Femme Fatale (2002)

In writer/director Brian DePalma's erotic, neo-noirish, dramatic mystery thriller with a major plot twist - it often provided various obvious and crucial clues in plain sight to audiences, but they were also presented with deliberately misleading, distracting and contrived happenings or far-fetched coincidences. Various hints included a poster advertisement for "Deja Vue" plastered on a column, characters wearing black or white - signifying villainy or innocence, repeated instances and sounds of running water including an overflowing aquarium tank, and clocks stopped at 3:33 pm.

Concerning the fantasy vs. reality dichotomy (and bait-and-switch tactics), DePalma was daring moviegoers to adopt new perspectives. He urged them to pay close attention to what they were viewing and to properly understand and make sense of all of the visual information, without misrecognizing or misinterpreting things and becoming blind to the underlying more sinister elements.

The glossy, visually-striking and lustrous, well-crafted cult classic included themes of voyeurism, deja vu, manipulation and deception, revenge, destinies crossing paths, and doubling (including mirroring, doppelgangers and double-identity). Except for the first half-hour (and the film's short concluding segment), it was almost entirely a dream of the title character's nightmarish future, after which the female protagonist attempted to change her destined fate. The main twist of the classic noir Woman in the Window (1944) was duplicated here.

Director DePalma had started his career with similar psycho-thrillers in the 1970s and early 1980s, including Sisters (1973), Carrie (1976), Obsession (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980), Blow Out (1981) and Body Double (1984). But then, he verged into various other genres, until he then returned to his favorite type of film with Raising Cain (1992), Snake Eyes (1998) and this film. Femme Fatale often referenced DePalma's earlier films and paid homage to other noirs. DePalma had often been fairly (or unfairly) criticized for remaking Hitchcock thrillers, and this one was no exception - by following the themes of Vertigo (1958).

The energized, glamorous and suspenseful film was originally a financial box-office failure - on a budget of $35 million, it took in revenues of $6.63 million (domestic) and $16.8 million (worldwide).

• the dazzling film opened with the blonde title character, femme fatale Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) reflected in the TV glass as she watched (in the nude from her hotel bed) the French-subtitled broadcast of Billy Wilder's quintessential film noir Double Indemnity (1944) - with its classic 'femme fatale' (Barbara Stanwyck) poised to double-cross her male counterpart (Fred MacMurray) in the movie's conclusion
• she was interrupted by one of her two accomplices, sadistic 'Black Tie' (Eriq Ebouaney); he described their plan with coded words:
  • At twenty two hundred, Wetsuit's down the hole when the snake hits the carpet. Security lifts the key. I terminate the torpedoes. You charm the snake into the stall. Bait and switch. At twenty two twenty, Wetsuit turns out the lights. Glasses on. I bag the snake. Key in the bag. Bag to the boat. No radio unless absolutely necessary. Code Red. 5 minutes to blackout. Drop everything. Walk away. If the cops get you, tell them the truth. You know no one. Got it?"
• after the theft of the valuable golden brassiere (or "snake"), the plan was to escape the country together; and then he added: "No names and no guns!"; dubious about her understanding of their dangerous and risky plan, he viciously slapped her for not being up to the task: "Are you high? Then stop dreaming, bitch!" - a significant clue that the subsequent film would be about dreams; 'Black Tie' opened the hotel room's curtain, revealing the setting for the robbery outside the window
• as a mercenary con-thief for hire, femme fatale Laure participated in a spectacularly sexy heist during the screening of the film Est-Ouest at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival; the sequence was filmed with a lengthy, unbroken tracking shot and also dialogue-free; on the red carpet were actual film personalities - actress Sandrine Bonnaire, Gilles Jacob, Dorothée Grosjean, and the film's director Régis Wargnier

Picture-Taking on the Red Carpet of Super Model Veronica (Rie Rasmussen)

Photographer: Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)

