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Summary: super thriller
Review: A Great Film, suspense,sex,plot twists and all of it actually makes sense.One of Brian de Palma's best
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Summary: Dazzling De Palma
Review: In the worlds of movie making and popular music it seems artists talents normally diminish with age. Those once bold, adventurous and daring play safe and seem to lose their unique vision and voice. It's reassuring to see Brian De Palma making a movie that is amongst his very best, boldest and most groundbreaking work.
Many of De Palma's stylistic trademarks are on display from the opening but he really explores new territory here. The multilayered story is like the late British giant of innovative television and film writing, Dennis Potter, at his best. It is fetishistic, flash, cold and calculating on the surface but it is a very intelligent film, and, like its central character, it is tender and romantic at its core.
Unlike some reviewers I won't be giving away key plot spoilers so you can enjoy Femme Fatale's surprizes fully. Other movies with extreme twists often offer little reason for repeated viewing once you know their key plot twist but Femme Fatale is NO one trick pony and stands up to watching it again and again. It's refreshing to see De Palma unafraid of taking real chances at this stage of his career and pulling it all off brilliantly. This is the work of a true great of modern cinema at the top of his game.
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Summary: Femme Fatale - Mystique minus the blue body paint... Hoorah!
Review: The exceptionally beautiful Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets her own leading role minus the blue paint of Mystique in X-Men. Unfortunately, I found her acting talents as a "babe in blue" that holds her own in personal combat to be better than what she put on the screen in this film. Don't get me wrong, her performance was adequate to the role but it seemed somewhat contrived, almost as if she was trying too hard. Then there's Antonio Banderas, an actor whose acting skills are much better than the roles he or his agent are setting him up with. Of course, it's easy to see why he took this role, namely the opportunity to work with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.Don't get me wrong, this film starts out with style and ends up beautifully as well, it's just some of the "action" in the middle that is somewhat contrived and seemingly short on either performance or writing or both. The premise: In a well thought out opening sequence we see Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in the middle of a heist in which her part involves seducing an actress in the bathroom of the movie theater while her partner in crime makes a switch of the diamonds. The diamonds of course are embedded in gold and turned into a dress of "sorts" in which the actress is barely wearing. Unbeknownst to her partners in crime, she has plans of her own with reference to the diamonds and she makes off with them, leaving her partners in the dust. The next day, she's attempting to secure false documents in order to get out of the country. She slips into a church and then strangely enough, an older couple notices her and chases her out of the church. She then makes her way to her hotel where one of her partners in crime catches up with her and tosses her over the balcony. Fortunately for her, she isn't killed in the fall and the odd older couple comes to her rescue. She wakes up in her home and the couple is talking to her as if she were their daughter. After they leave, she discovers that she is a perfect doppelganger for their daughter who has apparently disappeared. What follows from there is an intriguing tale that follows her life and the strange twists in which it takes. I would definitely recommend this film as a rental! {ssintrepid} Special Features: From Dream to Reality
Dream Within a Dream
Femme Fatale: Behind the Scenes
Femme Fatale: Dressed to Kill Montage
North American and French Trailers
Rating: 
Summary: Idiotic
Review: This is one of the most idiotic films of all time. In the opening, a gang of crooks plan a heist based on their assumption that one woman absolutely, without fail, will be able to lure a beautiful lesbian (whom she's supposedly never met before) into having sex in a public toilet stall puring a major film premiere. THE ENTIRE HEIST IS BASED ON THIS ASSUMPTION! It turns out that everything isn't as we were led to believe, but it's still true that most of the crooks were willing to plan an entire heist based on the assumption that a beautiful woman can lure a complete stranger into having sex with her in a public toilet stall! I still can't get over how IDIOTIC this film is.
