The Influence of Femme Fatale on Modern Cinema Based Off Double Indemnity

Introduction

Film Noir is known to stereotype most characters to fit in with traditional stereotypes, the most common one being women. Film noir depicts this stereotype through the idea of the femme fatale. In my essay I would like to explore how the gender roles shown in film noir influence our perceptions of women. I will be looking at the book ‘Post feminism and the Fatale Figure in Neo-Noir Cinema’ in order to open up the broader ideas about femme fatales in cinema such as, does film noir use the femme fatale, an extremely powerful protagonist who uses sex appeal as a weapon, to move along a plot that is mainly dominated by men, making it so women take the less important roles and show women’s sexuality as something evil? Does film noir create a problem when it comes to the confusion of being able to label a femme fatale either a hero or a villain? If we are constantly labeling women as villains in popular cultural things such as movies, art and media, does this change how we perceive women in general? I will be looking at new explorations of femme fatales in the book ‘Rethinking the Femme Fatale in Film Noir’ to get another view on how the idea of the femme fatale has progressed to meet modern day requirements.

Main Body

I will be examining the role of the femme fatale in film noir and how this has influenced the perceptions of women throughout time. To do this I would like to start with looking at how the femme fatale originated. I would then like to explore the role of Medusa from Greek mythology, a femme fatale in a different sense, in order to bring a broader spectrum of time to better judge what the femme fatale’s role is and how it has adapted throughout the years beginning with an early example of one. I will then be examining the role of Phyllis in Double Indemnity, Gilda in In a Lonely Place and Evelyn in Chinatown, three classic portrayals of femme fatales at the height of film noir. I would also like to look at new portrayals of the femme fatale through characters such as Dominika in Red Sparrow, Lorraine in Atomic Blonde and Pinky in Mean Girls Club. Through doing this I am hoping to place each character on a time line and observe the characteristics and storylines that they are given in order to see how women are portrayed across this time and compare the differences. I would also like to look at statistics throughout these time periods about the perceptions of women from the public in order to compare and see whether or not the way women are shown in cinema and art affects our views overall. I can take things such as newspaper articles and observe how women are written and shown in them over this time scale, taking into account things such as the page three models and also the recent abolishment of this long running tradition in newspapers.

Conclusion

Through media such as film, art, news and statistics I am hoping to find the answer of whether or not we are affecting societies perceptions of women on a whole through the things that we choose to broadcast. This will be helpful when it comes to my own practice as it will make me aware of the impact that I have with what I produce and put out into the world, does the way I show women in comic books make an impact on the way society will later perceive and treat women?