Throughout both the noir and the neo noir periods, we have seen the film industry create and re-create the femme fatale character. From Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder) through to ‘Wendy Kroy’ in the Last Seduction (John Dahl), the femme fatale has developed through both periods of noir eras. Through these eras, the character has become more seductive, more intelligent and more scheming. The characteristics of both fatales, are mainly the same but slight differences have occurred. With the femme fatale in film noir, her seductive sexuality was her main weapon in weaving her web of deceit and capturing the fall guy. This then obviously gave her power and strength over men because of her sexuality and seductiveness. In noir films, the femme fatale wore a lot of makeup. This gave an impression of deception, with disguise and confusion surroundin

Then we come to the femme fatale of the neo noir period. In this newly developed manifestation, the femme fatale has developed and become a ‘new woman’, an item that women in society today have tried to become- more independent and less reliable on men. The neo noir films, however, have focused on darker sides of this new woman, and come up with many differences that single the fatale out from the previous fatale that we saw I films like ‘Kiss me, Deadly’, ‘Double Indemnity’, and ‘Chinatown’. In Neo Noir films, the femme fatale was usually portrayed as pure evil and intelligent (demonised because of her intelligence). This then enabled her to usually get away with her crime, unlike the earlier manifestation of the femme fatale character. A good example of when the fatale escapes is in John Dahl’s film, ‘the Last Seduction’. In this neo noir, we see the fatale (Wendy Kroy played by Linda Fiorentino) escape calmly in a limo, tearing up the last piece of evidence, a

Some topics in this essay:
John Dahl, Production Code, Linda Fiorentino, Neo Noir, Femme Fatale, femme fatale, John Dahl’s, neo noir, noir films, noir period, Billy Wilder, Wendy Kroy, manifestation femme fatale, false promises romantic, fatale developed, films fatale, false promises, femme fatale developed, promises romantic, noir films fatale, permanence secure, neo noir period, manifestation femme,