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- Phyllis Dietrichson - Double Indemnity. Femme fatales generally fall into two categories as far as looks go. You'll see those with black hair and black outfits (what you would typically expect from the black widow type), or the icy blond who wears white (see: "Body Heat" and "Basic Instinct").
- Ellen Berent Harland - Leave Her to Heaven. In terms of the brunette leading ladies of the '40s, the two most beautiful were probably Ava Gardner and Gene Tierney, and both effectively weaponized their beauty as femme fatales.
- Veda Pierce - Mildred Pierce. The two youngest femme fatales on this list — the teenage Veda and Kathryn in "Cruel Intentions" — are arguably the evilest.
- Kitty Collins - The Killers. Many of the best noirs are adaptations of equally brilliant books, and 1946's "The Killers" is no exception. The movie is based on a story by Ernest Hemingway, and was one of the few adaptations that he didn't despise.
- EW Staff
- Catherine Tramell, Basic Instinct (Sharon Stone) A male fantasy transformed into a nightmare: a bisexual nymphomaniac who might sleep with or kill you, played by Sharon Stone.
- Suzanne Stone Maretto, To Die For (Nicole Kidman) Blind ambition meets blonde ambition. Suzanne (Nicole Kidman) wants fame at any cost—and she's just delusional enough to get it.
- Claire Underwood, House of Cards (Robin Wright) Behind every great man, there's a great woman (Robin Wright). And behind every Machiavellian power-monger politician, there's a partner just as nefarious.
- Bridget Gregory, The Last Seduction (Linda Fiorentino) Beware of a woman in trouble. Manipulative and brilliant, Bridget (Linda Fiorentino) is a big New York City fish in a small-town pond.
- 10 The Last Seduction (1994) - Bridget Gregory
- 9 Basic Instinct (1992) - Catherine Trammell
- 8 Body of Evidence (1993) - Rebecca Carlson
- 7 Disclosure (1994) - Meredith Johnson
- 6 Fatal Attraction (1987) - Alex Forrest
- 5 to Die For (1995) - Suzanne Stone-Maretto
- 4 Batman Returns (1992) - Selina Kyle
- 3 Wild Things (1998) - Suzie Toller
- 2 Chloe (2009) - Chloe Sweeney
- 1 Dream Lover (1993) - Lena Mathers
Several webs of intrigue and falsehood are woven during our fall down the rabbit hole that is The Last Seduction. Linda Fiorentino's character Bridget is the ever cunning, master manipulator in this tale of drugs, money, and murder. She sociopathically ruins the lives of not just one, but two men on her crash course toward the ultimate payout and h...
The infamous leg-crossing scene. Even if you've never seen Basic Instinct,you cannot have escaped its indelible imprint on pop culture. Sharon Stone is electrifying as the central character, novelist Catherine Trammell, who is possibly being framed for a murder that mirrors one depicted in her book. She is intentionally confusing from the beginning...
Body of Evidence's Rebecca Carlson, played by none other than Madonna, can be likened to a praying mantis. She engages men for sex, lures them to into giving her what she wants, and then disposes of them. The film starts with Rebecca on trial for the death of her most recent lover, Andrew Marsh, who has left her a hefty sum of money. She is accused...
1994’s Disclosure saw Demi Moore as Meredith Johnson bringing a high-heeled, skirt wearing Beelzebub to the boardroom. During a substantial merger between tech companies, where the main characters are employed, Meredith is reacquainted with Tom Sanders (played by Michael Douglas), who is in fact an ex-boyfriend from yesteryear. In a gender role rev...
After an affair with a married man gets called off cold, Fatal Attraction's Alex Forrest seems determined to prove the line from pop culture, “You think I’m crazy? I got your crazy.” to be her own personal slogan. In terms of completely unhinged, this woman goes entirely off the deep end to ruinous ends. The story starts out torridly enough, with G...
Aspiring news anchor Suzanne Stone-Maretto, played by Nicole Kidman, is in constant pursuit of "more". She takes a job at the local news station as an assistant and finally harangues the higher-ups into letting her on air to do the evening weather report. To Die For is the story of how a weather girl with an inflated sense of self-importance finds ...
Tim Burton’s 1992 Batman Returnswas not intended to be specifically a femme fatale film. It is, naturally, centered on the dark hero and his efforts to save Gotham from imploding on itself. However, no list of this nature would complete without mentioning the indomitable performance given by one Ms. Michelle Pfeiffer in her turn donning the patent ...
If for nothing else than the satisfying twist this gratuitous titillation of a film has to offer, Wild Thingsis a must-see for those who enjoy an artfully done double-cross with a surprise you may not see coming. Here we have wrong side of the tracks Suzie Toller, portrayed here by 90s darling Neve Campbell, who, when we first meet her, appears to ...
Based on the 2003 French film Nathalie..., Amanda Seyfried as Chloedelivers a tender, more vulnerable version of this brand of screen siren than what is listed herein. She leans into a gentle needing that encourages Julianne Moore’s protagonist Dr. Catherine Stewart, as well as the audience itself, to care for her and want to make sure she’s taken ...
Dream Lover's Lena Mathers, portrayed so incredibly artfully by Mädchen Amick, may be the biggest surprise on the list. We are first introduced to her as an antagonized party goer who has the misfortune of finding herself drenched with wine at the hands of our leading man, James Spader's Ray Reardon. We watch her, perhaps a little too quickly (audi...
- Lead List Editor & Writer
- Amy Dunne - 'Gone Girl' (2014) Is Gone Girl a noir? Not quite. It's a psychological thriller with noir undertones. However, Amy Dunne, superbly played by Rosamund Pike, is an unforgettable femme fatale.
- Phyllis Dietrichson - 'Double Indemnity' (1944) Arguably cinema's most famous and recognizable femme fatale, Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson is also one of the medium's most celebrated villains.
- Catherine Tramell - 'Basic Instinct' (1992) Film noir evolved into the so-called neo-noir revival of post-70s cinema. The late 80s and 90s provided some of the best examples of neo-noir, with Paul Verhoeven's 1992 erotic thriller Basic Instinct acting as one of the best and most widely-known examples.
- Jane Palmer - 'Too Late for Tears' (1949) Too Late for Tears stars Lizabeth Scott as one of cinema's ultimate femme fatales, the (almost) infallible Jane Palmer.
The 10 Best Femme Fatale Films to Watch After ‘Hit Man’. Femme fatales have been around for a long time and continue to be an indelible figure in cinematic history, including in the upcoming...
45 titles. Sort by List order. 1. Casino Royale. 2006 2h 24m PG-13. 8.0 (697K) Rate. 80 Metascore. After earning a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, in Montenegro.
Aug 5, 2022 · Whatever the case, the film industry has taken the Femme fatale archetype and ran miles with it—so here are some of the greatest iterations of this character that have ever graced our screens!
