Femme Fatales

Thrillers & Film Noir

Women in Film Noir

By Dalia Chowdhury

Usually in film-noir there are two types of female characters, one being the archetypes, whom are the stereotypical female, they are trustworthy and loving. They are the love of the hero’s life and want the best for them. They are generally very dutiful to their lover and don’t have any ulterior motives. On the other hand there are femme-fatales, a femme-fatale is a classic feminine character used in film-noir movies. Normally a femme fatale is a woman who uses her sexuality and her seductiveness to get men to do what she wants, to her own advantages. Sometimes this character is portrayed as supernatural due to the power to hypnotise men, but that was in the earliest film noir films, later they were presented purely as manipulative and duplicitous women. The word femme fatale is French for ‘deadly woman’.

The conventional characteristics of film-noir females was for the woman to have ‘ruthlessness and dark erotic sexiness’(1). She had to have a sexual nature which could make any man believe her and fall into her trap. In film-noir the femme-fatales are considered very powerful and determine the hero’s ultimate decisions. The femme fatales behave quite mischievously and sustain scandalous behaviour when trying to capture a man in their trap, however those who are the loving, caring women, who play a mother or the dutiful wife of traditional cinema are more passive and just at the side of the story. They have no control over the man, but they may influence there decisions.

Theda Bara was one of the first women to popularise the iconic image of a femme fatale and became known as one of the first sex symbols. She was nicknamed ‘the Vampire’ which was later shortened to ‘the vamp’ which was later used as slang to describe a women who used her sexuality for her own personal gain. She was an American silent film actress who was renowned for her sexual persona.

Barbara Stanwyck was known as a renowned performer and highly credited for her acting and beauty. She had a strong screen presence and is now ranked as the 11th greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. She even got a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For her work she was nominated numerous times for Academy Awards then went on to win several Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Louise Glaum was also best known for her roles in silent films as a femme fatale and known for ‘giving one of the best characterizations of a vamp’(2). She was well recognised by the public and rose to fame very quickly. She was considered to have the perfect acting to display such roles and her characterisation became more iconic as the years went on.

Jane Greer was another exemplary femme fatale. Due to a facial palsy it left her with one side of her face paralyzed, but later she recovered and it meant that with the facial exercises she was able to grasp the true essence of human emotion. Then later because of her face structure she was called ‘the woman with the Mona Lisa smile’.

Rhonda Fleming was a perfect woman considered to have the right edge to play the heroine of movies. She was admired as ‘the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day’(3) known for her fair complexion and red hair, she was later dubbed as the ‘Queen of Technicolor’.

Ref 1: http://www.filmsite.org/femmesfatales.html

Ref 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Glaum

Ref 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhonda_Fleming

Useful Websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Film%20Noir.html

http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir2.html

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/movie-pages/movie_film_noir.php