French Femme Fatale

[Maximina]

Theterm originates from the French phrase femme fatale, which means 'deadly woman' or 'lethal woman'. A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, or sexual allure. In many cases, her attitude towards sexuality is lackadaisical, intriguing, or frivolous. In some cases, she uses lies or coercion rather than charm. She may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas, a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be (or imply that she is) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape.[3]

The femme fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myths of many cultures.[5] Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Inanna, Lilith, Circe, Medea, Clytemnestra, Lesbia, Tamamo no Mae, and Visha Kanyas. Historical examples from classical times include Cleopatra and Messalina, as well as the biblical figures Delilah, Jezebel, and Salome.[6] An example from Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji.

The femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages, often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The pre-medieval inherited biblical figure of Eve offers an example, as does the wicked, seductive enchantress typified in Morgan le Fay. The Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute shows her more muted presence during the Age of Enlightenment.[7]

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 by Matthew Gregory Lewis, featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and as the vampire, 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; his novel Juliette is perhaps the earliest wherein the femme fatale triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject.

In 1891, Oscar Wilde, in his play Salome: she manipulates her lust-crazed stepfather, 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, and was popularized on stage, screen, and peep show booths in countless incarnations.[10]

She also is seen as a prominent figure in late 19th- and 20th-century opera, appearing in Richard Wagner's Parsifal (Kundry), Georges Bizet's "Carmen", Camille Saint-Sans' "Samson et Delilah" and Alban Berg's "Lulu" (based on the plays "Erdgeist" and "Die Bchse der Pandora" by Frank Wedekind).

Mrs Patrick Campbell, George Bernard Shaw's "second famed platonic love affair", (she published some of his letters)[11][12] and Philip Burne-Jones's lover and subject of his 1897 painting, The Vampire, inspired Burne-Jones's cousin Rudyard Kipling to write his poem "The Vampire", in the year Dracula was published.[13][14][15][16] The poem, which began: "A fool there was ...",[17] inspired Porter Emerson Browne to write the play, A Fool There Was.

The poem was adapted to become a 1909 Broadway production. This was followed by The 1913 film The Vampire by Robert Vignola, containing a "vamp" dance.[18] Protagonist Alice Hollister was publicised as "the original vampire".[19][20][21] The 1915 film, A Fool There Was, starring Theda Bara, as "The Vamp" followed.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The short poem may have been used in the publicity for the 1915 film.[citation needed] 1910s American slang for femme fatale was vamp, for vampire.[29][30][24]

Another icon is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. While working as an exotic dancer, she took the stage name Mata Hari. She was accused of German espionage during World War I and was put to death by a French firing squad. After her death she became the subject of many sensational films and books.

Femmes fatales appear in detective fiction, especially in its 'hard-boiled' sub-genre which largely originated with the crime stories of Dashiell Hammett in the 1920s. At the end of that decade, the French-Canadian villainess Marie de Sabrevois gave a contemporary edge to the otherwise historical novels of Kenneth Roberts set during the American Revolution.

Film villainess often appeared foreign, often of Eastern European or Asian ancestry. They were a contrast to the wholesome personas of actresses such as Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Notable silent-cinema vamps include Theda Bara, Helen Gardner, Louise Glaum, Valeska Suratt, Musidora, Virginia Pearson, Olga Petrova, Rosemary Theby, Nita Naldi, Pola Negri, Estelle Taylor, Jetta Goudal, and, in early appearances, Myrna Loy.

During the era of classic film-noirs of the 1940s and 1950s, the femme fatale flourished in American cinema. The archetypal femme fatale is Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck (who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role) in the 1944 film Double Indemnity. This character is considered one of the best femme fatale roles in film noir history.[31] The character was ranked as the #8 film villain of the first 100 years of American cinema by the American Film Institute in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains.[32] In a classical film noir trope, she manipulates a man into killing her husband for financial gain.

