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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back to Form, September 21, 2002
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.
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30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best film of 2002, February 12, 2003
Mr. De Palma is not a critics' darling, and as such his latest, Femme Fatale, has come in for his usual roasting. Is it deserved? Not if you love a film that embraces the visual splendour and techniques that make cinema a unique art form. Not if you love the medium. Not if you love film.Femme Fatale sees De Palma returning to his forte and his professed preferred genre: the suspense thriller. It is a welcome return considering his recent fare have seen him straying to more mainstream efforts - Mission to Mars, Mission: Impossible - that were shells of his virtuoso films of the late 70s and early 80s. The film leads off with a stunning 20-minute Jewel heist sequence that takes place during the Cannes film festival of 2001. Completely bereft of dialogue, a la Topkapi, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos's character has the enviable task of lifting a diamond dress from Rie Rasmussun in a bathroom encounter. His first original screenplay in 10 years, De Palma writes a tightly-plotted tale that certainly does not lead the audience by the hand, and the resulting twists it provides will allow different perspectives on the film's events with repeat viewings. It's not passive cinema; too often a film will guide the audience by the hand like a child. De Palma's direction and script respects the audience's intelligence, and it is indeed satisfying. Antonio Banderas - usually lost without cause if not working with Robert Rodriguez - does what he needs to do with efficiency; Romijn-Stamos, the Femme Fatale of the title, provides the eye candy. The acting is not top drawer, but it does not need to be: we're here to see an auteur in his element: De Palma delivers. I must clarrify that what we are watching is not top-drawer talent - De Palma's stature in Hollywood today means that whenever he takes on personal projects, his funding will not allow access to actors that he may have pursued in days gone by - but they do deliver, and it's not the actors we came to see. Cinema is more than a stage with a camera - De Palma uses his camera and cinema technique to brilliant effect. Huge swooping camera movements, split-screen, slow motion sequences, no dialogue and an enveloping orchestral score; De Palma's signature is prevalent. And that is good: a director should never be an autonomous entity, happy to turn out derivative drivel that get the masses in and out - directors for hire are too commonplace in Hollywood today - and that is something that De Palma could never be accused of. Femme Fatale is a great example of a director working in a genre he loves and understands, and given the freedom to create. Total cinema? Indeed, and its smell is sure intoxicating. Welcome back, Mr. De Palma.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Femme Fatale, April 27, 2003
Brian DePalma has a delightfully wicked sense of irony, and a twisted sense of humor which is sadly lacking and sorely missed in today's overly self-serious pop culture. This makes watching Femme Fatale feel fresh and exciting, even though such irony was a prime staple of movies in the '70's -- a decade largely regarded as DePalma's prime. That is when he directed Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise & Dressed to Kill, among others. The Femme Fatale in this movie is a diamond thief/con-artist named Laure who assumes the identity of another woman to escape some partners she double crossed. She is wonderfully evil, and great fun to watch as she manipulates the men around her using her body and her tears in order to get what she wants. But there is a great deal more of this movie to love. Brian DePalma delights in playing tricks with cinematic conventions both narrative and visual. His love for unusual camera angles is still present in this film, which delivers a plot that twists and turns as seductively as Laure's strip tease. I picked up clues as to one major plot twist early on, hoping I would be wrong. I was partly right, DePalma took something that would have left me groaning in lesser hands and twisted it so that I was laughing with delight as the climax approached. DePalma has also mellowed out a bit with this movie. Much of his prior films would feature gallons of bright red blood and gruesome, creative, deaths of beautiful women. This film keeps much of the fake blood away from the women, cutting away from any of their more potentially gruesome death scenes. This movie is highly rescommended to those who enjoy being surprised. Watch it. You may think you have it figured out, but there is no way anyone could guess the ending. As the credits start to roll, you will realise that you were in the hands of a cinematic master with an impish sense of humor.
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