Femic fatale biography

In Hitchcock's 1940 film and Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novelRebecca, the eponymous femme fatale completely dominates the plot, even though she is already dead and we never see an image of her. In Women in Film Noir, Janey Place famously describes the Femme Fatale as, 

The dark lady, the spider woman, claiming, the evil seductress who tempts man and brings about his destruction is among the oldest themes of art, literature, mythology and religion in Western culture.

In many cases, the femme fatale is depicted as playing a central role in the story, using her wits and cunning to manipulate the male characters and advance her own goals. Wrenched away from a stable and lawful – if somewhat mundane – life, he finds himself deeply entwined in a web of criminality. 55 . Notable examples include Batman's long-time nemesis Catwoman, who first appeared in comics in 1940, and various adversaries of The Spirit, such as P'Gell.

This stock character is also often found in the genres of opera and musical theatre, where she will traditionally have a mezzo, alto or contralto range, opposed to the ingénue's soprano, to symbolize the masculinity and lack of feminine purity.

Salome considered as an archetype of female desire and transgression and as the ultimate femme fatale.

The spell she casts over Walter Neff begins here. Notable silent-cinema vamps include Theda Bara, Helen Gardner, Louise Glaum, Valeska Suratt, Musidora, Virginia Pearson, Olga Petrova, Rosemary Theby, Nita Naldi, Pola Negri, Estelle Taylor, Jetta Goudal, and, in early appearances, Myrna Loy.

Classic film noir era

During the era of classic film-noirs of the 1940s and 1950s, the femme fatale flourished in American cinema.

From the Neo-Noir Femme Fatale who is not typically punished for her duplicity of sexuality – like Eileen (Nina van Pallandt) in The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) – to more current examples, such as Gone Girl, that use the character trope to critique the domestic and societal treatment of women, the Femme Fatale archetype often transcends genre and historical context.

Upon his release from prison, Kitty has taken a new lover and the couple are intent on double crossing the Swede out of a large sum of money the three were to split after a robbery. 3 .