Abstract
Cherchez la femme! the age-old French adage that unambiguously singles out Woman as the underlying cause of man’s woes. Whenever there is trouble, particularly whenever a serious crime is committed, in order to find the cause or reason or culprit: look for the woman! Emblematic of the noir attitude to the (often darker) fairer sex, the phrase, Cherchez la femme, sees in every woman, a potential femme fatale.1
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Notes
The adage is explicitly evoked in aaa Melville’s Deux hommes à Manhattan (1959) and reprised in Polanski’s neo-noir classic, Chinatown (1974).
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© 2009 Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker
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Walker, D. (2009). Fatal(e) Crossings: Figures of the Feminine in French and American Film Noir. In: French and American Noir. Crime Files Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244825_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244825_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-35865-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-24482-5
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