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"YOU ARE A RETROSPECTIVE SOUL"
The most misunderstood of all the Soul signs.
Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are.
You are Intense and desire Perfection in every facet of your life.
You're best described as extremely Idealistic, Hardworking, and a Survivor.
Great moments of Insight and Sensitivity come to you easily.
But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes.
For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present.
You will suceed once you overcome the disappointments in life.
Souls you are most compatible with :
'TRAVELER SOUL and PROPHET SOUL'

P rofound
A rty
N utty
B ashful
E xciting
L ovable
L ittle
O rderly

"In the Beginning was the Word..."

[John 1:1]

Hello there, folks!! ;-)

My name is Panbello (L-J.) -- nicknamed: Saul A.-- but I usually go by the 'nom de plume' Panbello. I am a freelance publicist-journalist, poet and copywriter. I am here -- and there! -- looking to meet other multiracial people.
www.FIJ.org
Since 2004 I'm co-founder & owner of PANBELL® Projects, Ltd. ('Nomen est Omen', they say! LOL). My move into writing came from my desire to work from home (or anywhere else in the world) and because of my dabblings in writing during my school years (hehee).
My dear associate and companion, B-Alec L., and I are about to start and set up our NEW website ( www.panbello.com ), dedicated to 'Film Noir and the Femme Fatale', 'the Brill Building Sound', 'Burlesque' and 'Tin Pan Alley'; and we will also organize a successful monthly Poetry Evening at a bar/restaurant in our local town. This is a great get-together, and also achieves one of our aims; that of bringing live Poetry to people who might not otherwise listen to it. The participation and support has been fantastic, to date.
I love the silence... I love the silence of the moon. I became enamored early in the school of Poetry when one of my teachers read me some passages from "Une Saison en Enfer" ('A Season in Hell') by the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), and 'Les Fleurs du Mal' by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), 'le poète maudit'.
I admit I'm a CYNIC. I have had a few amorous adventures which, whether happy or not, left their marks on my many poems.
I look for consolation and hope as I wander in the fragrant woods lamenting the extinction of hope yet keeps hoping. Perhaps when life denies me its blessings, there may still be a soul out there that will find mine, a drop of honey in the bittersweet cup of life I have been drinking from. The fallen flower renders its fragrance as its parting message but my romantic soul will not fade without embellishing the world with the sad and melodious sound of my last breath.
Currently I am actively looking for a suitable U.S. publisher for two hard-boiled crime novels and one screenplay! Some of my articles and essays were already published in magazines like the 'JVL', 'Contact-J', 'BIW', 'Focus'; as well as the online 'Wikipedia'.
I love writing, I love the whole exercise, from staring at the blank screen to ending up with something that (sometimes!) has potential.
In my writings, the yearning is everywhere: strong, vulnerable, and vital. The yearning never really goes away, I'll just go on doing this beautiful thing.
Call it 'PASSION', I'm a dreamer. It's the truth of my life. I believe in, and are concerned with the pursuit of the TRUTH and other human values.
And like someone once told me:

"The three D's are very true in life :
Dedication, Determination and Discipline!"

Shalom u'vracha!
Discover the Hidden Meaning in Your Name! SAUL

'Called by God'

(Hebrew)

"A strong leader with a powerful influence and executive ability you exude Determination, Discipline and Effort.
Financial success is very likely because of this. People follow you because you are Inspirational and Original yet still Realistic.
Your Ambition, Courage and Drive means that you rarely give up on a goal and with your sound judgement, Organisational skills and Resourcefulness you are able to accomplish anything".

"The only thing worse
than losing your mind...
is finding it again!!"

Off the record : I admit... I'm a polyglot haha (English, French, German, some Yiddish, Spanish & Dutch), luckily born and raised in Europe, into a liberal middle-class family (*sigh*); And I have 5 siblings : three younger brothers and two ditto sisters...
PANBELLO.COM
'A Tribute to 'FILM NOIR and the FEMME FATALE', the BRILL BUILDING Sound and the Golden Age of TIN PAN ALLEY'.
FILM NOIR is one of two film genres (along with Westerns) invented and perfected solely in the U.S.A.. It was not initially intended as a formal genre, but between 1941 and 1958 , a large percentage of American films including some of the very best shared the characteristics of what later became known as FILM NOIR.
There were flawed protagonists, alluring FEMMES FATALES , hard-bitten dialogue, high contrast cinematography, and street scenes filmed at night.
At the heart of FILM NOIR was an attempt to subvert conventional Hollywood standards of plot (happy endings), character (morally upright heroes), and narrative structure (chronological storytelling).
By rejecting those standards, the filmmakers were by extension rejecting the values of postwar urban America, portraying that society as hypocritical and hopelessly corrupt. In so doing, they created a uniquely American genre whose films are still powerful today.
Here, then, are 25 films which best embody the characteristics of FILM NOIR :

1 . "DOUBLE INDEMNITY" -
Directed by Billy WILDER (1944); Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson.

2 . "THE MALTESE FALCON" -
Directed by John Huston (1941); Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet.

3 . "THE BIG SLEEP" -
Directed by Howard Hawks (1946); Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall.

4 . "SUNSET BOULEVARD" -
Directed by Billy WILDER (1950); Starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden.

5. "OUT OF THE PAST" -
Directed by Jacques Tourneur (1947); Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas.

6 . "THE KILLING" -
Directed by Stanley KUBRICK (1956); Starring Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray.

