Themes: Femmes Fatales, Dishonor Among Thieves, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Rebecca Romijn, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Brian De Palma blends the emotional netherworld of film noir with a stylish portrayal of life among the wealthy and powerful in Paris in this glossy thriller. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is a beautiful but mysterious woman who has aligned herself with a small ring of jewel thieves, led by a man known as Black Tie (Eriq Ebouaney), who has planned a major score during the Cannes Film Festival. Sexy model Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) is scheduled to make a spectacular entrance for the screening of director Regis Wargnier's picture, wearing a body-hugging piece of jewelry worth a cool ten million dollars. Laure approaches the sexually adventurous Veronica and is able to seduce her, while at the same time stealing her diamond-studded outfit and replacing it with a carefully constructed counterfeit. Veronica, however, also makes off the loot without giving her partners their cut, and must go into hiding in order to avoid the wrath of Black Tie and his cohorts. Fate allows Laure to make her way to the United States, where in time she marries a powerful politician. Photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas), however, had snapped a picture of Laure while she was on the lam years before, and when he takes an assignment to get a photo of the camera-shy woman, Laure realizes Nicolas is in a position to reveal her new identity to the world -- and put the bloodthirsty Black Tie back on her trail. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Heralded by many as a return to form for director Brian De Palma, Femme Fatale almost feels like a career summation for the master stylist. Although it barely registered at the box office, this tawdry piece of noir revisionism is actually nifty entertainment -- tricky, engrossing, and just short of profound. The gorgeous Rebecca Romijn-Stamos does double duty in the title role, playing both a jewel thief and her unlikely doppelganger. As that description indicates, the plot is not a little outlandish -- which is fine by De Palma. The maverick director uses the narrative as little more than a springboard to elaborate on his formal and thematic obsessions. The movie is a delirious hodgepodge of De Palma tropes: split screens, doubles, voyeurs, and graceful tracking shots abound. At once employing and exploding the clichés of film noir, De Palma skirts dangerously close to self-parody. Based on a script the director penned himself, it's sometimes hard to tell whether the movie -- packed with hokey twists and risible argot -- apes bad thrillers or unintentionally plays like one. Like De Palma's most personal movies, Femme Fatale is unabashedly overheated and overwrought. Like his most successful movies, however, the hysteria is thrilling -- it gives the film its oneiric power. Femme Fatale will draw comparisons with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, another dreamlike movie with which it shares certain themes. Less subtle than Lynch's movie, Femme Fatale is like its trashier, no-good cousin: certainly less transcendent, but perhaps more fun. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Rie Rasmussen - Veronica; Thierry Frémont - Serra; Sandrine Bonnaire - Herself; Gregg Henry - Shiff; Francoise Michaud - Woman With Blind Man; Philippe Guegan - Bespectacled Man; Gilles Jacob - Himself; Regis Wargnier - Himself; Leonardo de la Fuente - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Eva Darlan - Irma; Yves Marmion - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Daniel Millgram - Pierre/Bartender; Fiona Curzon - Stanfield Phillips; Jean-Marie Frin - Louis; Valerie Maes - Blond (Restroom, Bridge & Cafe); Jo Prestia - Napoleon; Alain Figlarz - Sex Shop Man; David Belle - French Policeman; Dan Herzberg - Surveillance Room Guard; Olivier Albou - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Ugne Andrikonyte - Festival Guest; Jaoquina Balaunde - Woman in Panic; Laurence Breheret - Flight Attendant; Emilie Chatel - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Jean Chatel - Cannes Commentator; Chloe Cremont - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; David Cuny - Groom Hotel Sheraton; Bart De Palma - Power Room Guard; Henri Ernst - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Eric Fesais - Policeman; Olivier Follet - Bodyguard Two; Marie Foulquie - Tourist; Matthew Geczy - Embassy Guard; Serge Gonnin - Thierry; Dorothee Grosjean - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Faco Hanela - Poster Man; Denis Hecker - TV Moderator; Salvatore Ingoglia - Truck Driver; Pascale Jacquemot - Medium on TV Show; Ada Marmion - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Laurence Martin - Nathalie; Bertrand Merignac - Photographer; Jean-Marc Mineo - Seated Guard; Sam Olivier - Surveillance Room Guard; Pascal Ondicolberry - Surveillance Room Guard; Aurelie Pauker - Brigitte; Stephane Petit - Bodyguard One; Regis Quennesson - Tourist; Justine Renard - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Gerard Renault - Surveillance Room Guard; Pascal Silvestre - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Beata Sonczuk-Ben Ammar - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Matilde Tancredi - Medium on TV Show; Stephen Van Nietert - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Stephen Van Nukerk - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival; Driki Van Zyl - Special Guest Cannes Film Festival
Credit
Denis Renault - Art Director, Chris Soldo - Associate Producer, Olivier Beriot - Costume Designer, Dominique Delany - First Assistant Director, Jerome Borenstein - First Assistant Director, Brian De Palma - Director, Bill Pankow - Editor, Mark Lombardo - Executive Producer, Ryuichi Sakamoto - Composer (Music Score), Anne Pritchard - Production Designer, Thierry Arbogast - Cinematographer, Tarak Ben Ammar - Producer, Marina Gefter - Producer, Francoise Benoit-Fresco - Set Designer, Francois Groult - Sound/Sound Designer, Jean-Paul Mugel - Sound/Sound Designer, Brian De Palma - Screenwriter
In the film, Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) participates in a diamond heist in Cannes, double-crosses her accomplices and escapes to Paris, where she stumbles across her own doppelgänger (naturally portrayed by Romijn) who commits suicide, leaving Laure the opportunity to take her identity and leave the country. Seven years later, Laure (now called Lily Watts) re-surfaces in Paris as the wife of the new American ambassador to France (Peter Coyote). At this point Spanish photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) takes her picture, prompting Laure to manipulate Bardo in order to conceal her former identity and evade her ex-accomplices who are still after the stolen diamonds. A twist near the end accentuates the artificial nature of the story and brings many familiar motifs of De Palma's into play.[citation needed]
The film received mixed reviews. It was defended by several high profile critics, however, notably Roger Ebert, who called it one of De Palma's best films.
