The Femme Fatales
2006 CSIA 10127¡¡D1 NaKyo, Heo
The history of women lasted only as an obedient existence. For that reason, 'Good-Girl Complex' is latent in general women and 'Femme Fatalism' follows immediately in every women's mind. The age of tenderhearted women has ended and bad women's time has come. Self-centered women like Cinderella's sisters are becoming the center of attention. It is not too much to say that 'Femme fatale' has settled down as a trend in society. An established woman who was once regarded as a wicked woman now takes the form of a splendid woman.
An unfamiliar woman suddenly appears in the presence of a man. The man gets the feeling of part irresistibility, and partly over an inauspicious in the presence of the woman who has sexiness, mysteriousness and deadly attractiveness. As the intimacy grows, the man's life and work get entangled. This is the general formula of 1950s Hollywood Film Noir with a gangland as its setting. It was French movie reviewers who grafted femme fatales into a criticism of film noir.
Femme is defined as woman and Fatales means fateful, predestined, destructive, deadly or lethal. To add sexual attractiveness, a typical image of femme fatale is completely finished. Femme fatales begin along with the opening of the world, the origin of women's existence: Eve, who tempted Adam and made him eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; Judith, who beheaded the enemy commander Holofernes after sharing the same bed with him; Delilah, who betrayed Samson because of money; Medusa, who was a beautiful woman who incurred the goddess Athene¡¯s anger and made herself into a monster with snakes heads instead of hair and made people turn into stone whenever their eyes made contact. And being more than standard and being capable of making a family tree of actors who played is our HeeBin-Jang, who adapted so many times in history. Lolita in Navokov¡®s novel, who steadies Humbert's soul by the boundary of maturity and immaturity and even created the 'Lolita Syndrome'. The image of femme fatale that can easily be found in innumerable examples from the Bible, myths, history, literature, fine arts, and theatricals when Symbolism and Estheticism artists concentrated their attention on the subject of love and death, pleasure and anguish at the closing of the 19th century. A boom of this sort is often interpreted as a caution or a subject of anxiety of men because of the starting of women's social extending in those days.
It is difficult to prescribe the femme fatale's image with only one example, but in the midst of countless alteration, the main feature is sexual appeal even though the motives for alluring men are different, and the results inflicted on the world are different.
Holofernos, who was the enemy's general, invaded and plundered Judith's country but countless artists centralized Judith's temptation, which led Holofernos to his death with her sexual attractiveness. It also was Judith's erotic figure that made Klimt devote himself to the work of a Judith series. There is the Holofernos' head on her hand with a delicacy in her look.
Nevertheless, following the rules of Film Noir and also honoring successful movies, the image of Femme Fatales still has the bulling tendency like Catherine(Sharon Stone) in 'Basic instinct' to have an intense look and a figure that diffuses sexual attraction, and secretive danger as well.
There also are femme fatales in Korea movies. The bygones of Korean movies flashed femme fatale's image mainly on temptresses or witches---for instance, actresses HyeYoung-Lee, SooYeon-Kang and so on in historical dramas. Betrayal and machinations, irrational police and femme fatale as following a general rule of crime thriller 'Blackjack' directed by JiYoung-Jung in 1997, EunYoung who intentionally tempts an irrational policeman SeGeon(Minsoo Choi) was a typical femme fatale. However, she could not get the support of the people. Femme fatales was fixed as a sexual image or as following a typical role, so there was not much support of the people in Korea movies. The reasons could be the psychological distance caused by the traditional figure of women or it could be the bellyful about the strong sexual atmosphere with no particular differences. The film 'Tell Me Something' in 1999 directed by YoonHyung-Jang, shows a different look of femme fatale from those showed in previous Korean movies. The image of temptresses was completely removed and the innocent-looking SooYeon-Chae(EunHa-Shim) appeared. Even though it added the image of 'Woman of Death' that can also be said to be the root of fear, she was the character who deviated as an outward appearance. To be sure her outward appearances can be the creation for thriller film's peculiar reversal or can be the director's plan to break the fixed image of femme fatales. it doesn't say she applied blood to her hands but she was the girl who had all of ' death', 'mystery', 'secrets', and 'tricks'. But it was clear that she was the femme fatale that controlled various people at the back of the dead body which was cut into pieces. The commercial success of this thriller cannot be said that it was because of the complete transition of Korean-style femme fatales. However, there are no impossibilities to see as one of the causes. If the post of the film 'Tell Me Something' only emphasizes the sexual attraction of the actresses, the result of box-office will obviously different.
The emphasis of sexuality has fixed femme fatales into deadly sexually appealing woman. Sexual fascination exists with a respect of exceeded emphasis, however. There are no seductions as much as that. 1900s artists thought that there is nothing but a fascination and anxiety for women as a destiny and asked, ¡°Men! Can you risk your lives to sleep with this beautiful woman?¡±
Again, does 'Femme fatale' really have a meaning of degenerating men? To interpret on the women's point of view, the history of human has begun with men's hegemonism and it means that the initiators and depicters are the men, the victors. The reason why men are infatuated with femme fatales is that the girls have the ability to express their ambition straight-forwardly and to reveal their allure positively. However such being the case, Femme fatales are never satisfied with one man and leave for another desire. Therefore, femme fatales might be left as an existence of fantasy-like mirages that can¡¯t be possessed forever, leaving deep scratches to men. The formed image that Femme Fatale equals temptresses or witches is just a by-product created by the downgrading of women by men. If you read some books such as ¡®The Bitch in the house¡¯ by Catherine Hanauer, ¡®Bad Women Succeed¡¯ written by Ute Ehrhardt, ¡®Bad Girl's Guide¡¯ written by Cameron Tuttle and so on, the writers advocate not to persevere or give up that you really want to become a good girl and instead become a bad girl and possess everything you want. In the title 'witches are even sexier' by SoonDuk, Kim, it is showing that most people nowadays know that the witch's image is not the original image that witches used to have. Men themselves should know that they are the ringleaders who make women use extreme ways, even though Femme fatales lead men to an extreme condition of destruction or death.
[References]
Books
-Hanauer, Catherine. ¡®The Bitch in the house¡¯ 1st ed. Harperaudio Unabridged , 2002
-Billinghurst, Jane 'Temptress: From the Original Bad Girls to Women on Top' 1st ed. Pub Group West, 2004
Periodicals
-Yoo, Gina. 'Femme Fatale.¡¯ Se-Gae IlBo. 18 Nov. 2004, late ed., sec 3.
-Park, Mi-Ae. 'The Golden Age Of Temptresses.¡¯ News And. 18 Jan. 2006, late ed., sec. 7:29+.
Internet Resources
-Marling, William. "Femme Fatale." Online posting. Updated 2 August 2001. Femme Fatale. 28 April. 2006.
-No, YoonKyung. "Judith." Online posting. 07 06, 2005. FemmeFatale. 28 April 2006.