Research into Femme Fatale with reference to Femme Fatales from thriller film.

Femme fatale

  Dictionary definition     :
A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations.

In the gangster thriller film 'Once Upon A Time in America' this is the first establishing shot on the femme Eve. Her face is illuminated by the glamorous and expensive Tiffney style lamp. Eve is a 'classic' femme fatale, dark eyes, red lips, and pale skin - 'classic' make up, tight skirt. Tightly curled perfectly presented curled hair and a glamorous hat. She is wearing pearls also a generic signifier of the femme fatale and thought to be unlucky, and could represent her unlucky fate. Her glamour, red lips, tight skirt and blonde hair are elements of objectification. She is also passive, a stereotyped dumb blonde who defines herself through men, she is marginal to the action and a victim. Her deviance is that she is a loose woman and thus pays for her sins.

Thelma and Louise and the main characters in the thriller 'Thelma and Louise'. They are an example of the 'modern' femme fatale, the strong women. Dressed in denim and wearing aviators they are almost the opposite of the classic femme fatale. They are dressed to look strong and confident, masculine andnot for the visual pleasure of men. Ridley Scott challenges the pre-conceptions and conventions of the thriller genre with Thelma and Louise, the main characters, two women in control, powerful and dangerous. This is taken from the scene where they look a policeman in the boot of his own car, Ridley Scott mocks the conception that men have power over women and noticably policeman. The girls take his gun and sun glasses and ride off, very much a 'girl power' moment. They are two women who took the law in there own hands and because of it are now on the run and proving to be clever strong and deviant.

Another modern femme fatale, Jackie Brown, from the film 'Jackie Brown' directed by Quentin Tarantino. As did Ridely Scott in 'Thelma and Louise' Tarantino challenges and smashes the conventions and pre-conceptions of the thriller genre can be seen in 'Jackie Brown' by having his main character as a middle aged, black female. Tarantino twists the audience pre-conceptions of the genre, he plays with stereotypes of gender, ethnicity, sex and age, and with this very controversial ( the thriller genre) leading character pushing the audiences out of their preconceptions and creates a strong, interesting, deviant lead and femme fatale. Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss's gun money on the airline she works for. Tarantino turns the audiences preconceptions on there heads with the leads smuggling of her male boss's gun money. Jackie Brown is strong, deviant confident and powerful she knows how to get what she wants and it clever in how she does it, she is in control and makes fools of the male that try and stop her. This movie poster reflects Tarantino's want to challenge the thriller genre and its audiences. Jackie is holding a gun this shows that she is in power and control, she has a large bag filled with money this shows that she is deviant, her tight short skirt and alluring dress objectifies her but also makes her look confident.

Opening to Jackie Brown



The first 1.50
Jackie is on a convabelt and constantly in the right third of the screen, a use of the rule of thirds, a persons eye is said to be drawn to the right, so she is placed on the right to be in constant attention of the audience.
Low angle tracking shot
The use of a low angle shot makes Jackie look powerful and in control, she works confidently with her head held high. The use of tracking means the audiences attention is constantly on Jackie and places the audience in the mise-en-scene, as if they are right beside her.
2.15-2.23
Mid low angle tracking shot
Mid angle shot, she low angle, makes the audience fell as if they are underneath her.
2.23-2.33
Close up, tracking shot


The opening sequence of 'Jackie Brown' is the establishment of Jackie (as a main character), the purpose bring to show the audience what she is like. Without dialogue the audience establish from the clever and powerful use of camera angles, costume and soundtrack Jackie is; confident, strong, powerful, safisticated, dominating, sucessful. The soundtrack played for the durrarion of the opening is upbeat, safisticated and confident, and reflects Jackie.