Femme Fatale (2002)

Waste of time

How sad is this?

An action-packed slog

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

As an example of how to convey information with a minimum of dialogue, this movie is absolutely outstanding. Its plot unfolds so naturally and gracefully across the screen that, as well as telling its tale with great efficiency, it also creates a wonderfully hypnotic atmosphere. Its story about a well-planned diamond heist involves double-crosses, blackmail and revenge as well as some reflections on the level to which individuals are able to control their own destinies and interestingly, it also includes a number of Hitchcockian influences such as voyeurism, doubles, confused identities and the disguise motif.Stylistically, the emphasis is on presenting the action with the kind of deliberate pace and fluid camera-work that together contribute so strongly to the dreamlike mood of the piece. This, in turn, makes some of the plot's stranger coincidences, apparently illogical developments and moments of deja vu seem far less incongruous than would have been the case, if they'd have been seen in a more conventionally-filmed movie.During the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Laure Ash (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) has a key role to play in a heist that's been planned by her gang-leader, Black Tie (Eriq Ebouaney) and posing as a press photographer at one of the premieres, sees a model called Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) who attracts a lot of attention because of the very revealing gold, serpent-shaped, diamond-encrusted piece of body jewellery that she's wearing. When Laure and Veronica meet in the ladies' room immediately before the movie's due to be screened, Laure is seen apparently seducing the model and during their encounter, removes the various pieces of Veronica's body-jewellery and drops them to the floor. Black Tie, who's hidden in the adjacent cubicle, then systematically swaps each piece for a fake replica in readiness for making off with the loot which is valued at $10,000,000. Things don't go so smoothly from this point on and culminate in Laure double-crossing her partners-in-crime and escaping to Paris with the stolen jewellery.In Paris, Laure is mistaken for a missing woman called Lily, who looks identical to her and so, after stealing her double's passport and plane ticket to New York, Laure takes the opportunity to escape to a new life in America. During the flight, she meets a wealthy businessman who she subsequently marries. Seven years later, when her husband, Bruce Hewitt Watts (Peter Coyote) is appointed as the American ambassador to France, Laure reluctantly has to return to Paris (coincidentally at the same time as Black Tie is released from prison). After a period during which she's able to keep a low profile, her cover is suddenly blown after freelance photographer, Nicholas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) takes a photograph of her which then appears in numerous publications and puts her life in danger because her fellow gang-members are out for revenge.The surreal series of events that follow illustrate further just how evil and manipulative Laure is and produce a dizzying succession of twists and turns that lead to the movie's entertaining and highly unpredictable conclusion. Intriguingly, during this part of the movie, it also becomes apparent that a number of things that had happened earlier, were not actually what they'd appeared to be.Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale" is an immensely absorbing mystery thriller that features a woman whose characteristics are typical of the noir archetype and readily admits that she's "a bad girl, real bad - rotten to the heart". Rebecca Romjin-Stamos hits all the right notes as both Laure and Lily and Antonio Banderas is charming and humorous as her victim. The real star of the show, however, is the camera. The ways in which split-screen techniques, tracking shots and overhead camera angles cover the action are totally breathtaking and clearly the work of a filmmaker who fully understands and is inspired by, all the possibilities of cinema as a visual medium.

**SPOILER ALERT - The last paragraph makes reference to a 1940s film that constitutes a spoiler. ** There rarely seems to be anything in between where Brian De Palma films are concerned, cinematic lovers of all kinds by and large either trash or laud his films. Femme Fatale is no different, one critic - both professional or amateur - will have it as a 1/10 movie, another will have it at the maximum rate available. Femme Fatale is high grade stuff if one is either a De Palma fan or a lover of film noir. Conversely if these two things don't tick your film loving boxes then the law of averages suggests you should have - or should - stayed/stay away from it.De Palma opens up the doors to his fun house and invites noir lovers to come on in and enjoy. It's difficult to write about the plot because it holds many twists and turns, it's a veritable supply of uppers and downers, twisters and benders, all sexed up and pumped full of De Palma's trademark tricks and devilish rug pulls. In truth the story and set-up is predictable, but the journey is what makes the pic ooze quality and bare faced cheek, with the director giggling away like a schoolgirl in the background.Opening up with a sequence that sees our titular fatale (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) watching famed noir classic Double Indemnity, De Palma proceeds to homage and love the film noir world. As he uses split-screens, canted angles, up-tilt shots, shadow plays etc, the narrative pulses with eroticism and impending cruelty, this really is a femme fatale based movie of the grandest kind. As events unfurl, with hapless photographer Nicola Bardo (a fun packed Antonio Banderas) caught in the web, Ryuichi Sakamoto's magnificent classical based score swirls around like some sort of peeping tom. The latter of which finds a shifty accomplice in Thierry Arbogast's noir photography.It's a picture awash with dupes, dopes and vengeful criminals, where the themes of identity, duality, sexuality and distorted perceptions gnaw away at those investing fully in the viewing experience. Some critics (prof and amat) have lazily likened the film to David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, as if De Palma in 6 short months watched Lynch's movie and then knocked this film out! The copy-cat charge as funny as the rug-pull that De Palma pulls here. Besides, as any film noir lover will tell you, this has more in keeping with Fritz Lang's 1944 noirer "The Woman in the Window" than Lynch's film, which is no bad thing at all, and De Palma knew that. 8/10