• nearly-nude, sleek film super-model Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) wore a see-through gold-plated halter top (an "amazing top in the shape of a serpent"), encrusted with 500 diamonds (385 carats) worth over 10 million dollars, as she strutted down the red carpet runway for the festival's gala opening
• Laure Ash posed as a French journalist-photographer at the film festival event, scored to Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'Bolero'-like music; in the lobby before the film screening began, the statuesque Laure seductively whispered in Veronica's ear to meet her in the ladies (FEMMES) room; with phallic and sexual symbolism on full display during the robbery sequence (a cylindrical air-duct, a blazing hot blowtorch, etc.), Laure and Veronica kissed during a hot lesbian/bisexual tryst in one toilet cubicle
• Laure's idea was to swap the jewels in the serpentine gold-plated bodice with fake ones; Laure dismantled each part of the garment and dropped it to the floor so that her accomplice 'Black Tie' (disguised as a security guard) in the adjoining stall could replace the jewels with fake glass knock-offs; however, while Laure was deftly executing the plan (and the viewing audience was being distracted by the sexy scene), at the last moment, she switched the serpentine bra (with the real jewels) with the fake one, and pushed the fake one under the cubicle to 'Black Tie' who grabbed it and put it in his black bag; her accomplice left with the fake garment, while Veronica departed wearing the real diamond-studded bra
• although the well-choreographed theft wasn't everything that it appeared to be, blonde Laure (together with cohort and partner in crime Veronica) did execute a double-cross and absconded with the jewels utilizing a very distracting and clever bait-and-switch tactic

The Sexy Heist in the Film Festival's Ladies Room Between Laure (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Veronica (Rie Rasmussen)
Meeting in a Toilet Cubicle in the Ladies Room
A Kissing and Sexual Lesbian Tryst - While Veronica Was Being Stripped of the Jewels in Her Serpentine Top
The Moment the Serpentine Garments on the Floor Were Switched	Veronica Fitted With the Serpentine Top (with the Real Jewels), But Then Confronted by Wounded 'Black Tie'

• after the switch, 'Black Tie' attacked and subdued Veronica's security guard in the ladies room, but was shot in the chest; Veronica ran out of the rest-room with the real garment into the lobby, but yelled in French to another guard: "They switched them with the real! They're glass!"; part of her chest garment broke off and fell to the carpeted lobby floor, as she exclaimed that she was wearing only fake glass; as Laure fled, she first took a moment to scold the bloodied 'Black Tie' for deceiving her: "You said no f--king guns!"
• as part of the plan, the power went out and the entire theatre turned dark, as Laure (with night-vision goggles) found an exit and successfully extracted herself; 'Black Tie' radioed his partner Racine (Édouard Montoute) (who had orchestrated the blackout) about the double-cross: "That bitch double crossed us. She's got the diamonds!"; subsequently, 'Black Tie' was arrested (and imprisoned)
• while on-the-run and hiding out in Paris to evade pursuit by Racine, the double-crossing Laure - wearing all black (and a black wig), was in the rain with a black umbrella standing outside a church in Belleville (a suburb outside of Paris); she was planning to meet up with her camouflage-wearing brunette girlfriend [partner-in-crime Veronica!]; she didn't realize that a long-haired, in-debt Spanish paparazzo Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) was watching from his overlooking balcony; he photographed the two of them (seen in split-screen) - at the same time that Racine was spying on her through binoculars; she received instructions from Veronica about where she could obtain a passport to leave the country; she was given a note, instructing her to go to Room 214 at the Hotel Sheraton
• inside the church, Laure was mistaken for a missing, suicidal woman named Lily (also Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), her own look-alike doppelganger, by Lily's aging parents (Irma (Eva Darlan) and Louis (Jean-Marie Frin)); they called after her as she ran off to a taxi; they (and Racine) trailed her to the Hotel Sheraton, where she took the elevator up to Room 214.
• [Note: During Laure's time in the hotel, passersby later appeared in Laure's dream as minor characters, including Shiff and Bruce Watts' lawyer Stansfield Phillips, and a room-service waitress named Natalie. In the hallway, she also briefly glimpsed Bruce Watts speaking on a phone held to his ear and wearing a wedding ring. It was another instance of deja vu.]
• inside Room 214, the vengeful, double-crossed and betrayed partner Racine assaulted Laure and attempted to strangle her as he demanded: "Where are the diamonds?"; outside of the room, Laure was thrown off the multi-story balcony into the hotel's inner courtyard by Racine, but miraculously, she survived the fall by landing on giant rolls of airduct insulation
• Lily's parents brought her to Lily's femininely-decorated apartment to recover, where there were dozens of flower baskets for mourning; in their discussion, it was revealed that their daughter Lily had disappeared (and was feared dead) after experiencing a "terrible tragedy" (loss of husband Thierry and daughter Brigitte). Once the parents left for the day, Laure noticed her resemblance to Lily in a framed photograph and other photo-collages mounted on the bedroom's wall; at one point, she looked in Lily's closet, but rejected a flowery dress as inappropriate for her
• while watching TV, a commentator (speaking in French) during an advertisement provided a major key to the remainder of the film:
  • "And if you could see the future in a crystal ball, or in the palm of your hand, or in a dream, would you change it?"
• Laure responded to herself: "Yep" - she had decided to escape her own trap of being pursued for the diamonds after her double-cross; she found Lily's passport and Quinta plane ticket and decided to take them to impersonate Lily; at 3:33 pm (all clocks remained fixed at 3:33 pm during the next segment of the film) while she took a soothing soak in an overflowing bathtub (in Lily's apartment) - she fell asleep (and a dream sequence commenced)

