Femme Fatale (2002) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this month’s episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron follow the lady’s lead as they discuss Femme Fatale.

Written by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Rebecca Romijn (as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute, Rie Rasmussen, Thierry Frémont, and Gregg Henry

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Hitchcock comparisons:

• Marnie
• Vertigo
• To Catch a Thief

Jennifer Lopez was considered for the role of Laure Ash / Lily Watts. Uma Thurman was originally cast but canceled when she became pregnant. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was cast on a recommendation from John McTiernan, who had just directed her in Rollerball (2002).

Rebecca Romijn was initially reluctant to do the movie due to the amount of sex and nudity the role would require. But she decided to do it hoping that it would do for her what it did for Sharon Stone when she did Basic Instinct (1992). 

Melanie Griffith convinced husband Antonio Banderas to take the role of Nicolas Bardo, even though it wasn’t the lead. She did it as a favor to Brian De Palma for her big break films Body Double (1984) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

Publicity for this picture stated that the precedent for beautifully shrewd duplicitous predator ‘femme fatales’ had been set during the 1940s by such extraordinary leading ladies such as Mary Astor as the gloriously untrustworthy Brigid O’Shaughnessy in John Huston’s classic The Maltese Falcon (1941); Barbara Stanwyck, with her famously fetishized ankle bracelet, in Billy Wilder’s seethingly sexy Double Indemnity (1944); and Rita Hayworth, embodying the mysterious temptress Elsa Bannister, in Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai (1947). It was also noted that modern movie ‘film noir’ pictures had starred sultry women such as Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat (1981); Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction (1994); and Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential (1997) for which she won an Academy Award.

The film’s dream conceit is alluded to in the use of the poster advertising “Deja Vue” where Romijn is depicted as a sleeping model. Deja Vue was going to be the original title of Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976).

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Next up, we’ll be discussing Homicidal.

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