The femme Fatale archtype has her footprints all over cultural throughout history. From ancient mythology to today’s video games.

The original film Noir version of the femme Fatale is socially relevant and easily identifiable even today and in early 1940s and 1950s heyday she reigned cinemas and introduced romantic paranoia from the men who were equally fascinated and scared by her. But how was she invented and where did she come from?

Film Noire translate from French into ‘black film,- literally: Darkness is what is at the Art of this movie genre.

The reality is harsh and industrial, yet aesthetically pleasing,thanks to its composition,architecture and costume design. In essence, a Film Noir is an artful exaggeration of the real-world post second world war, with an emphasis on the dark and brutal side humanity.

The genre was officially without name until 1955,right about when it came to an end.French film critics had started to referring to this America style of cinema as “Film Noir” after Sërie Noir (the French term for detective novels) but also to highlight the lightning techniques used that contributed visually to the sinister and cynical storytelling employed by these movies.

The implications of the word ‘fatale’strikes two important chords.firstly

Her fatalness and deadly aura, but it also touches upon the fatalistic theory of things being related to fate and therefore inevitable.

To this day, the Femme Fatale is a recognizable term, often used free from the Film Noir connitation. In modern culture such as fashion editorials and advertising she is portrayed as dark and mysterious- usually clad in black,wearing red lipstick. Today she represents more of a ‘free woman’than a actual lethal one.

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Photographer by Belle Prive Photography

Dare to be You.