Laure in Bathtub: Start of Film's Lengthy Dream Sequence at 3:33 pm - She Awakened To the Sound Of a Suicidal Lily Returning to Her Apartment

• during her bathtub-dream sequence (a spoiler!), Laure was awakened (?) when Lily (also Romijn-Stamos) returned to the apartment; the distraught Lily scribbled a suicide note at a desk next to an aquarium tank: (Contents of Note: "I thought I could start over in America. My English is not so good, but I'm a fast learner. I even bought myself a ticket but I lost it. I can't live without Thierry and Brigitte. Forgive me, my God. Allow us to be together again. Lily"); framed between drapes, Laure voyeuristically watched in awe as Lily loaded a hand-gun, played Russian roulette with herself, and (off-screen) shot herself in the head (with the 2nd shot)
• in the next immediate scene, Laure appropriated look-alike Lily's identity in order to be redeemed, "start a new life" and escape pursuit; the scene's transition-segue was a closeup view of a giant teardrop - the interior of a spinning jet engine; she boarded an airplane to the US; there was an obvious close-up of water being poured into a glass on the plane (recurring sounds of running water)
• due to a mixup, she was conveniently seated in first-class next to unmarried (with no ring) businessman Mr. Bruce Watts (Peter Coyote); she adopted the name of young suicidal and bereaving mother Lily Watts - and was married to Bruce
• SEVEN YEARS LATER, Laure/Lily had been forced to return to France when her husband Watts became US Ambassador to France; tabloid paparazzo Nicolas Bardo was phoned by his agent and instructed to get a picture of the returning and very elusive Laure/Lily Watts, who often dodged photographers ("She's got a past and she's not talking about it"); disguised as a blind man, he stalked her as her limousine arrived outside the Ambassador's Parisian residence
• Bardo snapped her picture as she opened the back door of the limo as it entered the gates of her new Parisian residence (the photo was printed and posted on billboards), and sold it to the tabloids for distribution; meanwhile, Laure's two vengeful, double-crossed accomplices (including Racine and 'Black Tie' who was recently released from prison) saw the photo and joined together again to hunt and track her down (and the stolen diamonds)

Bardo's Tabloid Photograph of Laure (as Lily Watts) Returning to France, Now Married for Seven Years to US Ambassador to France Bruce Watts (Peter Coyote) - Posted on a Sidewalk's Billboard Column

