Film noirs are commonly seen as “maladjusted” texts that reflect “ the dark side of the screen”, the ideological contradictions, disequilibrium, and disturbing imbalance characteristic of the World War Two and post-war periods. Because noirs reached their peak of popularity during and after the war, wartime social turmoil has largely been seen as responsible for their “deviant” nature. Noirs, with their preoccupation of paranoia, commonly employs a confessional or investigative mode. Interestingly, what these confessing male protagonists search for on their past experiences or psychological conditions is a revelation that involves the truth not so much about masculinity but rather about feminity. These films seem to be concerned with ascertaining “what the women wants”, finding the essential difference, which often is symbolised in female sexuality. Feminity thus becomes the ultimate subject of the films’ discourse. This search for the truth of sexuality while seeming to reveal sexual truth is never attained by film noir instead it acts only to mask, deny access to, and assert power over it. Voice-over narration in film noir, which is typically male, implicates the spectator completely in the perspective of the films’ male narrator in his condemnation of the film’s major female character , the femme fatale. Mary Ann Doanne, for instance, sees the noir voice -over as: ‘embedding the figure of the femme fatale in the narratives metadiegetic level ‘, framing her speech within an overpowering masculine discourse in order to withhold her access to narration and grant the male narrator control of both her words and image. This is a common trope for the classic noirs yet it is difficult to find voice-over narration within the contemporary noirs. The very project of these films, their repeatedly unsuccessful attempts to probe the nature of sexual difference, foregrounds a societal failure to resolve the contradictions inherent in conventional configurations of sexuality and gender difference. From a psychoanalytical perspective, the male protagonist consistently tries to interpret the meaning of femaleness by male standards- from the point of view of the phallus. In these terms, femaleness is always judged as excess or lack from the perspective of male normalcy. Femaleness becomes simply insuffiency or excess in comparison to maleness, and real difference is masked under a discourse that approaches understanding only of this limited conception of truth. In this way, the films can soothe castration fears that the notion of sexual difference might raise in the male spectator and that the advances of women out of the home and into the work place exacberated in 1940’s society. By eliding difference, the noir films can create a unified male spectator untroubled by contradictions within his society that are symbolised in the films by female otherness. The spiderwomen of nineties Hollywood, like most Americans, have enjoyed the benefits of the post-World War Two prosperity. Early femme fatales were concerned with traditional greed, as a direct threat to the males’ power. Bridget O’Shaunessey of the Maltese Falcon (1941) and Lana Turner’s character in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) are but two examples. Where as Sharon Stones character in Basic Instinct is more concerned with “mind games” than with money. The later femme fatales, also, appear to be better educated and wealthier than their predeccesors. This makes a bold statement about women's contemporary representation in film. It depicts a sense of liberalism throughout the noir films and more importantly emphasises the once disguised equality of women. Women in classical Hollywood films have been positioned as objects of spectacle, fixed and held by the male gaze. The femme fatale of the film noir is clearly yet another female object of spectacle, defined by her dangerous, yet desirable sexual presence, but she is an object with a difference. Female characters in classical Hollywood films are traditionally portrayed as weak and in need of the male hero’s affection and protection. Film noirs release the female image from these fixed roles and grant it overwhelming power. The iconography of the femme fatale grants these beautiful women visual primacy through shot composition as well as camera positioning, movement, and lighting. The freedom of movement and visual dominance of the femme fatale admittedly is presented as inappropriate to a proper female role and as igniting sinister forces that are deadly to the male protagonist. Narratively, this dangerous, evil women is damned and ultimately punished, but stylistically she exhibits such an extremely powerful visual presence that the conventional narrative is disorientated and the image of the erotic, strong unrepressed woman dominated the text. This unattainable enigma of the femme fatale is constructed around the sexual needs of the male protagonist. The image of the femme fatale presents a beautiful, fascinating surface, but one impenetrable to investigation. I venture that the classic femme fatale were not themselves interested in sex but used it as a tool for survival or, more commonly for achieving wealth or power. This is exemplified in Johnny’s voice-over in The Postman Always Rings Twice “I hated her so I couldn't get her out of my mind for a minute”. This remark seems more a product of frustrated sexual attraction than of disdain. The contemporary noir spider women is an actively sexual creature who threatens the wholesome young protagonist not merely through her sexuality but with it. For example, Madonna’s character in Body of Evidence. To this extent the contemporary version is less evasive about what in women threatens men. The major difference between classic and current film noir femme fatales was the Hollywood Production Code, which was finally abandoned in the mid sixties. The Production Code gave the characters license to say and do things to express their use of sexuality that had to be implied or veiled in the earlier films (e.g. the open references to oral sex in BODY HEAT and the kitchen table scene in the Raphelson POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE). But the freedom to acknowledge and act on female sexual desire can make their actions more complex than greed alone can account for. The very end of BODY HEAT seems to hint at this, the remake of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE acts on it more openly. While it was acceptable to show greed (allowing for "compensating moral values") overt sexuality was not allowed - particularly female. After all, it was the aggressive, if comical, sexual "come-ons" of Mae West - and the androgony of Marlene Dietrich - which finally made the Hays Office implement the Code - thanks mainly to the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency and its threat to boycott all Paramount Studios movies. Also, social movements such as female equality helped the neo-noir females to show their sexuality, as well as their classic-noir greed and manipulation of the often weak male protagonist. A very interesting aspect to the comparison of the Garfield/Turner POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE to the Nicholson/Lange version is the way Cora is filmed. In Turner's version, she drops something and the camera with him (i.e. from his point of view) slowly pans up her body beginning with her feet (where he has lunged for the dropped object) and proceeds up past her naked knees and short skirt. In contrast, Nicholson's (and ours) first view of Lange's Cora is caught through the swinging doors to the kitchen where she works over a grill in a worn looking shirt. The Code necessitated some very obvious signals in lieu of more open displays of sexual action. Lange's Cora achieves a greater aura of mystery and, arguably, I think, agency in the plotting against her husband and in her sexual liaison with Nicholson's character. Turner is filmed to denote sexuality rather than being asked to help create it. The Code in this way forced Turner to be "coded" almost completely as "sex" whereas Lange's character's sexuality plays a more causal role in the plot. Well, a femme fatale is a femme fatale - sex and duplicity....... In the heyday of classic film noir, roughly from the mid forties to the mid fifties, the Hollywood Production Code was very much in effect, so sexual activity was suggested rather than shown. This translated into loaded dialogue, double entendres, the cigarette smoking ritual, and a few chaste kisses. Also, before "women's liberation" came along, a femme fatale usually had to hook on to a man to carry out her nefarious schemes (e.g: The Maltese Falcon: Double Indemnity: Out Of The Past; The Postman Always Rings Twice). With modern film noir, a femme fatale often operates more independently (e.g: The Grifters), and sexual activity is graphically shown rather than hinted at. For instance, compare the seduction scene in the 1946 and the 1981 versions of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Also, femme fatales can get away with a much higher level of violence (and profanity) in modern film noir than they could in the classic period, following the general trend in film and other popular entertainment, and the demise of the Production Code in the late sixties. But the most striking thing about the two groups is that they rely on seduction to serve destructive (to say nothing of illegal and/or immoral) ends. Whatever their time period, they are femme fatales and as such have to have certain basic characteristics. The concerns of Film Noir appear to be a current day enigma. From what sociological and historical background did these films arise from? It all seems too simple to suggest it originated from a post-war paranoia! ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]