Femme Fatale (Widescreen)

 

 

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Thanks to R.A. Bean aka:Depalama's #1 I have the opportunity to wrap myself around this wonderful film. Femme fatale seems to be in vogue and a fascination with so many contemporary filmmakers. And when connected with heists and sexual acts, Brian DePalma does have a great flair for making his `femme fatale' intriguingly stylish and mysterious - especially when she slips into two personalities with a touch of Hitchcockian appeal.

DePalma's cinematic approach is incredibly baroque and surreal. He skillfully dabs some stolen moments from his many past films into his plot and sub-plots to create this modern thriller. Yep, he sets the mood, with a `50s classic film, to introduce his femme fatale. Then he glamorizes her, letting her blend in with the spirit and the festive mood of Cannes. From there, he lets the viewers' imagination run wild, as if watching her inch her way through some of the memorable scenes of some past movies. There's the presence of warped dreamlike moments, not so different from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (yes I also finally seen it this week) - dark, cold and sort of going nowhere until the last half-hour when the puzzles begin to fit. The uncanny twist, plugged into the film to disentangle the web of confusion, carves out a pleasingly and surprisingly ironical ending - as if one is seeing Run Lola Run all over again. Call it an erotic, twisted psychological thriller - if you wish - but I truly had fun connecting the dots. In a way, rather suspenseful! And there are loads of playful teases in the film to allow the viewers to struggle with illusions and disillusions! There's just no telling what's real or unreal; or who is supposed to do what. It's like saying everything, witnessed by the eye, is possible.

The story is visually and stylishly narrated with great focus on De Palma's ravishing and praiseworthy filmmaking techniques - camera movement, timing, split frames, frame editing etc. I must admit the visually accentuated and explicit sex scenes - 'striptease' and lesbo exposures included, are rather artistically filmed! Beware prudes, just cover your eyes! But don't forget - that's to be the expected draw whenever a noir seducer gets on screen! After all, a `femme fatale' is never meant to be a housebound angel! As someone once said `women are compartmentalized; her legs and a** identify a supporting character until the finale explains her identity.' You can bet, the film has a lot of torso sections of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' to offer some cinematic thrills! Great dramatic sounds from the music scores to create excitement. The song, "Sexe" - by the French singer, Damien Saez - beautiful being!

A mesmerizing cast of principle actors. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos who is brilliant in her roles. Who cares whether her two characters are developed well! Men are likely to fall under the spell of Laura/Lily! Charismatic Antonio Banderas in his paparazzo role offers some very funny moments. And the moods of both the Cannes and Paris surroundings delightfully trigger off the appeal of glamour and romanticism on screen.

"Femme Fatale" is fascinating with a touch of French film noir! DePalma always does well in mesmerizing the viewers with stylistic takes from one frame to another and so far he has not prove me wrong.

No offense intended towards the reviewer name "Sparkel" but he/she needs to WATCH the movie, in its entirety to KNOW why the woman in the bathroom stall 'allowed' her diamonds to be stolen. ...went right over your head i guess.

loved the film, and was suprised that i waited over a year to see it and was refreshingly suprised with what i saw. EVEN if you disagree with depalma's style or the overall quality of the film, you'll (provided you're breathing) will love the visuals and how stunningly beautiful rebecca and her french 'freind' are.

sit back and enjoy this one!

j

this movie is amazing from beginning to the end. It's even better when you watch it for the 2nd or even the 3rd time because you see clues you didn't see before and appreciate the stylish and the artistic film and also understand the film better. the story is great and clever and never slows down to the end. I was totally mesmorized. many people didn't like this movie. It'll be one of those films that people either didn't like or missed that will be a total classic in the future. It's one of the best movies I've seen in the past 5 years. It's totally non-hollywood so if you like that kind of movie, you won't like this, which is very intelligent.

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2.0 out of 5 stars little hit&alot of miss
this film was interesting for a minute then it lost me.the story writing was a bit under developed on a whole&after a while the pacing of the film got fragged down. Read more

Published on Jun 20 2004 by A customer

1.0 out of 5 stars ZZZZZZZ......
This movie was ridiculous. I absoutely do not believe that the woman at the film festival was so enthralled in making out that she did not notice her jewels were being stolen... Read more

Published on Jun 4 2004 by C. Avery

4.0 out of 5 stars rebecca saves it
I think it is fairly obvious to everyone who watched this movie that the plot is not very original at all. Read more

Published on May 24 2004 by andreafarrar

3.0 out of 5 stars Another De Palma gem!
First and foremost, I have to admit to myself that I am a Brian De Palma fan. I don't like all his stuff (Scarface, Mission Impossible, to name a few) but, if you want gratuitous... Read more

Published on May 8 2004 by Charles Scott Bennett

2.0 out of 5 stars more like Femme Fatality
maybe my expectations were too high but this movie just didn't get my attention very much the movie is slow and deary throughout as well as confusing, one word to describe it is... Read more

Published on Mar 15 2004 by Robbie rob

4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy, Smart & Provacative
This movie is a lot better than most reviewers thought. Besides
being stylish, sexy and beautiful to look at, it's far more intelligent than your usual Hollywood fare. Read more

Published on Mar 12 2004 by D. J. Zabriskie

1.0 out of 5 stars Trite, unbelievable, corny
All that refers to the climax. Despite what all people say in their reviews, there is only one reason the opening sequence is watchable (I'll leave it to you to find out, but... Read more

Published on Mar 11 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars "Life Is But A Dream ..."
Without giving away too much of the story, I can sum up FEMME FATALE's strength in one phrase: it's classic Brian Depalma ... which, sadly, is its greatest weakness. Read more

Published on Mar 9 2004 by Edward Lee

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad !
I have not missed much of Brian De Palma's movies. In fact, I can say that some of his earlier efforts like Dressed to kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Carlito's way &... Read more

Published on Mar 9 2004 by rkenter

2.0 out of 5 stars Ugh
Maybe it's just me. But I found this movie's plot very hard to follow. Only after it was thoroughly explained to me (as thoroughly as possible, since it leaves room for... Read more

Published on Mar 1 2004

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