The archetype is also abundantly found in American television. One of the most famous femmes fatales of American television is Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey Horne of the David Lynch cult series Twin Peaks. In the TV series Femme Fatales, actress Tanit Phoenix played Lilith, the host who introduced each episode Rod Serling-style and occasionally appeared within the narrative. In the Netflix TV series Orange Is the New Black, actress Laura Prepon played Alex Vause, a modern femme fatale, who led both men and women to their destruction.

Femmes fatales appear frequently in comic books. Notable examples include Batman's long-time nemesis Catwoman, who first appeared in comics in 1940, and various adversaries of The Spirit, such as P'Gell.

This stock character is also often found in the genres of opera and musical theatre, where she will traditionally have a mezzo, alto or contralto range, opposed to the ingnue's soprano, to symbolize the masculinity and lack of feminine purity.[citation needed] An example is Hlne from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.

Milady de Winter is a young, uncommonly beautiful woman with a bewitching voice. Underneath her pleasant exterior though, is a cunning, ruthless, and manipulative person who prefers making men do her dirty work. This includes seducing her jail guard into not only freeing her but also assassinating the Duke of Buckingham.

Carmilla is a femme fatale of the supernatural sort. She moves into a castle where she befriends a lonely, young woman. Not only does she prey on her during the night, but a mysterious sickness begins killing young women in the surrounding countryside.

Selina Kyle is a cat burglar who goes by the name of Catwoman. Much of the comics and movies portray her as villainous, though she has also been depicted as an anti-heroine with a complicated relationship with Batman.

While it received negative reviews during its initial release, this movie has since become a cult film appreciated for its feminist themes. In it, the titular character is sacrificed to Satan by a local band in exchange for fame and fortune. She then goes on a killing spree, seducing men and disemboweling them after.

Fourteen-year-old Hayley Stark engages with a sexual predator in a flirtatious online chat. They meet up, and the predator takes her home, where she drugs and restrains him in a chair. She then proceeds to torture him until he confesses to the rape and murder of another girl.

This character type has its fair share of problems, the largest being that it reduces women to just their sexuality. In early fiction, they were shallow characters that represented everything that men were supposed to fear in women.

Book: Femme fatale in art colors 19th century feminism in FranceWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A new book by a Purdue University professor examines how men in 19th century France attempted to stop the spread of feminism by using the femme fatale image in art to portray women as evil.Elizabeth Menon Mix

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"Art was more accessible at this time than ever before because of improved printing technologies in France," says Elizabeth Menon Mix, an assistant professor of art history. "Posters, advertisements, literature and illustrated journals — today's version of a magazine — were all places where male artists could emphasize the evil aspects of women."Femme fatale is French for deadly woman and usually describes a character that leads men to their destruction or death, Mix says."Evil by Design: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme Fatale" ($30) will be published in June by the University of Illinois Press. Mix's book includes 126 illustrations from posters, journals and advertisements showing how women were portrayed from 1865 to 1910. Some examples include women posing with serpents or controlling men on puppet strings.The idea of the femme fatale is rooted in the biblical story of Eve being responsible for the fall of man. In addition to how Eve is portrayed in art, Mix also looks at how women were associated with fashion, tobacco and alcohol, evil motifs, serpents, and children. "The important thing to note is that none of these images were drawn by women," Mix says. "Even the fashion industry was controlled by men. Feminists who were vocal in writing did not use visual images to send their messages, and they missed the opportunity to communicate to the masses through art. "And this is where the French feminists failed. By not producing their own images, they allowed those created by men to dominate the popular press completely."Mix is not only interested in the history of the femme fatale image, but also how similar images are used today to promote music, television shows and fashion. "Often it's women who are using these images, and I want to know more about why women artists choose to do so in their work," she says. Mix's work is supported by the College of Liberal Arts and the Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatt...@purdue.eduSource: Elizabeth Menon Mix, snapp...@yahoo.comPurdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purdu...@purdue.edu

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