Femme Fatale
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Movie Reviews of Femme Fatale
Movie Review: Come Closer......Closeeeeer......the closer you look, the more fun it is.
Summary: 4 Stars
Bean-Bean this one for you.
Thanks to R.A. Bean aka:Depalama's #1 I have the opportunity to wrap myself around this wonderful film. Femme fatale seems to be in vogue and a fascination with so many contemporary filmmakers. And when connected with heists and sexual acts, Brian DePalma does have a great flair for making his `femme fatale' intriguingly stylish and mysterious - especially when she slips into two personalities with a touch of Hitchcockian appeal.
DePalma's cinematic approach is incredibly baroque and surreal. He skillfully dabs some stolen moments from his many past films into his plot and sub-plots to create this modern thriller. Yep, he sets the mood, with a `50s classic film, to introduce his femme fatale. Then he glamorizes her, letting her blend in with the spirit and the festive mood of Cannes. From there, he lets the viewers' imagination run wild, as if watching her inch her way through some of the memorable scenes of some past movies. There's the presence of warped dreamlike moments, not so different from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (yes I also finally seen it this week) - dark, cold and sort of going nowhere until the last half-hour when the puzzles begin to fit. The uncanny twist, plugged into the film to disentangle the web of confusion, carves out a pleasingly and surprisingly ironical ending - as if one is seeing Run Lola Run all over again. Call it an erotic, twisted psychological thriller - if you wish - but I truly had fun connecting the dots. In a way, rather suspenseful! And there are loads of playful teases in the film to allow the viewers to struggle with illusions and disillusions! There's just no telling what's real or unreal; or who is supposed to do what. It's like saying everything, witnessed by the eye, is possible.
The story is visually and stylishly narrated with great focus on De Palma's ravishing and praiseworthy filmmaking techniques - camera movement, timing, split frames, frame editing etc. I must admit the visually accentuated and explicit sex scenes - 'striptease' and lesbo exposures included, are rather artistically filmed! Beware prudes, just cover your eyes! But don't forget - that's to be the expected draw whenever a noir seducer gets on screen! After all, a `femme fatale' is never meant to be a housebound angel! As someone once said `women are compartmentalized; her legs and a** identify a supporting character until the finale explains her identity.' You can bet, the film has a lot of torso sections of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' to offer some cinematic thrills! Great dramatic sounds from the music scores to create excitement. The song, "Sexe" - by the French singer, Damien Saez - beautiful being!
A mesmerizing cast of principle actors. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos who is brilliant in her roles. Who cares whether her two characters are developed well! Men are likely to fall under the spell of Laura/Lily! Charismatic Antonio Banderas in his paparazzo role offers some very funny moments. And the moods of both the Cannes and Paris surroundings delightfully trigger off the appeal of glamour and romanticism on screen.
"Femme Fatale" is fascinating with a touch of French film noir! DePalma always does well in mesmerizing the viewers with stylistic takes from one frame to another and so far he has not prove me wrong.
Movie Review: De Palma's best work since "Body Double"
Summary: 4 Stars
Director Brian De Palma's latest feature is unquestionably his best work in years. Critics who've continually blasted him for being a "Hitchcock imitator" will hate this movie, but De Palma's fans will love it. The real difference is that anybody who watches this will know that he's finally emerged from beneath that cloud. FEMME FATALE is 100% pure, primo De Palma. The story, by De Palma; centres around a jewel heist at the Cannes film festival. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) is the femme fatale of the title; used as the secret weapon in the robbery. The priceless diamonds in question are adorned upon an extremely skimpy dress worn by one of the actresses in attendance. The resourceful Laure uses her good looks to entice the actress into a lesbian liason in the bathroom of the theatre. Once the actress's dress is off, Laure's partners in crime take the dress and switch the diamonds for glass. But of course the heist is botched and Lily's attempts at escape end in a violent murder, so she escapes to the US where she assumes the dead woman's identity (Lily).
However, seven years later her husband (Peter Coyote) is offered a job as French Ambassador to the US. Laure/Lily's raised profile soon attracts the attention of paparazzi photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) who captures photos of Lily selling the stolen diamonds thus destroying her cover and creating a potential scandal. So the only way to prevent her new life from blowing into oblivion is for Lily to get revenge on Bardo using the deadliest weapon she has: her looks. But this is further complicated when the pair find themselves becoming attracted to each other...
De Palma uses all his old tricks, including effective split screen use (as he did in his earlier classics SISTERS and CARRIE). After the insipid efforts that were SNAKE EYES and MISSION TO MARS, De Palma's back doing what he does best. FEMME FATALE is possibly the first real "De Palma" movie since his 1984 classic BODY DOUBLE. As for Romjin-Stamos, she's not only sexy, but she's a very good actress as well. This is first-rate De Palma, especially the climactic twist in the tale. A must see for fans of the director. The movie also features the sexiest erotic dance sequence since Jamie Lee Curtis in TRUE LIES. Hell, maybe this is THE sexiest exotic dance sequence EVER! DVD extras include three featurettes and film trailers for both the US and French markets. Well worth your time.
Movie Review: Femme Fatale - Mystique minus the blue body paint... Hoorah!
