Rating: Summary: Do the critics know what they are talking about? Review: Every week, I check the papers to see how a movie I am interested in is star-rated by the critics. I avoid an unnecessary reading of the actual review because it is absolutely annoying when somewhere in the review, some irresponsible critic gives something away.Almost every review I read gave this movie 3 or 4 stars. I thought 'Good, this critic is usually accurate.' Now, I am wondering how I managed to sit through this film. There is nothing erotic about this movie. The opening sequence is a dragged out to almost an hour as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos has static foreplay with a woman wearing a dress made of pricy diamonds. Then she alters her appearance by wearing a wig, becomes confused when a woman confuses her with someone, a mistake that allows her to change her entire identity. But nothing pays off in the end. And the only other sex scene, pointless as twenty unsharpened pencils. One critic claimed that a lot of people see the title and assume the movie is in French, and that is why no one is seeing it. Not true. The title is in French, but all the previews are English--unfortunately, most of the movie is in French with subtitles. If you want to see an interesting and erotic foreign film, watch anything directed by Pedro Almadovar. FEMME FATALE will make all those people who hated BASIC INSTINCT appreciate it a little bit more...and that really is not saying much.
Rating: Summary: Welcome Back, De Palma Review: I agree with previous review that heralds this as a return to form for Brian De Palma. His newest venture is very much a return to his old approach of style to burn. Working from his own script is certainly liberating for this filmmaker; this frees him from being hamstrung by profiteers like Cruise, who committed another crime against art when he put a straightjack on John Woo. Floating camera, split screen, etc. allows De Palma to get back to the basics as to why he started making films in the first place. If it is a matter of style over substance, so be it.Femme Fatale is well worth seeing if you have admired previous efforts like Blow Out, Phantom of the Paradise, etc. Welcome back, Brian.
Rating: Summary: Back to Form Review: The new film by Brian De Palma is what all of his fans have been waiting for. A return to his themes and form of early 80's. Yes there are echoes of Hitchcock in this film but not only in the casting of lead actress and the opening with a diamond heist during Cannes film festival on the French Riviera. It seems that with this Film De Palma appropriates the whole tradition of European baroque and surreal thrillers from Dario Argento and Alain Corneaux. Use of a European cinematographer certainly helped. It would be simple to say that this film combines parts of various plots from his earlier films as well as all the visual skills of Blow Out, Mission Impossible, Carlito's Way and The Untouchables. The warm colors bring memories of sun drenched Miami of Scarface, the lead actress those of Body Double etc... The problem of this film for some people might be it's completely invented story i.e. the kind you do not expect in life but then cinema is larger than life and by using classical means of storytelling and visual narration De Palma has created a morality play that revives what was best in Hitchcock and cinema of the 50's with a thoroughly modern sensibility. Rebecca Romijn is perfectly cast and will surprise many. It seems that the less money De Palma has to play with the better his films get. It could have something to do with the producers but he also wrote the screenplay on this one. A modern classic.
Rating: Summary: Review for Theatrical Release Review: The new de Palma movie tells the story of a thief who steals a jewel at the Cannes festival, switches identity and flies to America, only to return and be caught by a paparazzi's camera. Then a cat and mouse game begins, and the thriller is good. In the end, de Palma refuses to abandon the femme fatale, and remakes the story to give it a different ending. The plot is weak and the acting is far from good. For good de Palma see Dressed to Kill.
Rating: Summary: sparkel22 watch it again and learn! Review: No offense intended towards the reviewer name "Sparkel" but he/she needs to WATCH the movie, in its entirety to KNOW why the woman in the bathroom stall 'allowed' her diamonds to be stolen. ...went right over your head i guess. loved the film, and was suprised that i waited over a year to see it and was refreshingly suprised with what i saw. EVEN if you disagree with depalma's style or the overall quality of the film, you'll (provided you're breathing) will love the visuals and how stunningly beautiful rebecca and her french 'freind' are. sit back and enjoy this one! j
Rating: Summary: A mesmorizing classic! Review: this movie is amazing from beginning to the end. It's even better when you watch it for the 2nd or even the 3rd time because you see clues you didn't see before and appreciate the stylish and the artistic film and also understand the film better. the story is great and clever and never slows down to the end. I was totally mesmorized. many people didn't like this movie. It'll be one of those films that people either didn't like or missed that will be a total classic in the future. It's one of the best movies I've seen in the past 5 years. It's totally non-hollywood so if you like that kind of movie, you won't like this, which is very intelligent.
Rating: Summary: DePalma Overdoes the Hitchcockiana.... Review: ....and we get twisted and like in Body Double you can tell when he's just rolling the cameras to see where it leads. It becomes dull and uneven and drawn out afterwhile. He should have instructed his editors to cut about three minutes at least from the set up scenes. In comparison, Hitchcock's mood and pacing was more interesting because it was not rambling (although some scenes did take their time). If nothing else this would make youwant to see DePalma's Body Double of Dressed to Kill or Hitch's Vertigo to compare with. Big ups to Banderas and Romijan-Stamos for their character depictions, however.
Rating: Summary: De Palma never had it..... Review: from the begining this man's career as a film maker has been a joke. All of his movies are badly scripted and full of one dimsensional people who no one can like at all. There is nothing in this movie except more nonsense that this joke of a film maker has done all his life.
Rating: Summary: DE PALMA DOES DALLAS Review: *NOTE: ONCE YOU'VE SEEN THE FILM YOU'LL UNDERSTAND THE TITLE*
Brian dePalma once again employs the directorial styles of other great directors, again most notably the late Alfred Hitchcock. His long walk/chase segues; his cool blonde who doesn't speak for quite a while; the unlucky gent who finds himself embroiled in a rather complicated plot; deceptive identities; murders; suicide; theft, and a torrid lesbian scene. You'll probably be quite shocked at the film's resolution and its subsequent aftermath, so DePalma uses trickery to its most unusual heights, sort of.
This is probably Rebecca Romijin Stamos' best performance to date: she's sly, seductive, brutally frank, and reminiscent of such Hitchcock ladies as Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren. Antonio Banderas is not as impressive; he seems uninvolved and never really aware of his situation. Peter Coyote and Gregg Henry are wasted in minor supporting roles.
DePalma's visual style and split screen antics are effective as usual and the musical score is very good. One of his least popular films, FEMME FATALE still manages to offer some seductive suspense and is worth a look.
Rating: Summary: De Palma turned his eyes toward Europe... Review: And made without restrictions a memorable work . The opening shot we watch Glenn Ford in Laura , and with artistic movement camera appears before us the back of Rebeca who definitively inspires in the Gene Tierney role to become in the master brain of a well and interesting story with De Palma offering us the best of his skills.
The intellectual puzzle is told with such refinement level that it is hard to believe the picture has been neglected for so many critics and the audience .
Let's make a deal : the film is heart rendition to ancient films such as Blow Up (Antonioni), The rear window (Hitchcock again) , Innocent with the dirty hands of (Chabrol) and Laura (Otto Preminger) but the work owns personality and class , and in last instance that is why you must appreciate in this case to De Palma who at last understood this is the field in which he plays best . Forget about Sci fi , Bonfire, War crimes .
Telling cast ; Tomijn is one the supreme Goddess of the Cinema together with Liv Tyler , Charlize Theron and Gretchen Moll, among the most remarkables beauties of the screen .
Coyote is fine and credible and Banderas is OK.
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