Femme fatale

Convicted spy Mata Hari made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI.

A femme fatale (pronounced /ˌfɛm fəˈtæl/ or /ˌfɛm fəˈtɑːl/; French: [fam faˈtal], with all [a]'s) 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. She is an archetype or stock character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon.

The phrase is French for "deadly woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Typically, she is exceptionally well-endowed in addition to possessing these qualities. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm. She may also be (or imply to be) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; The Lady from Shanghai (a 1947 film noir) is one such example.

Although typically villainous, femmes fatales have also appeared as antiheroines in some stories, and some even repent and become heroines by the end of the tale. In social life, the femme fatale tortures her lover in an asymmetrical relationship, denying confirmation of her affection. She usually drives him to the point of obsession and exhaustion so that he is incapable of making rational decisions.

Sociological views

The femme fatale has generated divergent opinions amongst social scholars. Sometimes, the femme fatale is closely tied to fears of female witch and misogyny.^[1] Others say Femme fatale "remains an example of female independence and a threat to traditional female gender roles".^[2]

History

Ancient Archetypes

The femme fatale archetype exists in the history, folklore and myth of nearly every culture in every century.^[3] Ancient mythical, legendary and historical archetypes include Lilith, Delilah, Salome and Jezebel, the Sirens, the Sphinx, Scylla, Clytemnestra and Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.^[4]

Early Western culture to the 19th century

Salome - as portrayed by Franz von Stuck.

The femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages, often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The Biblical figure of Eve is an example, as is the wicked, seductive enchantress, typified in Morgan le Fay.

The femme fatale flourished in the Romantic period in the works of John Keats, notably "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Lamia". Along with them, there rose the gothic novel, The Monk featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and as the vampiress, notably in Carmilla and Brides of Dracula. The Monk was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade, for whom the femme fatale symbolised not evil, but all the best qualities of Women, with his novel Juliette being perhaps the earliest wherein the femme fatale triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject.

In the Western culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the femme fatale became a more fashionable trope, and she is found in the paintings of the artists Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, Franz von Stuck and Gustave Moreau. The novel À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans includes these fevered imaginings about an image of Salome in a Moreau painting:

No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.^[5]

She also is seen as a prominent figure in late nineteenth and twentieth century opera, appearing in Richard Wagner's Parsifal (Kundry), George Bizet's "Carmen", Camille Saint-Saëns' "Samson et Delilah" and Alban Berg's "Lulu" (based on the plays "Erdgeist" and "Die Büchse der Pandora" by Frank Wedekind).

In fin-de-siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde re-invented the femme fatale in the play Salome: she manipulates her lust-crazed uncle, King Herod, with her enticing Dance of the Seven Veils (Wilde's invention) to agree to her imperious demand: bring me the head of John the Baptist. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Strauss, was popularized on stage, screen, and peep-show booth in countless reincarnations.^[6]

Another enduring icon of womanly glamour, seduction, and moral turpitude was Mata Hari, 1876–1917, an alluring oriental dancer who was accused of German espionage and was put to death by a French firing squad. As such, she embodied the femme fatale archetype, and, after her death she became the subject of much fantastical imagining. She was the subject of many sensational films and books.

20th century film and theatre

Actress Theda Bara defined the word "Vamp" in the film A Fool There Was.

The femme fatale has been portrayed as a sexual vampiress; her charms leach the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling was inspired by a vampiress painted by Philip Burne-Jones, an image typical of the era in 1897, to write his poem "The Vampire". Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its refrain: "A fool there was...", describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular 1915 film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star. The poem was used in the publicity for the film. On this account, in early American slang the femme fatale was called a vamp, short for vampiress.^[7]

From the American film audience perspective, the femme fatale often was foreign, usually either of an indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry. She was the sexual counterpart to wholesome actresses such as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Notable silent cinema vamps were Theda Bara, Helen Gardner, Louise Glaum, Valeska Suratt, Musidora, Virginia Pearson, Olga Petrova, Nita Naldi, Pola Negri, and in her early appearances, Myrna Loy.

