Femme Fatale (2002)

FEMME FATALE IS DE PALMA'S BEST IN YEARS

Without doubt FEMME FATALE is De Palma's best film in years. I bought the dvd, knowing the film didn't do well at the cinema, but so what? It doesn't mean it's a crap film! I saw the film and was knocked by it. The plot with its twists and turns, and throughout the film, the clues are there, as to what might or not might happen. Rebecca Romijn is gorgeous (I read that that Uma Thurman was mentioned for the role), but Romijn is more sexy in the part of Laura Ash. In my opinion Thurman isn't even attractive. Bandereas ids good as are everyboy else in the film. De Palma is the king of erotic thrillers and no one is better than him, even his other thrillers like SCARFACE, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT CARLITO'S WAY etc. De Palma is the best!
May 19, 2008

BRIAN DE PALMA, OPUS 26

***** 2002. Written and directed by Brian De Palma. A woman manipulates a photographer in order to escape her former accomplices she fooled seven years before. Another masterpiece from the American master who delivers a stunning and smart movie about dreams. Too bad that the film lost a lot of money at the box-office. Brian De Palma was given a total liberty by his producer Tarik Ben Ammar to shoot the film he wanted to present to the audience. As the director explains in one of the featurettes of the DVD, FEMME FATALE is a film that can be seen several times and still reserve some goodies to an attentive viewer. Once you're aware of the main surprise of the film, you'll be then really able to appreciate the work of Brian De Palma on details you didn't notice during the first vision of FEMME FATALE. A DVD zone your library. March 30, 2008

De Palma at his most slyly stylish

It sounds like damning with faint praise to say that Femme Fatale is the best thing Brian De Palma's done in years, but it certainly is an enjoyable throwback to some of his best work. It's an exercise in pure style over logic, yet its dreamlike plotting and abundance of absurd plot twists is much more seductively enjoyable than it has any right to be. By the time one of the villains emerges from prison in the same blood-stained tuxedo we last saw him in seven years earlier, it's pretty clear gritty realism isn't on the menu, while advertising billboards proclaiming déjà vu let us know that he's not doing much more than covering old ground. But De Palma's genuinely having fun with the material for the first time in ages, showing us just what great stuff he can do with a camera, aided and abetted by sensual camera moves from Thierry Arbogast and a Ryuichi Sakamoto score that goes from Ravel to Herrmann to Pino Donaggio in a spirit more of homage than plagiarism. Along the way Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets to show what she looks like without the blue paint as the titular femme fatale who changes character almost every reel as the film works its way through botched lesbian jewel heist (oh how I loved writing that line) during a Cannes Film Festival screening of East-West (complete with cameos from Regis Wargnier, Sandrine Bonnaire and Gilles Jacob) to blackmail, kidnapping, murder and betrayal. She's not always quite up to the part, but she's certainly game for anything, while Antonio Banderas' paparazzi hero (now there's a phrase you don't often hear) gives the director ample excuse for voyeurism. Yes, it's all very silly and everything falls into place far too neatly in the ending, but in a film this slyly playful it makes a kind of perverse sense. February 17, 2008

Feme Fatale

it is worth it just to see the Sexy Antonio.

Recebba is great and very sexy as well.

But Antonio, what can you say,

He just "Oozes.. SEX...

wow.

get it

luvmusic
12/02/07 December 2, 2007

Come Closer......Closeeeeer......the closer you look, the more fun it is.

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.
November 3, 2007

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