"The Femme Beauty" is one of the representative works of American director Brian de Palma. The film uses borrowed, rewritten, subverted techniques and open narrative to reinterpret an important theme in film noir-"female beauty". At the same time, the film blends the Hitchcock-style suspense technique, the tone style of film noir and the narrative characteristics of European art films, and uses complex narrative structure and imaginative editing techniques to show the uncertainty of the meaning of the film. , Which typically embodies the postmodernist characteristics of neo-noir movies.
The subtitles at the beginning of the film borrowed from the classic American film noir "Double Compensation" to highlight the theme of the film "femme beauty". This passage starts from the dark field, and as the voice-over enters, a fragment of "Double Compensation" appears on the screen. From the granular screen, it is obviously broadcast on the TV or VCR. Vaguely, the viewer can find the superimposition on the screen. The reflection of a half-naked woman. The TV shows the final confrontation between Walt and Mrs. Ditchson in "Double Compensation". When Walter went to the window to draw the curtains on the excuse that the music was too noisy, Mrs. Ditchson shot him, responding to the shooting. Released the title "Snake Beauty". As the credits continued, the camera slowly pulled away, and a naked woman turned her back to the camera, staring at the TV-Mrs. Dickson who shot Walter frankly said: "I am a wicked woman, no one Love until..." At this moment, Mrs. Diggson is facing the woman on the bed. The lines in the play seem to imply that this naked woman with short hair is likely to be a selfish and dangerous femme fatale like Diggson.
This opening paragraph established the relationship between the film and the film noir in an intertextual way from the beginning. We know that after the 1980s, with the development of film studies and the in-depth study of film noir, film noir has not only become a prominent study of film history, but also aroused great interest in the film creation community, and has increasingly become an important creation of contemporary American filmmakers. Resources, their genre features, and constituent elements enter the contemporary film text in different ways, and thus form the so-called "new film noir". The title of "The Femme Beauty" clearly expresses the creator's tribute to the classic film noir, setting the tone for the entire film. Of course, the film was rewritten while directly appropriating the classic "femme beauty" image, thus completing the contemporary interpretation of classic movies.
In view of the clarity of the theme of "femme beauty", the film designed a more distinctive image feature when portraying "femme beauty" than the classic film noir. In Lau Lei's dream scene, the film focuses on portraying an extremely selfish, sinister, and vicious woman. The one that best reflects the characteristics of this character is the kidnapping case designed by Lau Lei. She pretended to be troubled by domestic violence, and evoked Bardo's sympathy for her with the illusion of preparing to commit suicide. Thereafter, step by step, Bardo was led into a pre-planned trap. Laurei's use of Bado, the cruelty to the hotel attendants, and the coldness to the ambassador all brought out her sinisterness. Moreover, unlike the traditional femme fatale, Laurei single-handedly dealt with the men around her, highlighting the uncontrollable characteristics of the new femme fatale.
What makes Laury more difficult to control is her temptation to women. Just like many new noir films, this film not only continues the charm of femme fatales in classic noir films—for example, Lao Lei uses her body to seduce Bardo in order to achieve personal purposes, and it also shows femme fatales’ attraction to the same sex. . At the beginning of the film, Laurei appeared with short hair, hard, and capable. At the Cannes Film Festival, she easily "seduceed" the actress wearing a snake-shaped jewelry top and used the sex of the two to commit theft. Obviously, in this passage, the lesbian intensifies the dark side of femme fatale and highlights her lethality even more.
But what is interesting is that the director did not stop at rewriting the femme fatale, but subverted this image through an open narrative. After Lau Lei's dream passage, the director provided another narrative clue. In this narrative paragraph, things are developing in the opposite direction, and the driving force of development is the change of Laurei's image. When Laurei saw Lili who was about to commit suicide, she did not stand by as she did in her dreams and only considered her chance of getting out. Instead, she stepped up in time to stop Lili and encourage Lili to start a new life. It was this turning point that led to the reversal of the situation. Under the magical effect of the small glass ball, the truck changed its direction, Laurie's friend was saved, and the two thieves were nailed to the iron fork.
