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Femme Fatale
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (17th October 2004). |
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The Film
 After a two year hiatus from his previous film (Mission to Mars) Brian De Palma had come back in 2002 with a sexy thriller about a jewellery heist at the Cannes Film Festival gone wrong. Since 1993 filmgoers and critics haven't responded positively to his films. Both "Snake Eyes" and "Mission to Mars" flopped. The last hits he had was "Carlito's Way" and "Mission Impossible" and after his recent failures De Palma took time off and after attending the Cannes Film Festival got the idea for this film. Taking influence from film noir and injecting his own unique vision, De Palma set out to make the ultimate exercise in style and deception. Whether he achieved it is entirely up to the viewer, as the film managed to split audiences right down the middle. Some called it a waste of time, while others praised it as a work of genius. Femme Fatale is a contemporary film noir about an alluring seductress Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) who is part of a team set up to execute an elaborate jewellery heist, but when she double-crosses her team she finds herself suddenly exposed to the world and her enemies by a voyeuristic photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) who becomes ensnared in her surreal quest for revenge. The film is paced gradually and slowly with the occasional edge-of-your-seat scene throughout until it culminates in a twist ending that seems a little over-the-top, there's no point in going into any detail about the end as it will no doubt spoil it for those that haven't seen it. The real question however is this is a good film? Personally I enjoyed it all the way through, De Palma has created a very surreal Hitchcockian film that delivers on the drama, suspense and intrigues the viewer to keep following the characters until the end, It's very much an American film with a European sensibility about it, additionally Banderas is perfectly cast as the sly photographer and there is an amazing electricity to the scenes he shares with Romijn-Stamos, who aside from the erotic elements delivers a fine performance quite possibly her best dramatic performance of her career. Technically the film is a visual achievement, the photography by French cinematographer Thierry Arbogast is stunning to say the least, vivid colours and moody lighting using a lot of shadow detail lends itself comfortably to the tone of the film and Ryuichi Sakamoto's musical score compliments the images we see. Like it or hate it, Femme Fatale is certainly a return to De Palmaâ's better days, for those that haven't seen it and enjoy movies from the film noir genre or Hitchcock films then I'd recommend you give this disc a spin. The DVD: Despite the fact that the packaging states this DVD as being Region 4 encoded it is in fact dual encoded for Region 2 as well.
Video
Presented in the widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer is nothing short of magnificent. The image is amazingly sharp, foreground and background feature an astonishing amount of detail, skin tones are spot on and more importantly blacks are bold and show no signs of low-level noise and shadow detail is near perfect, just check out any scene that takes place at night, or better yet the bar scene near the end, the transfer comes out looking pristine. Additionally colours are bold and well defined, especially since the colour palate is important to the story. I found no evidence of bleeding in fact I could only detect one minor fault and that was some minor edge-enhancement, which although was annoying to the average DVD viewer this would not pose a serious problem. If it weren't for the edge-enhancement this would be a perfect transfer.
Audio
Warner Brothers have only included a single audio track in English Dolby Digital 5.1, although the film does include some French dialogue (which is subtitled with burned-in English subtitles, although player generated would have been preferable). This soundtrack compliments the wonderful transfer, this dynamic 5.1 mix is a stunner to say the least. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, sync is spot on, and most notably the surrounds are utilized well with adequate separation of the score mixed with precise range, as are the sound effects and ever-present atmospheric surrounds that immerse the viewer right into the film. I could not find any fault with this soundtrack, this is certainly one of the better Dolby Digital tracks out there, and the only thing that could possibly excel this surround experience would be a full bit-rate DTS track. Aside from the burned-in subtitles for the French speaking parts the film also includes optional subtitles in English, English for the hearing impaired, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Extras
WARNING: Do not view the featurettes before you see the film as it spoils the surprise ending. Warner Brothers have included a series of 4 featurettes and two trailers on this disc. Below is a closer look at the extras The first featurette entitled "Visualising Femme Fatale" is an 11 minute 24 second piece that features interviews from key players, notably De Palma and his interest in the film noir genre and how that played an influence in making this film, De Palma also discusses aspects of the plot. The second featurette entitled "Femme Fatale: An Appreciation" is a 23 minute 44 second piece that looks at the production of this film, De Palma's influences, how he got the idea to make this film and also gives away key plot and story elements and explains them in-depth. We also have a look at some visual clues throughout the film that help explain the ending. The third, and shortest featurette is "Femme Fatale: Dressed to Kill" this 1 minute 50 second piece is not really a featurette but rather a series of publicity photos and clips of the movie edited together with some music from the score. Aside from that, this featurette has nothing of interest what so ever. The last featurette is a "Behind-the-Scenes" a fluff piece that runs for 4 minutes 41 seconds and is a standard EPK featurette with minor sound bites from the director and cast integrated with clips from the film. Additionally we also have 2 trailers, the first a theatrical trailer, and the second a unique "French" theatrical trailer, arguably the better of the two.
Overall
This film will split audiences right down the middle, while some find it a waste of time others will look at it as an exercise in style and deception, a film noir for the modern day. If you haven't already seen it, I would certainly recommend a rental prior to purchase with this release. Warner Brother has included a near perfect transfer with an amazing 5.1 surround mix. It's fair to say that technically this disc shines, however it's the extras that unfortunately leave a lot to be desired. Aside from the featurettes an in-depth "Making-of" documentary would have been a welcomed addition, especially for a film of this kind where the visual style is distinct. Although a commentary is also a desirable supplement, it is known that De Palma does not record them, which is a shame.
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