During the film noir era of the 1940s and 1950s, the femme fatale flourished in American cinema. Examples include the overly possessive and narcissistic wife Ellen Brent Harland, portrayed by Gene Tierney, in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), who will stop at nothing to keep her husband's affections. Another is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, portrayed by Mary Astor, who uses her acting skills to murder Sam Spade's partner in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Yet another is the cabaret singer portrayed by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946),^[8] who sexually manipulates her husband and his best friend. Another noir femme fatale is Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who seduces a hapless insurance salesman and persuades him to kill her husband in Double Indemnity (1944). Still by the same author from Double Indemnity, there is Lana Turner as Cora in The Postman Always Rings Twice, in which she manipulates John Garfield to kill her husband.^[8] In the Hitchcock film The Paradine Case (1947), the character played by Alida Valli is a poisonous femme fatale who is responsible for the deaths of two men and the near destruction of another. One frequently cited example is the character of Jane in Too Late for Tears (1949), played by Lizabeth Scott. During her quest to keep some dirty money from its rightful recipient and her husband, she uses poison, lies, sexual teasing and a gun to keep men wrapped around her finger. Today, she remains a key character in films such as Body Heat, with Kathleen Turner, The Last Seduction, with Linda Fiorentino, To Die For, with Nicole Kidman, Basic Instinct, with Sharon Stone, Femme Fatale with Rebecca Romijn and Inglourious Basterds with Diane Kruger.

In popular culture

In contemporary culture, the femme fatale survives as heroine and anti-heroine, in Nikita and Moulin Rouge!, as well as in video games and comic books. Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Kathleen Turner) from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a parody of the femme fatale. Æon Flux is the titular femme fatale of MTV's eponymous animation series. Elektra from Marvel Comics, Catwoman and Poison Ivy from the Batman series, Fujiko Mine from Lupin the 3rd and Effy Stonem of the British teen drama Skins are all examples.

In the English board game Cluedo (Clue in the US), Miss Scarlet occupies the role of femme fatale. Other cultural examples of deadly women occur in espionage thrillers, and adventure comic strips, such as The Spirit, by Will Eisner, and Terry and the Pirates, by Milton Caniff. Buffy the Vampire Slayer a highly successful American TV show, also presents a beautiful and dangerous heroine. The Velvet Underground song "Femme Fatale", on The Velvet Underground & Nico album, tells of a woman (Edie Sedgwick) who will "play" a man "for a fool." Examples from the science fiction genre are Saffron from the "Firefly" episodes "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash", Lady Christina de Souza from the "Doctor Who" special "Planet of the Dead", Sarah Connor from "The Terminator" series, as well as Cameron Philips and Catherine Weaver from "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

See also

• Enchantress
• Succubus
• Anatomy of a Murder
• Armida
• Dragon Lady (stereotype)
• Girls with guns
• Gun moll
• Histrionic personality disorder
• Psychological manipulation
• Film Noir
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (film)
• Anna Chapman

References

Further reading

• Toni Bentley (2002) Sisters of Salome. Salome considered as an archetype of female desire and transgression and as the ultimate femme fatale.
• Bram Dijkstra (1986) Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-De-Siecle Culture, (1986) ISBN 0-19-505652-3. Discusses the Femme fatale-stereotype.
• Bram Dijkstra (1996) Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Culture, (1996) ISBN 0-8050-5549-5
• Elizabeth K. Mix Evil By Design: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme Fatale, ISBN 978-0252073236. Discusses the origin of the Femme fatale in 19th century French popular culture.
• Mario Praz (1930) The Romantic Agony. See chapters four, 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', and five, 'Byzantium'.

External links

• Femme Fatale - A series of charcoal drawings by British artist, Pip Dickens. Based on aspects of the close-up and fabrics worn by femme fatales in Film Noir
• No Place for a Woman: The Family in Film Noir
• "Femme Fatale" - A Theatrical Song Cycle
• High Heels on Wet Pavement: film noir and the femme fatale
• Marling, William: Characteristics of Hard-Boiled Fiction:The Femme Fatale
• PERSONALITY DISORDER AND THE FILM NOIR FEMME FATALE by Scott Snyder
• The Greatest Femmes Fatales American Movie Classics Filmsite
• Fads of the 20s: Vamps and Shebas
• The Femme Fatale of Comics
• Rudyard Kipling, "The Vampire"