Summary: 4 Stars
The exceptionally beautiful Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets her own leading role minus the blue paint of Mystique in X-Men. Unfortunately, I found her acting talents as a "babe in blue" that holds her own in personal combat to be better than what she put on the screen in this film. Don't get me wrong, her performance was adequate to the role but it seemed somewhat contrived, almost as if she was trying too hard. Then there's Antonio Banderas, an actor whose acting skills are much better than the roles he or his agent are setting him up with. Of course, it's easy to see why he took this role, namely the opportunity to work with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.Don't get me wrong, this film starts out with style and ends up beautifully as well, it's just some of the "action" in the middle that is somewhat contrived and seemingly short on either performance or writing or both.
The premise:
In a well thought out opening sequence we see Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in the middle of a heist in which her part involves seducing an actress in the bathroom of the movie theater while her partner in crime makes a switch of the diamonds. The diamonds of course are embedded in gold and turned into a dress of "sorts" in which the actress is barely wearing. Unbeknownst to her partners in crime, she has plans of her own with reference to the diamonds and she makes off with them, leaving her partners in the dust.
The next day, she's attempting to secure false documents in order to get out of the country. She slips into a church and then strangely enough, an older couple notices her and chases her out of the church. She then makes her way to her hotel where one of her partners in crime catches up with her and tosses her over the balcony. Fortunately for her, she isn't killed in the fall and the odd older couple comes to her rescue. She wakes up in her home and the couple is talking to her as if she were their daughter. After they leave, she discovers that she is a perfect doppelganger for their daughter who has apparently disappeared.
What follows from there is an intriguing tale that follows her life and the strange twists in which it takes. I would definitely recommend this film as a rental! {ssintrepid}
Special Features:
From Dream to Reality
Dream Within a Dream
Femme Fatale: Behind the Scenes
Femme Fatale: Dressed to Kill Montage
North American and French Trailers
Movie Review: De Palma's best film since 1989's "Casualties of War"
Summary: 4 Stars
Is Brian De Palma an artistic genius, or what? This is his best movie since 1989's "Casualities of War" and 1987's "The Untouchables." While "Femme Fatale" isn't as character driven as "Casualties of War" or "The Untouchables", it still draws you into the story much like "Scarface" (also directed by De Palma) where it was hard to like any of the characters of that film either.The budget for the film was only $35 million. Normally I'd stay away from a movie starring Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. But the way critics talked about "Femme Fatale" made me want to see it, so I bought the DVD.
De Palma wrote "Femme Fatale" and during one of the featurettes after watching the movie on DVD, one of the producers said how about 1/3 of the movie was in the script, and the rest of it DePalma came up with while shooting (the way the film looked.) The producer who said this had worked with many directors including Spielberg. The idea that De Palma shoots a film the way he does must be very challenging, but at the same time exciting for the cast and crew.
De Palma admits that those seeing "Femme Fatale" will be split down the middle near the end of the movie upon finding out what's been going on for the past 100 minutes. But like Antonio Banderas says in one of the featurettes, De Palma doesn't care. He'd rather be artistic and challenge his audience. Whether that comes across to you like it did for me, I guess that depends on what kinds of movies you like you see.
The film is beautifully shot by Thierry Arbogast, and the score by Ryuichi Sakamoto couldn't be better. Antonio had some very funny lines, and the two French actors who are in on the original heist are perfect for the movie.
Not at any point was I disappointed except with one line of dialogue said by Antonio which was cornball, but Rebecca's follow-up fixed it.
The set decoration by Françoise Benoît-Fresco was fascinating. You'll understand what I mean when you see what he does with Antonio's apartment...
Anyways, I was pleasantly surprised and look forward to watching this again and again. I guess the only thing I can complain about is why doesn't De Palma do any commentary tracks on his DVDs?
Movie Review: Sexy, Smart & Provacative
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a lot better than most reviewers thought. Besidesbeing stylish, sexy and beautiful to look at, it's far more intelligent than your usual Hollywood fare. It operates on more than one level at a time, and, because it gives you something to think about that is not issue-oriented, is really rather fascinating.
To discuss the plot is to give things away, so I will tell you rather what is so interesting about this picture.
If "Dressed to Kill" was DiPalma's tribute to Hitchcock, "Femme Fatale" is his tribute to Goddard and the rest of the French New
Wave directors of the 60's. The theme of this movie is actually a line from Edgar Allen Poe: "All that we see or seem / is but a dream within a dream." The film is dream-like in its pacing,
its juxtapositions and its imagery. It is also about dreams...
dreams as ambitions, dreams as aspirations and dreams in the Freudian/Jungian sense of symbolic communication between the
unconscious and the conscious mind. Music lovers will notice immediately that the music which accompanies the wonderfully
langourous and seductive opening scene is Ravel's "Bolero" with half the orchestration missing. Later in the film, Bartok's
"Concerto for Orchestra" gets the same treatment. That's a tipoff that there's something amiss with what you're seeing and following as a storyline. If the surprise ending strikes you as emotionally cheap and unfulfilling, well, so are most dreams.
Like the Paris locales in this film, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is wonderful to look at... you can't take your eyes off her. She
is also given a part to play with real complexity, if not a lot
of emotional depth, and acquits herself very well indeed. This part should convince anyone who sees it that she is an actress
of some promise and deserves better and more varied roles. Likewise, Antonio Banderas always finds just the right note in playing the wiseguy papparazzi who soon finds himself in 'way over his head.
This may not be a great film, but it is an extraordinarily GOOD one!