By the time Brian De Palma made "Femme Fatale", it seemed that he had been trying to remake Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in his own style for the past thirty years.Many of his films exhibit homage to Hitchcock – "Obsession", "Blowout", "Dressed to Kill" and "Body Double". However "Femme Fatale" has homage to spare. The doppelgangers, the voyeurism, the surveillance are all in evidence – not to mention a Hermannesque score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Doubtless De Palma would have employed Herrmann himself if he had still been alive as he did in 1973's "Sisters" and 1975's "Obsession" – the most aptly named of all his films."Femme Fatale" is set in France and begins when Laure Ash, played by Rebecca Romijn Stamos, is involved in a jewel robbery during the Cannes Film Festival. Although security guards catch her associates, Laure escapes. After being injured, she is rescued by a couple who think she is their depressed and grieving daughter Lily. Taken to the couple's home, Laure is alone in the bath and watches undetected when the real daughter, also played by Romijn-Stamos, turns up and commits suicide. Laure then flees to America.Dropping in and out of the story is Nicholas Bardot, a paparazzi played by Antonio Banderas who is assembling a wall-sized montage of Paris composed of hundreds of standard-sized snapshots. For this project, he takes candid shots of Laure/Lily and other mysterious tall girls who could also be Laure/Lily – after all, if Hitchcock could make a classic with two Kim Novak's, De Palma must have thought just look what I can do with an endless number of Rebecca Romijn Stamos's.Not surprisingly, Antonio Banderas must have suspected that he was caught up in an over-dressed turkey and decided to have fun with the role. In a later sequence, he puts in a performance that rivals Martin Short's efforts as Franck Eggelhoffer in "Father of the Bride".Seven years later, Laure now assuming the identity of Lily, returns to Paris as the wife of the US Ambassador, played by Peter Coyote. Antonio Bandera's catches up with Laure/Lily and is ensnared in a complicated kidnap plot.Ex-model, Rebecca Romijn Stamos plays the whole thing pretty seriously. She is tall, blonde and blessed with killer cheekbones. Through the many character and mood changes she stays aloof and cool – she is a femme fatale after all.The finale sees Laure/Lily thrown off a bridge and into a predicament from which there can be no logical escape. So De Palma dispenses with logic. We are presented with the possibility that Laure/Lily has existed in a state of alternate reality – "Sliding Doors" comes to mind or even "Vanilla Sky". Then, the preceding story is shown to be a delusion seen from one person's point of view. Sound familiar? This was the premise behind "Mulholland Drive." It was David Lynch's get-out-of-jail card when he had worked his characters into a similarly tight corner.Despite all the 'inspiration' from other films, all could be forgiven if the ending actually worked. Alas, this is not the case. The ending is flat and we do feel cheated.Despite a glossy exterior there isn't much interior to "Femme Fatale". Although it divided the critics then and now, it all seems too silly to be taken seriously.

Femme Fatale is a mystery film stars Rebecca Romijn in the title role together with Antonio Banderas,Peter Coyote,Eriq Ebouaney and Rie Rasmussen.Director Brian De Palma blends the emotional netherworld of film noir with a stylish portrayal of life among the wealthy and powerful in Paris in this glossy thriller.Laure Ash is a beautiful but mysterious woman who has aligned herself with a small ring of jewel thieves, led by a man known as Black Tie, who has planned a major score during the Cannes Film Festival. Sexy model Veronica is scheduled to make a spectacular entrance for the screening of director Regis Wargnier's picture, wearing a body-hugging piece of jewelry worth a cool ten million dollars. Laure approaches the sexually adventurous Veronica and is able to seduce her, while at the same time stealing her diamond-studded outfit and replacing it with a carefully constructed counterfeit. Veronica, however, also makes off the loot without giving her partners their cut, and must go into hiding in order to avoid the wrath of Black Tie and his cohorts. Fate allows Laure to make her way to the United States, where in time she marries a powerful politician. Photographer Nicolas Bardo, however, had snapped a picture of Laure while she was on the lam years before, and when he takes an assignment to get a photo of the camera-shy woman, Laure realizes Nicolas is in a position to reveal her new identity to the world and put the bloodthirsty Black Tie back on her trail.The sheer pleasure of watching movies is celebrated in Brian De Palma's dazzling Femme Fatale. Working from his own intricate screenplay, De Palma indulges all of his trademark obsessions, upping the ante on Hitchcock with a Vertigo-like plot.De Palma's weaving a web of nonsense, but his plotting is so exuberantly absurd--and his frame so full of visual clues and relevant detail--that Femme Fatale becomes a joyous thrill ride at first encounter, and a crazily logical and grandly rewarding movie on subsequent viewings. In her best role to date, Romijnis everything you'd want a femme fatale to be, in a thriller that constantly challenges you to question what you're seeing.