Turning the Spotlight on the Homme Fatal

Abstract

Having established the cinematic history of the homme fatal in American film from the classic era through to the 1990s, this chapter provides a textual analysis of the figure as he appears in neo-noir from the turn of the millennium on, focusing on the films Taking Lives, Mr Brooks, and In the Cut (adapted from Susanna Moore’s 1995 novel of the same name), as well as The Killer Inside Me. In the context that the femme and fille fatale are symbolic of patriarchal fears about feminism, the aim of this chapter is to determine what anxieties the post-2000 male incarnation of the character gives expression to and how he fits with dominant postfeminist discourse.