Femme fatale

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For other uses, see Femme fatale (disambiguation).
Convicted spy Mata Hari made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI.

A femme fatale (plural: femmes fatales) (pronunciation IPA: [ˈfam faˈtal], FAHM faTAHL, not the faux French FEHM) is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon.

The phrase is French for "deadly woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Typically, she is exceptionally well-endowed with these qualities. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm. She may also be (or imply to be) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; The Lady from Shanghai (a 1948 film noir) giving one such example. Her characteristic weapon, if needed, is frequently poison, which also serves as a metaphor for her charms.

Although typically villainous, femmes fatales have also appeared as antiheroines in some stories, and some even repent and become heroines by the end of the tale. In social life, the femme fatale tortures her lover in an asymmetrical relationship, denying confirmation of her affection. She usually drives him to the point of obsession and exhaustion so that he is incapable of making rational decisions.

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[edit] History

[edit] Mythology

The femme fatale archetype exists, in the folklore and myth of nearly every culture in every century.[1] The early examples are Ishtar, the Sumerian goddess, and Eve, Lilith, Delilah, and Salome from the Judaeo-Christian Bible. In ancient Greek literature, the femme fatale is incarnated by Aphrodite, the Siren, the Sphinx, Scylla, Circe, Lamia (mythology), Helen of Troy, and Clytemnestra. Beside them is the historical figure Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, with her ability to seduce the powerful men of Rome. Roman propaganda attacked Cleopatra as a femme fatale; as a result, she became the legendary archetype of the attractions and the dangers inherent to the powerful, exotic woman.

The femme fatale as an archetypal character also existed in Asia. In Chinese myths, stories and history, certain concubines (such as the historical Yang Guifei) have been accused of being responsible in part for the weakening and downfall of dynasties, by seducing her lover into neglecting his duties or twisting him to her will.

[edit] Early Western culture to the 19th century

Salome - as portrayed by Franz von Stuck.

In the Middle Ages, the idea of the dangers of female sexuality, typified by Eve, was commonly expressed in medieval romances as a wicked, seductive enchantress, the prime example being Morgan le Fay.

The femme fatale flourished in the Romantic period in the works of John Keats, notably "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Lamia". Along with them, there rose the gothic novel, The Monk featuring Matilda, a very potent femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and as the vampiress, notably in Carmilla and Brides of Dracula. The Monk was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade, for whom the femme fatale symbolised not evil, but all the best qualities of Women, with his novel Juliette being perhaps the earliest wherein the femme fatale triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject.

In the Western culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the femme fatale became a more fashionable trope, and she is found in the paintings of the artists Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, Franz von Stuck and Gustave Moreau. The novel À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans includes these fevered imaginings about an image of Salome in a Moreau painting:

No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.[2]

In fin-de-siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde re-invented the femme fatale in the play Salome: she manipulates her lust-crazed uncle, King Herod, with her enticing Dance of the Seven Veils (Wilde's invention) to agree to her imperious demand: bring me the head of John the Baptist. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Strauss, was popularized on stage, screen, and peep-show booth in countless reincarnations.[3]

Another enduring icon of womanly glamour, seduction, and moral turpitude was Mata Hari, 1876 - 1917, an alluring oriental dancer who was accused of German espionage and was put to death by a French firing squad. As such, she embodied the femme fatale archetype, and, after her death she became the subject of much fantastical imagining. She was the subject of many sensational films and books.

[edit] 20th century film, opera, etc

Actress Theda Bara defined the word "Vamp" in the film A Fool There Was

The femme fatale has been portrayed as a sexual vampiress; her charms leach the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling was inspired by a vampiress painted by Philip Burne-Jones, an image typical of the era in 1897, to write his poem "The Vampire". Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its refrain: "A fool there was...", describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular 1915 film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star. The poem was used in the publicity for the film. On this account, in early American slang the femme fatale was called a vamp, short for vampiress.[4]

From the American film audience perspective, the femme fatale often was foreign, usually either of an indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry. She was the sexual counterpart to wholesome actresses such as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Notable silent cinema vamps were Theda Bara, Helen Gardner, Louise Glaum, Musidora, Nita Naldi, Pola Negri, and in her early appearances, Myrna Loy.