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Summary: The Best Film of 2002: Brian De Palma's Brilliant Comeback
Review: The cinema of Brian De Palma is for those who understand it. And to understand the cinema of De Palma, you have to understand the cinema in general. If you don't, you don't deserve to have privilege of wathing any of his films. However, there are people who don't know what cinema and filmmaking are all about, they just think they do. Such people, who are in fact quite numerous, don't know how to watch a De Palma picture and at the and, of course, they dislike it. That's the main reason why De Palma is the most underrated director in the history of filmmaking - he's being misunderstood, just like Hitchcock, De Palma's great idol, used to be (Rear Window, Vertigo). The central theme of De Palma's cinema is the cinema itself and its connection to reality. In other words, De Palma's filmography explores the life-cinema realationship, the cinematic aspect of life. Whether you take a look on such versatile works like his thrillers (Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Body Double, Snake Eyes), where this theme is most evidently present, his action (The Untouchables, Mission Impossible) or war (Casualities of War) films, they are, more or less, all about one key problem, which is how we see and understand reality. Whenever you watch a De Palma film, you can always be sure about one thing: nothing is ever as it seems. Probably nobody else understands cinema as well as De Palma does. His last film, Femme Fatale, an amazing fantasy mosaic, couldn't have been made by anybody else than a man who loves movies and understands cinema as a perfect expression of art. De Palma is an excellent artist, the best filmmaker of his generation, a brilliant storyteller who has managed to maintain his technical preoccupations and cinematic constants (vouyerism, surveillance, doubles, split-screen, tracking shots) throughout the entire career. In this sense Femme Fatale represents his masterful comeback after Mission to Mars, a film which was also quite underrated and misunderstood. Femme Fatale might be regarded as Brian De Palma's "greatest hits" (as mentioned by Glenn Kelly in Premiere Magazine), his personal "deja vue". It seems like a film De Palma has been making for all 40 years or so, that's how long he's been in film business. It's his own "The Wizzard of Oz", as he called it in an interwiev for Film Comment Magazine. Femme Fatale, which begins with an extraordinary 15-minute technical extravaganza, is an ultimate example of pure filmmaking and, on the other hand, a pefect successor to Memento (2000) and Mulholland Drive (2001). These three films represent the basis of what I personally call "The New Hollywood", "films noir" for the new millenium, all exploring subjects concerned with public identity, reality-fiction and consciousness-dreams relationships. It was high time that someone decided to move away from the conventional way of making movies, take a step further and try something new. De Palma, Nolan and Lynch did exactly that. Highly recommended for all true film fans and for those who understand what pure fimmaking is all about.
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Summary: Yay
Review: Although there are some moments when it drags or uses a terrible song, Femme Fatale is a very fun movie. Aside from the occasional display of bad taste, its biggest problem is that it never seems satisfied from itself- layers of plot are added beyond what's needed... and added... and added... etc... There's not much to say about this movie other than that it's average in that above average kind of way. Certainly worth a trip to the theatre or rental, maybe worth purchase (i've seen it twice... might watch again, but probably not for a while.)
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Summary: One of the best thrillers in years!
Review: A very good friend of mine, whose taste in films is very discerning, raved about this film to me. I was quite suprised as the reviews had been generally lukewarm. I rented the tape and agree with my friend that this is a wonderfully conceived and crafted film. I would say that it is one of De Palma's strongest films. It works on all levels and is definitely the best thriller that I have seen in years. I don't want to give away too much of the plot as to spoil some rich and rewarding suprises. Suffice it to say that it is recommended that as you watch the movie, know that the end will show a very different picture of what morally and emotionally is occurring in the movie. The screenplay is excellent. Although the plot is rather complex, in the best tradition of Hitchcock, the viewer is never lost or baffled by what is going on. The movie also deals with the results of our actions and how we can change them. What we do for others does affect what happens to us, according to Mr. De Palma. Be forwarned, however, that this movie is not for the prudish. There is a rather erotic lesbian scene (both women are stunning) and there is an outlandish strip scene featuring Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. The outlandishness makes more sense cinematically when the movie is resolved. If you love intelligent, creative film noir movies, see this film with pleasure.
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Summary: Pastiche at its best...
