Event
SG - The Femme Fatale in Film
The story of the femme fatale goes back centuries. But nowhere is her appearance more glamorous and mysterious than in cinema, enticing loads of unsuspecting men to their ruin.
As an enigma incarnate, the femme fatale appears in all sorts of film genres, but her most important cinematographic form is undoubtedly the film noir. Sensual, intangible and murderous in equal measures, the femme fatale would seem to be an essential ingredient of these hard, stylised crime dramas from classical Hollywood. But are such clichés actually right? How has the femme fatale developed throughout film history? Does she just represent male anxieties about strong women, or should she be regarded as an autonomous creature? Film journalist Kevin Toma gets to the bottom of it, using a wealth of film excerpts.
About Kevin Toma
Kevin Toma (Sittard, 1974) studied Film- and Performance-Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen. He started his career as movie reviewer for De Filmkrant. Starting 2007 he works as a movie reviewer for De Volkskrant. Furthermore he composes modern music for, and accompanies silent movies. He wrote new scores for and accompanied live among others Sunrise (1927), Häxan (1922) and Berlin, die Sinfonie der Groβstadt (1927).