Femme Fatale (2002)
Directed by Brian De Palma
A $10-million diamond rip-off, a stolen identity, a new life married to a diplomat. Laure Ash has risked big, won big. But then a tabloid shutterbug snaps her picture in Paris, and suddenly, enemies from Laure's secret past know who and where she is. And they all want their share of the diamond heist. Or her life. Or both.
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This time, it's mostly Vertigo, with Romijn-Stamos not quite evoking Kim Novak.
More than 20 years ago in "Dressed to Kill," De Palma worked up a nearly as impressive dialogue-free half-hour (with Angie Dickinson), which was a homage to an even more brilliant dialogue-free half-hour Hitchcock created in the classic "Vertigo," when Jimmy Stewart tracked Kim Novak.
De Palma does his typical homages to classic crime films, with a special nod to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" during a meandering sequence as Nicolas shadows Laure.
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' role is much like the heroines in "Vertigo" and "Rear Window," except for the so-called arty sex and nude scenes.
De Palma has taken a lot of heat over the years for imitating Hitchcock, and Hitch's ghost is certainly lurking around the edges of Femme Fatale; long stretches of the film have Vertigo written all over them.
When CHUD said that, "There's a lot of Vertigo in this movie," De Palma barked back, "There's a lot of Vertigo in all my movies!
That gives you some idea of "Femme Fatale's" knotted heritage, and it gets worse, with homages to Hitchcock's "Rear Window" battling homages to his own "Obsession."
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' role is much like the heroines in "Vertigo" and "Rear Window," except for the so-called arty sex and nude scenes.
Forced by financial strain, Nicolas sells his stolen snap, then finds himself spying on Lily/Laure through a camera lens a la Jimmy Steward in "Rear Window."
The compulsion to watch is why De Palma keeps returning to "Vertigo" and "Rear Window," and it accounts for the very quality of his bristling style -- the propulsive camerawork, the ostentatious cutting, even the way he grabs our attention as if he were grabbing our throats, trying to force us to see what he sees.
With Femme Fatale, De Palma references his past obsessions Nicholas voyeuristic photography is yet another homage to Rear Window , Laures assumption of a new identity and Nicholas following her around winks at Vertigo and this time around, De Palma even makes an odd nod to Its a Wonderful Life .
The movie is very light on dialogue, and many of the words that are spoken come across as if the characters are imitating movie actors (the film opens with Laure watching " Double Indemnity "--for pointers in how to be a vixen, no doubt).
She's lying on her bed, in her panties, with her back to the camera, watching Double Indemnity on TV.
The film begins with Double Indemnity on television.
It's a scene from Billy Wilder's film noir classic "Double Indemnity," and born-to-be-bad Barbara Stanwyck is coming clean to her patsy, Fred MacMurray.
>From Romijm-Stamos' reflection on a television screen showing "Double Indemnity" to a Rashomon-like restaging of the film's climax, DePalma's "Femme Fatale" is drenched in filmic duality.
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos plays a thief named Laure â the first time we see her, sheâs watching Barbara Stanwyckâs evil seductress in the classic film noir "Double Indemnity."
Writer/director Brian DePalma ("Mission to Mars") presents a trashy parody of his own films of the late 70's/early 80's ("Sisters," "Dressed to Kill," "Body Double") with an over the top homage to Hitchcock and himself that's entertaining in spite of a stilted performance from its lead.
This time out, however, he's only repeating himself, borrowing liberally from such past successes as Sisters, Blow Out and The Fury to create a seedily entertaining mindfuck that's high-concept enough to lampoon the red-carpet banality of the Cannes Film Festival and yet also so agreeably lowbrow as to cast Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, officially one of the hottest women on earth, as an exhibitionistic bisexual jewel thief.
Consider also these titles: " Sisters ," " Blow Out ," " The Fury ," " Dressed to Kill ," " Carrie ," " Scarface ," " Wise Guys ," " Casualties of War ," " Carlito's Way ," " Mission: Impossible ."
De Palma's borrowings were all the more irritating when it became clear that much of his supposed fealty to the master came less from his soul than from his big production budgets, which enabled him to hire Bernard Herrmann for Sisters and Obsession -- though all he wanted Herrmann to do was imitate his scores for Vertigo and Psycho.
Sisters is densely plotted and aggressively twisted, yet, when compared to the spiraling complexities of Femme Fatale or Raising Cain , its plot feels downright simple.
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That gives you some idea of "Femme Fatale's" knotted heritage, and it gets worse, with homages to Hitchcock's "Rear Window" battling homages to his own "Obsession."