• they first caught up with brunette Veronica (seen only from the waist down, wearing a skimpy camouflage outfit with short shorts and knee-high boots and carrying a large bag) who was reportedly "fencing diamonds"; they seized her outside of a cafe and killed her by throwing her under a passing truck (the same truck will resurface later); femme fatale Laure/Lily rightfully feared that her accomplices would recognize her from the tabloid photo posted throughout the city
• Laure/Lily schemed to have Bardo follow her, by conspicuously letting him see her bruised face (with a fake "shiner") as she stopped her car next to him - to make him think that her husband was beating her; she then proceeded to the second floor of a shady nightclub to purchase an illegal gun; as he pursued Laure/Lily, Bardo was unaware that he was being followed by the two accomplices and by head of security Shiff (Gregg Henry) working for Ambassador Watts
• Bardo followed Laure/Lily to Room 214 at the Hotel Sheraton, where after he tried to deceive her about looking for a lost computer disk in the room, they went out for coffee and she confessed to problems with her hot-tempered husband (the reason for purchasing a gun, possibly to commit suicide?) and her past life in Paris; Bardo admitted he was taking photos of her; after their return to the Paris hotel room, she manipulated and enticed him, first by non-chalantly stripping to her skimpy underwear: (he asked: "Are you flirting with me?" and she replied: "You're so damn lovable"); she also kissed him as the scene faded; and then, after sending him (in possession of her gun) on an errand in her car to a pharmacy, she phoned the police and set him up to be arrested as an armed car thief who had stolen her car
• Bardo was taken to a police station and questioned by Inspector Serra (Thierry Frémont) - the clock on the wall was stuck on 3:33 pm!; it looked bad for Bardo - he possessed Laure's/Lily's embassy car, gun, and her clothes, and she had disappeared from the room; [Note: before Laure/Lily checked out of the room, she knocked out room service waitress Nathalie (Laurence Martin), and stole her clothes.]
• Bardo was ultimately released when it was confirmed in person by Laure/Lily's husband Bruce that she hadn't disappeared or been kidnapped; however, when Bardo returned to his apartment, he realized that the female had stolen his keys to enter, and that his computer had been hacked and had been used by her to send an email (in his name) to Mr. Watts; she had successfully and vengefully framed Bardo for her own (staged) kidnapping-for-ransom plan, so that she could claim a ransom of $10 million (paid by her husband Bruce) at the Seine River's Passerelle Debilly Bridge at 2 am, and afterwards, again flee from Paris and acquire a new identity
• before the ransom exchange, the two met up at 10 am on the bridge, where Laure/Lily confessed to how bad she was: "I'm a bad girl, Nicolas. Real bad. Rotten to the heart. Last scrape I was in, I f--ked up a lot of people. Bad people. People like me. People that don't forget. But I was given a second chance"; she then went on to explain how after going to the US and marrying Watts, she was brought back to Paris where her life was now back in danger: ("Enter my worst nightmare. You snap that f--king picture, sell it to the tabloids. And now it's only a matter of time before those bad people come running"); she admitted setting up Bardo so that she could blame him for everything, and easily escape
• however, she also suggested having some fun with him for a few hours: ("We've got a couple hours, baby. Let's go do something fun, want to?"), and maybe split part of the take; she invited Bardo into joining her in a barroom full of men; she temptingly enticed him by asking: "Hey, how come you're the only man in this room that doesn't want to f--k me?"

Laure/Lily to Bardo: "Let's go do something fun"	"How come you're the only man in this room who doesn't want to f--k me?"
In a Basement Bar and Pool Room, Laure/Lily's Strip-Tease For Napoleon to Encite Bardo's Jealousy

• in the basement of the sleazy bar/pool-room, the 'bad girl' then performed a raunchy strip-teasing dance for a brawny man named Napoleon (Jo Prestia) to arouse Bardo's angry jealousy; when the second man wildly lunged at Laure reclined on the pool table, Bardo rose up to protect Laure by attacking the man; now, the tables were now turned and the scene played from Laure's perspective - she was entertained watching them fight over her: (their masculine fight was visualized by shadows on the wall)
• afterwards, Bardo took Laure from behind for vigorous love (she told him as she bent over: "You don't have to lick my ass...just f--k me"); after their passionate love-making on the pool table, Bardo tricked her by recording her admission of her treacherous guilt in the staging of the kidnapping-ransom plot to entrap him: (Laure: "I made everybody think you kidnapped me, so I could screw my husband out of 10 million bucks. That's what it's all about - me disappearing with 10 million bucks")
• at the kidnapping ransom-exchange locale at the Seine River's Passerelle Debilly Bridge during the planned rendezvous at 2 am, Laure's plot went sour when Bardo sabotaged the scheme by threatening to play the recording; now that the plan was aborted, Laure/Lily was forced to execute her husband Bruce (with the money in a briefcase) by shooting him in the heart (she mused: "Just being careful"), and then in a direct stand-off against Bardo, she wounded him (and then told him that she had supplied him with a gun loaded with fake bullets), and finished him off with a direct shot into his chest
• suddenly, she was attacked from behind by ex-accomplice 'Black Tie' ("F--king over everyone again, hmm, not this time!...Where are the diamonds?...Wake up, bitch, before you die!"), who threw her from the bridge into the cold waters of the Seine River - where she was shocked into reality -- the precognitive dream ended; revived by the icy-cold water, the completely-naked Laure 'awoke' from her dream (a nightmare vision of her future) in an overflowing bathtub at 3:33 pm!
• Laure's suicidal doppelganger Lily entered the apartment again, but this time, Laure (who was haunted by her dream) didn't hide behind a curtain; she warned Lily about killing herself with the gun: ("You know what's in this? The bullet that is gonna spread your brains all over that wall. You know how I know?"); as she held the gun at Lily, she gave her a second chance to change her future - and to escape from her own trapped fate:
  • "Look at me. I'm your f--king fairy godmother, and I just dreamt your future. And mine too. And all I know is, if there's a snowball's chance in hell of any of that s--t happening, we're gonna change it right here"