In this narrative paragraph, Laurei's image has changed a lot. When Bardo's camera is pointed at Laurei by the open-air coffee table, she is completely like the girl next door, neither glamorous nor tough. In this passage, although she is in the middle of the incident, except for saving Lili, she has not played any role in promoting the development of the incident. She is completely a passive outsider. When she separated from her girlfriend and walked across the road, everything happened. She turned around in surprise, looking at the situation in front of her, with innocent and unexpected expressions in her eyes. This is in sharp contrast with the scheming ambassador's wife in the dream paragraph.
What's more noteworthy is that when the two thieves died in the accident, the camera was shaken, and a moving image appeared in the original poster where the ambassador’s wife appeared—Laurei and the actress wearing a snake-shaped jewelry top looked at each other. Smile, then smile and turn around to face the death of the "enemy" together. From Lau Lei’s love for Lili, to the tacit smile between Lau Lei and the actress, and the peace and warmth in the conversation between Lau Lei and his girlfriend, they all seem to emphasize the friendship between women. It is like a powerful force. Power makes women redeemed: Lili embarks on a new life, Laurie's girlfriend escaped death, Laurie also completely got rid of the pursuit of Black and Racine. Obviously, in this passage, female friendship has become a positive force.
It should be said that the emphasis on lesbianism is a characteristic of neo-noir films, and this is also the mark left by the western feminism that has developed for many years in movies. In most classic noir films, the "femme beauty" is vicious, but in the end it always compromises with the opposite sex, even initiating love, expressing a sense of comfort through the harmonious relationship between the two sexes, such as Ditchson in "Double Compensation" Madam, after shooting Walter, she vaguely expressed her love for the latter. However, the new noir film emphasizes the opposition and separation between men and women. As this film shows, Laurei uses Bardo. There is no spiritual harmony between the two people, but a naked sexual relationship, which really helps Laurei get out. The trouble is her alliance with women.
Therefore, as far as the femme fatale image is concerned, the dream paragraph reproduces the image in the classic noir film, while the paragraph after the dream awakens is a complete denial of the previous image. Perhaps the director used the last poster of the event to emphasize that femme fatale is a kind of imaginary construct, which is more of an illusion than reality. If it is said that Laurei in the dream paragraph paid the price for her crime and got the punishment that he deserved, then the last paragraph implies Laurei's self-salvation.
Through plot arrangement to show that events unfold in different directions due to chance, this kind of narrative structure mostly appears in European art films. In this film, De Palma also uses this narrative structure, which makes the film's connotation full of ambiguity and uncertainty. Whether it is femme fatale or lesbian, they have different expressions and meanings in different narrative passages, which challenges the solidification of the meaning of the film text and opens up a richer space for meaning interpretation.
Not only that, the director also added another layer of meaning to the film through a huge landscape of Paris neighborhoods. As a photographer with a poor life, Bardo has a soft spot for the church square and the surrounding streets and cafes. He keeps taking pictures and uses these photos to stitch together a landscape of Paris neighborhoods. It is precisely because of this opportunity that Bardo discovered Laurei and his girlfriend through the lens of the camera. Finally, as the camera pulls back, Bardo and Laurei disappear in this streetscape, and the whole film ends in a visual reproduction, which intensifies the dreamy color of the film.
De Palmer is known as the "contemporary Hitchcock" in the United States, and suspense films are one of his specialties. Many passages in this film have Hitchcock style. For example, the passage where Bardo followed the ambassador's wife used a lot of in-vehicle follow-up shots, which is quite similar to the track section in "Victorious". At the same time, light and shadow effects are used to once again show the tonal style of film noir. In the scene of Bardo’s conversation with the sheriff at the police station, Bardo repeatedly emphasized that he was innocent and was fooled by the woman, while the sheriff suspected that he had kidnapped, and the shadows of the blinds enveloped the entire room. It creates an atmosphere of anxiety, ominousness, depression, and darkness, which expresses Bardo's inner state very well. In addition, Bardo and "Lili" in the bridge section of the bar and in the night scene on the bridge use dark light and shadow to outline the insidious cunning of "Lili". Of course, the biggest suspense is the identity of Laurei and Lili. The final paragraph overturns the entire dream paragraph, creating a dramatic effect of ups and downs.
"The Femme Beauty" marks the return of De Palmer to commercial films after the art film experiment. It rewrites the themes in the classic film noir with a postmodernist approach. Therefore, it has become a masterpiece of the new film noir that cannot be ignored.
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