Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I’m sorry. Somehow, this got lost in the inbox. Good review, too, so better late than never.
Harry,
I was able to slip into the August 13th screening of the new Brian De Palma film, "Femme Fatale" at the Pacific Paseo theater complex in old-town Pasadena, CA. I was particularly intrigued to see this film, as Brian De Palma is one of my favorite directors, and especially wanted to see what he was up to while "exiled" in France.
De Palma was a major catalyst in my decision to pursue filmmaking years ago. From his hypnotic, creeping camerawork and audacious style in films like "Sisters", "Blow Out", and "Obsession", to being jolted out of my seat at the end of "Dressed to Kill' and "Carrie", I was captivated, enthralled and utterly in love with his work. Unfortunately these films are all twenty years old now, and most of his work since then has seemed sub-par, with "Scarface", "The Untouchables", and "Mission: Impossible" the only exceptions to what "once was". So I went into this screening filled with anticipation and trepidation, wondering which De Palma would show up. Like cheering a struggling Little Leaguer who steps up to the plate, I SO WANTED to love this film, to be reminded why I loved this guy's earlier films. I wanted him to hit this out of the park so badly.
The story (which De Palma also wrote) features Rebecca Romijn-Stamos who is part of a gang of jewel thieves who pull off a heist during a screening at the Cannes Film Festival. The "Mission: Impossible"- style heist which opens the film is quite brilliant. Very similar in style to the "museum" sequence from "Dressed To Kill", this nearly 15 minute sequence contains hardly any dialogue, but by cutting back and forth between our main characters as they all plot together to pull off the heist, it builds tension, suspense and even delivers pure unabashed sex in the De Palma grand fashion. It is the film's only truly great sequence, and it left me believing that Brian was truly back. So far so good. But my optimism was soon dashed.
The plot (which truly defies explanation) in a nutshell is Stamosos pulls a double cross on her cohorts, who then plan their revenge to get her. She is able to "hide out" with a French family who mistake her for their missing distraught daughter whose husband and daughter were recently killed (Stamos also plays this role in a blantant "Vertico" homage). She has her photo randomy taken by a papararazzi played by Antonio Banderas before she flees to American to "start over". While on the plane she meets a wealthy American business man, played by Peter Coyote who says he's moving to Washington, D.C. Sparks fly and then after a title card comes up, reading "SEVEN YEARS LATER", Stamos returns back to France, now as his wife, as Coyote is now the U.S. ambassador to France. Banderas is hired by a tabloid to take a picture of the ambassador's wife for publication. He is sucessful and soon her image is all over town, thus signaling! her return to France for her former cohorts in crime, who are back in fast pursuit. Rest of picture has Banderas (who gets sucked further into her trap by feeling guilty for his sin) and Stamos trying to stay a step ahead of the men trying to kill her, while she plots double cross after double cross.
"Femme Fatale" is almost a De Palma career "sampler"; it's as if he took the highlights from all his work and tried to replicate them: the wire-tap sequences are straight out of "Blow Out" and "Bonfire of the Vanities"; the tons (and tons) of split-screen shots are reminiscent of "Sisters"; Stamos seems to wear the same white emsemble which Angie Dickinson did in "Dressed to Kill"; all the video monitor interplay feels lifted right out of "Snake Eyes"; Banderas is channeling Craig Wasson from "Body Double" for most of the picture by following Stamos around, and even Gregg Henry seems to be playing the same, sleezy character from the same film; in fact the sex scenes also reminded me of "Body Double" - only instead of Melanie Griffith, we now get Stamos, who admittedly is rather yummy.
Speaking of the sex, we do get a helpin'-heapin' dose of it. Stamos offers a full frontal shot (albeit under water) and has lots of other scantily clad sequences. There is tons of lesbo action as she also gets it on with another gorgeus woman and of course, eventually Banderas. As much as I enjoy her flesh, many of the sex scenes tended to drag on and on, which granted isn't a bad thing but then again a little more substance would have been welcome.
The downfall of the film is the pure logic of the story which becomes increasigly ludicrous, so much much of the test audience was either audibly groaning or laughing at the screen. The end of the film is like a bizarre "Run Lola Run" experiment which needs to be viewed to be believed how jaw-droppingly bad it is. Stamos isn't bad at all (her French is actually quite decent - but be prepared to sit through at least one hour of French subtitles too) but she isn't as "wicked" as say Sharon Stone was in "Basic Instinct", clearly the model for her character. She is way too sunny California, not the deep dark evil of say Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction". Banderas is surprisingly quite funny at times, as De Palma does manage to inject a lot of black humor throughout.
The marketing folks at Warner's will have their hands quite full, as this film is way off the mark for audiences expecting "Basic Instinct" or even "Heist", and way too ridiculous for the art house crowd to take seriously. Plus they may need to make some trims just to get an "R" rating. This is soley for De Palma fans, who like myself, will be nostalgic for the good ol' days of Brian De Palma.
- Jake Scully
Well, even though I thought the script was weak, I know I’ll be there as soon as possible. I admit a total and complete blind spot when it comes to De Palma. I love his work unabashedly, and even his softest films have things that I admire in them.
Which is my way of saying... hurry up!
"Moriarty" out.
