DE PALMA a la MOD

English version of Paul Boekkooi's City Press SA review of Femme Fatale, translated from Afrikaans by Max404:

In the first 20 minutes he shows more brilliantly than ever his grip on the art of cinema. Laura Ash (played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and her partners in crime commit a jewelry theft that partly goes wrong, in which tension and uncertainty compete with each other. The sequence is constructed so brilliantly, that it would serve as an excellent example for aspiring directors in every film academy! With magnificent technique, De Palma makes every shot functional and also the tempo is carefully thought out.

Then there's a time jump of several years.

Laura returns to Paris with a new identity, but the criminals are quicky informed about this. Thus the problems start. Fate brings her together with Nicolas (Antonio Banderas), a former paperazoo who doesn't hunt celebraties anymore, but practices photo art. When he sees Laura after all these years, he chases her with his camera.

In Femme Fatale the viewer tastes Paris and the spirit of the city that inspired French directors of the past, with the camera acting as a voyeur.

The invisible line that binds Laura and Nicolas, slowly becomes clear. He takes her picture and sells it to a scandal magazine: Her life is in danger.

Leading up to the climax, De Palma shows himself a virtuoso puppetmaster, pulling all the string with psychological truths and visual information, so that the alert viewer will be richly rewarded. This is also true for the eroticism, which is constantly suggested, but time after time is being released as well. Everything revolves around Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who as Laura is the axis of both fantasy and revenge. Romijn-Stamos' continuing focus on Laura's manipulations makes her performance rounded off, but also mysterious. She's really immersed herself in the highly suggestive world of the title of the movie.

Banderas proves again that his more introvert roles are most succesful. His machismo works best in silence instead of surrounded by violence.

Femme Fatale focuses both on the exploitation of women and eroticism, but in De Palma's screenplay and direction this is balanced by other, more hidden elements. Here, originality is what is interesting. So, if you should have some spare hours this early in the year, don't hesitate to fill them with De Palma's layered 114 minutes!