MovieChat Forums > Femme Fatale (2002) Discussion > It tries hard to be...

It tries hard to be...

posted 2 years ago by Kalyber (61)
1 reply | jump to latest

...Bitter Moon.

Parisian setting and an overall very European feel, with a calculating hot lady seducing man (and woman?) left and right, in an erotic mystery-thriller with twists, and with Peter Coyote. :)

Though it fails to succeed, in my opinion. I liked it back then when I was around 17, and I still like it somewhat, partially, but as an overall story doesn't work for me. Spoilers: The magical doppelgänger and the "it was all a dream" twist throws an otherwise decent mystery out of the window. Also there were no real emotions involved. No chemistry between Romijn and Banderas, not to mention Coyote. While in Bitter Moon, even though the story was a complete mindfuck, it works on a deeply emotional level, and the story crawls under your skin, to make you think of it for days (and more).

I can't help to suspect De Palma loved Polanski's movie, and for that I totally don't blame him.

De Palma and Polanski both followed Hitchcockian paths. Polanski notably did it in Frantic, his previous movie before Bitter Moon. De Palma did it in the 70's more. So, it's kind of a... circle, I guess. :)

Anyway I love Frantic, and I love Bitter', and I appreciate the try with Femme'. Do you have any other movies in mind that you might add to this row?

PS: I loved the music in all three movies. From three masters: Morricone, Vangelis and Sakamoto all of them left this world in the past three years.

[–] Seperatrix (1225) 2 years ago

I'm similar to you in that I don't enjoy this film as much as I did years ago upon first viewing. Though I still like it -- just not as much.

While the "it was all a dream" approach can work for a film, here it falls a tad flat for my taste. Even though I think I read that De Palma did explain that most of the film was a dream, I prefer to ignore that explanation and think of it as a bardo journey.

The Deja Vu, the intervals of 7 years, the time of 3:33 stuck-on-the-clock, that triangular shaped reflection at the end of the film, that child in the photo with a gleaming stone, the full water baptism -- not once but twice . . . . I like to think someone is trying to get through to her, help her along, help her get somewhere.

I'll have to check out Bitter Moon. In the meantime, if you like noir, you might want to check out Mulholland Drive if you haven't already.