Ecoutez la Femme: hear/here the difference / Griselda Pollock -- The mother of all Femme fatales: Eve as temptress in Genesis 3 / Karen L. Edwards -- Challenging the stereotype: the Femme fatale in Fin-de-siècle art and early cinema / Jess Sully -- Silent divas: the Femme fatales of the Italian Cinema muto / Joy Ramirez -- 'You'll be the death of me': Mata Hari and the myth of the Femme fatale / Rosie White -- Diabolically clever- Clouszot's French Noir les diaboliques (1954) / Susan Hayward -- Fatal femininity in post-war British film: investigating the British Femme / Melanie Bell -- 'Put the blame on... Mei': Zhang Ziyi and the politics of global stardom / Olga Kourelou -- Gender, genre and stardom: fatality in Italian neorealist cinema / Catherine O'Rawe -- The Femme fatale of Spanish retro Noir: the recuperation of a repressed voice / Ann Davies -- Chiaroscuro: the half-glimpsed Femme fatale of Italian Film noir / Mary Wood -- A myth is born: the Femme fatale in the golden age of Mexican cinema / John L. Marambio and Marcie Rinka -- 'I can't tell anymore whether you're lying': Double indemnity, Human desire and the narratology of Femmes fatales / Steve Neale -- 'Well, aren't we ambitious', or 'you've made up your mind I'm guilty': reading women as wicked in American Film noir / Julie Grossman -- The big seduction: feminist film criticism and the Femme fatale / Helen Hanson.
Summary:
These essays trace the femme fatale across literature, visual culture and cinema, exploring the ways in which fatal femininity has been imagined in different cultural contexts and historical epochs, and moving from mythical women such as Eve, Medusa and the Sirens via historical figures such as Mata Hari to fatal women in contemporary cinema.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.