Laure's Challenge to Lily to Have "A Wonderful Life"

• she encouraged Lily to take the plane to America, and sit next to "good guy" Bruce Watts who would "fall in love" with her; Lily chose to have "a wonderful life."
• Lily immediately hitched a ride with a truck driver (Salvatore Ingoglia); on the way to the airport after the driver complimented her on her small, reflective glass-ball necklace, she gave him the seemingly-random object to remember the birthday of his 10 year-old daughter, and assured him: "When you're on the road, your little girl will always be with you"

Lily Wearing Glass Ball Necklace Before Giving It to Truck Driver

• seven years later, once again, paparazzo Bardo was again phoned about getting a picture of the new US Ambassador to France with his elusive three children and wife
• Bardo again photographed Laure at an outdoor cafe (across from his balcony-apartment) giving a $4 million share to camouflage-wearing Veronica (again revealed as Laure's partner/lover) after she had slowly fenced off the diamonds they had stolen together; Laure's and Veronica's theft of $10 million had succeeded, but Veronica advised Laure: "It's best we don't see each other again"
• after leaving the cafe, Veronica was again pursued on the street by the two double-crossed criminals (Racine and 'Black Tie' who had just been released from prison); from afar as she stood in front of a newly-posted billboard column (of Veronica wearing the serpentine garment at the Cannes Film Festival), Laure watched in horror as Veronica struggled against her captors; in flashback, Laure recalled how the two females had stolen the valuable bejeweled garment with a clever bait-and-switch tactic in the toilet stall
• this time, the crooks lost their lives when a truck driver (driving in the same truck that had killed Veronica in Laure's dream) veered into them (not Veronica) and impaled them on the truck's spiked rear loading gate; Lily's glass-ball necklace that the driver had given to his 10 year-old daughter (who returned it to her father after growing older) was swinging from his rear-view mirror; it literally blinded him momentarily due to a rare flash of sunlight (the cloudy grey skies cleared for a split second) reflecting from Laure's shiny briefcase (with her share of the cash) into the piece of jewelry

Photographer Bardo: 7 Years Later Taking Pictures at Outdoor Cafe - Split-Screen Technique

Laure Watching in Fear As Veronica Was Being Attacked by 'Black Tie' and Racine on the Street

• after witnessing the accident, Bardo assisted a shaken-up Laure (who had been knocked down by pedestrians, and had soiled her white outfit - with a black bra underneath), and then he asked a deja vu question: "You look so familiar. Haven't we met before, somewhere?" - she replied cleverly and honestly: "Only in my dreams" [Note: This last line echoed the final sentence of dialogue in the first detective noir The Maltese Falcon (1941): "The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of."]
• the background image during the final credits was a composite panoramic shot of the Parisian district (the street corner with a cafe and church) - illustrating how the full picture was created with a collection of fragmented photos (resembling puzzle pieces); the fragmented (and reconstructed and collaged) wall mural was earlier seen in Bardo's apartment, an attempted piece of artwork composed of the many B/W and color photos he had taken from his vantage point over the weeks and years (from the past and present, almost timeless)