19 These terms include the way they should be portrayed. The camera angles exemplify her figure and occurring male voice over narrations depict her sexuality as a great evil. Many viewings of film noir describe it as a male preserver20 with the reasoning that film noir’s trajectory as a female journey to subjectivity. 21
Dominant readings of Film Noir however position the Femme Fatale as an empowered and enduring character. Femme Fatales are tough women who are victims and whose strength, perverse by conventional standards, keeps them from submitting to the gendered social constitutions that oppress them. 22However Film Noir movies almost always result in the death of the Femme Fatale. In both ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ and ‘Double Indemnity’, both of the Femme Fatales are killed by their primary victim. This by no means kills the spirit of the Femme Fatale, but opposing lets live the characteristics of the Femme Fatale so defining. The Femme Fatale is a form of myth that is both expressed within and transcends the limits of the film’s narrative.23 The Femme Fatale embodies the resistance of her context as well as the restraints of death.

‘How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell of honeysuckle?’ How could have Walter Neff have known that the woman he would murder for could have left such a sweet odour? The mystification of Femme Fatales as ‘poisonous honeypots’,24 is a conclusion which most have come to, discerning the allusive Femme Fatales. She’s the kind of woman a man wants… but shouldn’t have25, born from a society which alternatively embraced the liberation of the female or shunned their existence. An embodiment of Film Noir, the characteristics of the Femme Fatale reached to every crevice of the genres dark settings, revealing her inner weaknesses and fears as a mask she can never take off. Although dead to the world, the Femme Fatale will always ensnare in us in her manipulative power. Morphing through and ahead of her contexts, the Femme Fatale has jumped from the fixed boundaries of film noir onwards to the context of today. ‘Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money – and a woman – and I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty, isn’t it?’

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