Review: This is a terrific film to watch if you are interested in studying film technique, particularly in the 70's avant gard style of the french variety. Brian De Palma loves experimenting with the art of filmmaking and in his latest, one can view all his signature approaches: split screen, dream-sequence, actors appearing in scenes that logically and chronologically, shouldn't be there, echoes and implied homage to the classics, i.e., film noir and Hitchcock. He has been called the master of the erotic thriller. I believe he received this accolade after the release of the highly acclaimed, 'Dressed to Kill'. In ~Femme Fatale~ the eroticism is laid on thick and heavy without taking itself too seriously. I could almost imagine De Palma shooting these scenes smiling and slyly winking at the audience. In fact, the sexually charged scene between Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, close to the end of the film, was almost funny; in a general way, however, this scene was most certainly a tongue and cheek moment for the director, actors and the audience. There's not much this film has to offer narrative-wise. What it does have to offer, though, is a very playful approach to filmmaking and films in general. If you like pastiche with a lot of style and a film-thriller that doesn't take itself too seriously, and you're a Brian De Palma fan, then ~Femme Fatale~ should be an enjoyable experience.
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Summary: Weird and wonderful; sexy and spectacular
Review: Yowtch, this was a beauty. Three quarters of the time, you're as confused and mesmerized as Antonio Banderas, like: WTF is going on? Brian de Palma really knows how to make a movie. Femme Fatale rivits the attention of the audience from the opening looooong scene (almost without dialogue) of a jewel heist at the Cannes film festival. It's a case of one-up-manship, and Laure, who got away with the real jewels, skips to the US and assumes a new identity. 'The plot thickens' when circumstances take her back to Paris, where her real ID is unmasked by Banderas, a totally engaging, suspicious, and confused (as we viewers are) paparazzo.
This thriller challenges your belief in what you're seeing and of course has a twisty ending that's entirely satisfying.
Spectacular and kinky WEIRD!
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Summary: De Palma's best work since "Body Double"
Review: Director Brian De Palma's latest feature is unquestionably his best work in years. Critics who've continually blasted him for being a "Hitchcock imitator" will hate this movie, but De Palma's fans will love it. The real difference is that anybody who watches this will know that he's finally emerged from beneath that cloud. FEMME FATALE is 100% pure, primo De Palma.
The story, by De Palma; centres around a jewel heist at the Cannes film festival. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) is the femme fatale of the title; used as the secret weapon in the robbery. The priceless diamonds in question are adorned upon an extremely skimpy dress worn by one of the actresses in attendance. The resourceful Laure uses her good looks to entice the actress into a lesbian liason in the bathroom of the theatre. Once the actress's dress is off, Laure's partners in crime take the dress and switch the diamonds for glass. But of course the heist is botched and Lily's attempts at escape end in a violent murder, so she escapes to the US where she assumes the dead woman's identity (Lily).
However, seven years later her husband (Peter Coyote) is offered a job as French Ambassador to the US. Laure/Lily's raised profile soon attracts the attention of paparazzi photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) who captures photos of Lily selling the stolen diamonds thus destroying her cover and creating a potential scandal. So the only way to prevent her new life from blowing into oblivion is for Lily to get revenge on Bardo using the deadliest weapon she has: her looks. But this is further complicated when the pair find themselves becoming attracted to each other...
De Palma uses all his old tricks, including effective split screen use (as he did in his earlier classics SISTERS and CARRIE). After the insipid efforts that were SNAKE EYES and MISSION TO MARS, De Palma's back doing what he does best. FEMME FATALE is possibly the first real "De Palma" movie since his 1984 classic BODY DOUBLE. As for Romjin-Stamos, she's not only sexy, but she's a very good actress as well. This is first-rate De Palma, especially the climactic twist in the tale. A must see for fans of the director. The movie also features the sexiest erotic dance sequence since Jamie Lee Curtis in TRUE LIES. Hell, maybe this is THE sexiest exotic dance sequence EVER! DVD extras include three featurettes and film trailers for both the US and French markets. Well worth your time.
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