The characteristics of both fatales, are mainly the same but slight differences have occurred. With the femme fatale in film noir, her seductive sexuality was her main weapon in weaving her web of deceit and capturing the fall guy. This then obviously gave her power and strength over men because of her sexuality and seductiveness. In noir films, the femme fatale wore a lot of makeup. This gave an impression of deception, with disguise and confusion surrounding her, which in turn making her an ambiguous figure.
Blaxploitation movies provided alternative images of the African American woman that were neither the ‘Mammy’ of films like Gone With the Wind (1939), or the ‘exotic other’ of Carmen Jones (1954). But they were reminiscent of other stereotypes that have haunted black femininity since slavery. One of these stereotypes is most commonly known as the ‘Jezebel.’ Depicted as alluringly seductive, she uses her beauty to lure men into her bed almost against their will. Next, there is the ‘Sapphire,’ the wisecracking, stubborn, emasculating woman. She lets everyone know she’s in charge.
While all Film Noir never ends as fairy tale, an audience can look at most of the films and see how love, or lust, can drive people to do despicable acts of crime. Before describing how romance and the many varying types of love appear in Film Noir, it is important to understand the different gender roles each character plays. The male protagonist paired with a femme fatale is the usual leading roles in a Film Noir, but that isn’t a hard set rule. Men can play the male victim, damaged men, a private eye, a psychopath, or a homme fatal, (Spicer 85). Women can also play a variety of roles such as the nurturer, the good-bad girl, the female victim, or a femme fatale, (Spicer 90).
Director Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland created a film that changed the way films were made and allowed filmmakers to experiment with new cinema techniques and narrative styles. Many believe that Citizen Kane’s visual style led to the creation to film noir. French for “black film”, film noir is one of the defining genres of American film history, in this essay I will be comparing the cinematic and narrative style of the film noir genre and Citizen Kane to determine whether Citizen Kane is indeed the origin of Film noir. Film Noir gain popularity in the post world war era because of its unique visual and narrative style with a focus on the female antagonist, the famme fatale. The story often features a male protagonist with a secret past who is trying to move on, but is forced to return to his past because of the occurrences of an event or a character, often the famme fatale, with whom the protagonist shared a past.
Stoker’s choose of women as the temptresses may be a warning to the women of the Victorian era to beware about pushing the boundaries of their sexuality. Stoker’s use of structuring emphasizes a women’s role in society at the time, this is the first women that Harker meets in the novel and they are devilish vampires, this implies that the novel appeals to an only male audience and their fantasy of women giving in to their temptations. Harker is simultaneously confronting a vampire and another creature equally terrifying to Victorian England, an unabashedly sexual woman, the evidence for this comes from the implied act of oral sex, ‘The fair girl went on her knees, bent over me, fairly gloating.’ Contextually the fact that Harker becomes the ‘submissive’ and is easily overpowered by their seduction and his own temptation shows the role reversal as women take on the dominating role that a traditional Victorian man is supposed to possess. The fact that Harker is both aroused and disgusted by the Vampires shows the Freudian
One, you would introduce to your mother (Sean Young's character) and the other, you wouldn't ( the Darryl Hannah portrayal), because she would end up sleeping with her. (This attitude came about because women during the war in America found their true independence, they worked in jobs that men had a monopoly on). The evolution of film noir came principally because of supply and demand. The building blocks to capitalism. The studios had to churn these films out because of public demand, The suits funded these lesser projects with a limited budget.
Women characters often used as plot device to present fear. Or showed male fears of the strong, dominant woman who were portrayed as a predator and punished. Carter places women at the centre of the text – texts such as Werewolf are female dominated. She explores the use of women as victims and creates a brave, unafraid girl. She explores the use of the female predator and the prejudice surrounding this.
Randi Grummer Film Noir 4/26/11 Anderson The Underworld of Suburbia Film Noir is a term used to describe a certain type of Holly crime drama. Film noirs, otherwise known as crime thrillers or murder dramas, have specific camera angles, shadows, romance, and atmosphere. These films contain flashbacks that disrupt and obscure the plots sequence, in addition to possessing a dark and corrupt feeling. Typical film noirs from the 1940’s and 1950’s were often connected to an urban setting. However, today, directors have evolved this genre and, now, a majority of these films are located in suburbs, small towns and rural areas.
This essay will discuss a few of the actresses that graced the stage as Hedda, in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, and how they portrayed this controversial character. For an actress to appropriately portray the full essence of Hedda Gabler as intended by Ibsen, the actress would have to absorb and embody the mentality of psychologically disturbed person. To do so without the capability of being able to separate themselves could torment the very being of the actresses psyche. If this play emulates such horrific connotations, then why do they agree to portray such a character? How do they mentally prepare to depict such a manipulative tortured woman?
Denis brilliantly pours on the psychological edginess by cleverly contrasting the class struggles and emotional baggage that ultimately gives credence to the heinous Papins' crimes. In fact, "Murderous Maids" joins a series of notable films dedicated to the infamous Papin siblings with such fare as "The Maids", "Sister My Sister" and "La Ceremonie". The unstable personal relationships and the soulless conflict behind the brimming madness gives "Murderous Maids" enough tragic fiber to make this a haunting and intriguing affair to behold. Older control freak Christine Papin (Sylvie Testud) and the younger clueless teen sib Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier) eventually go to work as housemaids for the snooty Madame Lancelin (Dominique Labourier). As we soon learn, the Papin gals aren't just your ordinary servant sisters meant to tend to their duties as assigned.