During the film noir era of the 1940s and 1950s, the femme fatale flourished in American cinema. Examples include the overly-possessive and narcissistic wife Ellen Brent Harland, portrayed by Gene Tierney, in Leave Her to Heaven (1945), who will stop at nothing to keep her husband's affections. Another is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, portrayed by Mary Astor, who uses her acting skills to murder Sam Spade's partner in The Maltese Falcon. Yet another is the cabaret singer portrayed by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946),[5] who sexually manipulates her husband and his best friend. Another noir femme fatale is Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who seduces a hapless insurance salesman and persuades him to kill her husband in Double Indemnity (1944).[5] In The Paradine Case, a Hitchcock movie from 1947, the character played by Alida Valli is a poisonous femme fatale who is responsible for the deaths of two men and the near destruction of another. One often referred to example is the character of Jane in 1949's Too Late for Tears, played by Lizabeth Scott. During her quest to keep some dirty money from its rightful recipient and her husband, she uses poison, lies, sexual teasing and a gun to keep men wrapped around her finger.

Other American cultural examples of deadly women occur in espionage thrillers, and juvenile adventure comic strips, such as The Spirit, by Will Eisner, and Terry and the Pirates, by Milton Caniff. Today, she remains a key character in films such as Body Heat, with Kathleen Turner, The Last Seduction, with Linda Fiorentino, To Die For, with Nicole Kidman, and Basic Instinct, with Sharon Stone.

[edit] In popular culture

In contemporary culture, the femme fatale survives as heroine and anti-heroine, in Nikita and Moulin Rouge!, as well as in video games and comic books. Ada Wong from Resident Evil, Elektra from Marvel Comics, Fujiko Mine from Lupin the 3rd, Catwoman and Poison Ivy from the Batman stories, Rayne from Bloodrayne and EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3 are examples. The protagonists of the American television program Desperate Housewives use sexual allure to get what and whom they want. In the board game Clue, Miss Scarlet occupies the role as a femme fatale. A modern example of the archetypal femme fatale is Xenia Onatopp, the character from Goldeneye who seduced men and then murdered them by crushing them between her thighs.

The Velvet Underground song "Femme Fatale", on the The Velvet Underground and Nico album, tells of a woman who will "play" a man "for a fool". Two songs, both titled "Poison", by Alice Cooper and Bell Biv DeVoe respectively, tell of femme fatales.

[edit] L'homme fatal

Men who are fatal include Don Juan, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, most of the heroes in Lord Byron's books (termed the "Byronic hero"), as well as such diverse characters as Billy Budd, Count Dracula, Tadzio in Death in Venice, Harthouse in Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Georges Querelle in Jean Genet's Querelle of Brest, Ian Fleming's James Bond, and Tom Ripley in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripley" novels.[6]

The usage "homme fatal" is infinitely rarer than "femme fatale".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony, ch. IV, p. 199: La Belle Dame sans Merci (The Beautiful Lady without Mercy). London/New York, 1933-1951-1970 (Oxford University Press).
  2. ^ Huysmans À rebours - Toni Bentley (2002) Sisters of Salome: 24
  3. ^ Toni Bentley (2002) Sisters of Salome
  4. ^ Per the Oxford English Dictionary, vamp is originally English, used first by G. K. Chesterton, but popularized in the American silent film The Vamp, starring Enid Bennett
  5. ^ a b Johnston, Sheila (27 February 2009). "Whatever happened to the femme fatale?". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-femme-fatale-1633088.html. Retrieved on 27 February 2009. 
  6. ^ Mario Praz (1951) The Romantic Agony: 53-95

[edit] Bibliography

  • Toni Bentley (2002) Sisters of Salome. Salome considered as an archetype of female desire and transgression and as the ultimate femme fatale.
  • Bram Dijkstra (1986) Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-De-Siecle Culture, (1986) ISBN 0-19-505652-3. Discusses the Femme fatale-stereotype.
  • Bram Dijkstra (1996) Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Culture, (1996) ISBN 0-8050-5549-5
  • Elizabeth K. Mix Evil By Design: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme Fatale, ISBN 978-0252073236. Discusses the origin of the Femme fatale in 19th century French popular culture.
  • Mario Praz (1951) The Romantic Agony. See chapters four, 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', and five, 'Byzantium'.

[edit] External links

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