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Article: Dream project: the name of the game is deja vu in Femme Fatale: Brian De Palma's best film in 20 years.
- Article from:
- Film Comment
- Article date:
- November 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Film Society of Lincoln Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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There are two constants in the movie universe of Brian De Palma: nothing is ever as it seems and someone is always watching.
His new film begins with someone watching Barbara Stanwyck, the prototypical noir femme fatale, shoot Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity. The camera then eases back from the TV screen to reveal Femme Fatale's titular protagonist stretched out naked on a luxurious hotel room bed, studying her ancestor's moves. She'll soon play a variation of Stanwyck's Phyllis as part of a jewelry heist, during a movie premiere inside the Cannes Film Festival Palais (in a sequence staged by De Palma with his trademark parallel action panache and parodic ...