De Palma's borrowings were all the more irritating when it became clear that much of his supposed fealty to the master came less from his soul than from his big production budgets, which enabled him to hire Bernard Herrmann for Sisters and Obsession -- though all he wanted Herrmann to do was imitate his scores for Vertigo and Psycho.
De Palma made a series of derivative but richly entertaining noirs in the '70s and early '80s -- "Obsession," "Dressed to Kill," "Blow Out" -- and "Femme Fatale," arriving in the wake of two stinkers, "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars," is an optimistic return to that vein.
Noted for his inventive cinematic style in such films as Obsession, Body Double, The Untouchables, and Carrie, De Palma succeeds in giving Femme Fatale the exciting look and feel of a thriller.
Consider also these titles: " Sisters ," " Blow Out ," " The Fury ," " Dressed to Kill ," " Carrie ," " Scarface ," " Wise Guys ," " Casualties of War ," " Carlito's Way ," " Mission: Impossible ."
At his best, writer-director Brian De Palma ("Dressed to Kill") is a master stylist with a flair for Hitchcockian suspense and complicated, timing-is-everything staging.
More than 20 years ago in "Dressed to Kill," De Palma worked up a nearly as impressive dialogue-free half-hour (with Angie Dickinson), which was a homage to an even more brilliant dialogue-free half-hour Hitchcock created in the classic "Vertigo," when Jimmy Stewart tracked Kim Novak.
There is still enough of a puerile rich kid in him to get a kick out of photographing women in sexy clothes, be it the undies and stockings on Nancy Allen in Dressed to Kill or Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in bustier and boots in Femme Fatale.
De Palma made a series of derivative but richly entertaining noirs in the '70s and early '80s -- "Obsession," "Dressed to Kill," "Blow Out" -- and "Femme Fatale," arriving in the wake of two stinkers, "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars," is an optimistic return to that vein.
Writer/director Brian DePalma ("Mission to Mars") presents a trashy parody of his own films of the late 70's/early 80's ("Sisters," "Dressed to Kill," "Body Double") with an over the top homage to Hitchcock and himself that's entertaining in spite of a stilted performance from its lead.
I was surprised to be reminded of the unexplained rainfall glimpsed inside a house in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, but it occurred to me later that this parallel might not be as implausible as I supposed -- and not just because De Palma is a compulsive moviegoer who sees a lot more than Hollywood product.
And who can forget the shower scene in Psycho, which includes a peeping Norman?
Japan's answer to John Williams, Ryuichi Sakamoto does a passable job of emulating Hitchcock's musical mainstay Bernard Herrmann with an edgy "Psycho" like score and a confused rendition of a piece, over the opening caper, that has the sexual overtones of Ravel's "Bolero."
De Palma's borrowings were all the more irritating when it became clear that much of his supposed fealty to the master came less from his soul than from his big production budgets, which enabled him to hire Bernard Herrmann for Sisters and Obsession -- though all he wanted Herrmann to do was imitate his scores for Vertigo and Psycho.
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By asking Romijn-Stamos to project the smoldering, evil persona of a woman like Barbara Stanwycks character in Double Indemnity or Rita Hayworths mysterious seductress in The Lady from Shanghai, De Palma expects the impossible.
Consider also these titles: " Sisters ," " Blow Out ," " The Fury ," " Dressed to Kill ," " Carrie ," " Scarface ," " Wise Guys ," " Casualties of War ," " Carlito's Way ," " Mission: Impossible ."
This time out, however, he's only repeating himself, borrowing liberally from such past successes as Sisters, Blow Out and The Fury to create a seedily entertaining mindfuck that's high-concept enough to lampoon the red-carpet banality of the Cannes Film Festival and yet also so agreeably lowbrow as to cast Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, officially one of the hottest women on earth, as an exhibitionistic bisexual jewel thief.
Blow Out and Carrie are considered his finest films, and I think Femme Fatale is almost on that level.
It's also got a character, played by Antonio Banderas, who resembles earlier De Palma heroes from Blow Out and elsewhere.
De Palma made a series of derivative but richly entertaining noirs in the '70s and early '80s -- "Obsession," "Dressed to Kill," "Blow Out" -- and "Femme Fatale," arriving in the wake of two stinkers, "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars," is an optimistic return to that vein.
The result is a curiously happy ending that seems as utterly perverse, in its own way, as the cruel joke that topped Blow Out, another one of his best films.