femme fatal
/, fam fe 'ta:l/
noun
an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately cause distress to a man who becomes involved with her.
"a femme fatale who plays one man off against another in pursuit of money"
The femme fatale or the "deadly woman" is a woman who exploits the weakness of men to her own advantage. These characters are sexy, mysterious, double-crossing and dangerous. They are the most dangerous characters in a noir film. She would wear revealing clothes like mini dresses which show a lot of leg and thigh, things a man would stare at. The camera would usually view them from a low angle - emphasizing their superiority to the male who is looking up at her. The camera would also pan down to her legs as it would be something that would grab the male protagonists attention.
Men of film noir would usually drink, smoke and womanise - basically be big losers. Their negative sides show more than their hero/positive side - 'lost heroes'. The male protagonist would also be involved in 'guilty or not guilty' story concepts - which could lead to bad endings where the protagonist is proven guilty, loses the woman he loves or even ends up dead. Film noir is a category of film which would not always end in a happy ending.
Men of film noir would usually drink, smoke and womanise - basically be big losers. Their negative sides show more than their hero/positive side - 'lost heroes'. The male protagonist would also be involved in 'guilty or not guilty' story concepts - which could lead to bad endings where the protagonist is proven guilty, loses the woman he loves or even ends up dead. Film noir is a category of film which would not always end in a happy ending.
The male protagonist often meets an enticing, beautiful femme fatale that lures him into a dangerous situation. The environments they usually work and live in are dark and scary cities, often suppressed by dehumanizing surroundings. Dehumanizing surroundings were inspired by the result of World War Two; dark dull shadowy places. Writers of scripts and film noir's experienced the horrors of World War Two and were very pessimistic (saw the darkness of life). They imported tragedy and darkness into these films. Hard boiled film noir's include tough detectives, cheap crooks and a lot of violence.