7 . "IN A LONELY PLACE" -
Directed by Nicholas Ray (1950); Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame.

8 . "LAURA" -
Directed by Otto L. PREMINGER (1944); Starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price.

9 . "THE ASPHALT JUNGLE" -
Directed by John Huston (1950); Starring Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern.

10 . "THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE" -
Directed by Tay Garnett (1946); Starring Lana Turner, John Garfield.

11. "THE SET-UP" -
Directed by Robert WISE (1949); Starring Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter.

12. "THE KILLERS" -
Directed by Robert SIODMAK (1946); Starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond OBrien.

13. "CROSSFIRE" -
Directed by Edward Dmytryk (1947); Starring Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum, Robert Young.

14. "THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW" -
Directed by Fritz LANG (1944); Starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea.

15 . "THE THIRD MAN" -
Directed by Sir Carol Reed (1949); Starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten

16. "THE BIG STEAL" -
Directed by Don SIEGEL (1949); Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Ramon Novarro.

17 . "KISS ME DEADLY" -
Directed by Robert Aldrich (1955); Starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Cloris Leachman.

18. "DETOUR" -
Directed by Edgar G. ULMER (1945); Starring Tom Neal, Ann Savage.

19. "MILDRED PIERCE" -
Directed by Michael CURTIZ (1945); Starring Joan Crawford, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth.

20. "D.O.A." -
Directed by Rudolph Mate (1950); Starring Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton.

21 . "PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET" -
Directed by Sam FULLER (1953); Starring Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter.

22. "PANIC IN THE STREETS" -
Directed by Elia Kazan (1950); Starring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes.

23. "THE HITCH-HIKER" -
Directed by Ida Lupino (1953); Starring Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy.

24. "RIDE THE PINK HORSE" -
Directed by Robert Montgomery (1947); Starring Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix.

25 . "MURDER, MY SWEET" -
Directed by Edward Dmytryk (1944); Starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley.

(Copyright Saul Akkemay @ Panbello Projects)

What is ?? (Film Noir for Dummies... by Saul A.)
FILM NOIR is a sub-genre of crime films that developed in the United States during World War II that featured people acting out of desparation in a bleak and morally ambiguous world. They were made in black and white, and had a dark, high-contrast, Expressionistic visual style.
FILM NOIR is primarily based on the hard-boiled crime fiction of the 1930's (many Film Noirs were adaptations of those novels) and the dark gangster films of the 1930's.
FILM NOIR is French for "black film", and is pronounced accordingly ("film nwahr"): the plural is: Film Noirs.
HISTORY
The term FILM NOIR is often attributed to French film critic Nino FRANK. Prior use of the term has been cited to the French writing team Thomas Narcejac and Pierre Boileau whose novels were adapted into films: 'D'Entre les Morts/From Among the Dead' became Sir Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958); 'Celle qui n'tait plus/She Who Was No More' became "Les Diaboliques" (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955).
Ultimately, the term derived from the name of a long-running series of hard-boiled detective fiction books entitled Série Noire, from the French pattern of naming a series of books after the color of their bindings.
PRECURSORS
The aesthetics of FILM NOIR are heavily influenced by German Expressionism (like Fritz LANG's "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Morder", 1931).
When Adolf Hitler took over Germany, many important ( Jewish ) film artists were forced to emigrate (among them were Fritz LANG, Billy WILDER, John BRAHM, Robert SIODMAK, Edgar G. ULMER, Otto L. PREMINGER, and many others). They took with them techniques they developed (most importantly the dramatic lighting and the subjective, psychological point of view) and made some of the most famous FILM NOIRS.
(Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in "Double Indemnity", 1944)
Concurrent with the development of German Expressionism were expressionistic gangster films in America in the 1930's, such as "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (dir. Mervyn LeROY, 1932) and "Scarface" (Howard Hawks, 1932).
Another important influence came from Italian neorealism. Many Film Noirs adopted a neorealist approach of using on-location photography with non-professional extras. Additionally, some Film Noirs strove to depict comparatively ordinary or downtrodden people with unspectacular lives in a manner similar to neorealist films, such as "The Lost Weekend" (dir. Billy WILDER, 1945) and "In a Lonely Place" (Nicholas Ray, 1950).
The main literary influence on FILM NOIR came from books by the 'Black Mask' Magazine writers Dashiell Hammett ("The Maltese Falcon") and Raymond Chandler. "Murder My Sweet" (dir. Edward Dmytryk, 1944), based on Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely" and "The Big Sleep" (Howard Hawks, 1946) became among the most famous Film Noirs.

CLASSIC FILM NOIR

Most experts regard "The Maltese Falcon" (dir. John Huston, 1941) to be the first true FILM NOIR and "Touch of Evil" (Orson Welles, 1958) to be the last. Many of these films were low-budget supporting features without major stars, in which 'moonlighting' writers, directors and technicians, some of them Blacklisted, found themselves relatively free from big-picture restraints.
Many of the most popular examples of FILM NOIR center upon a woman of questionable virtue and are also known as bad girl movies. Major studio feature films demanded a wholesome, positive message. Weak and morally ambiguous lead characters were ruled out by the "star system", and secondary characters were seldom allowed any depth or autonomy.
(Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in "The Lady From Shanghai", 1948)
In "A"-films, flattering soft lighting, deluxe interiors and elaborately-built exterior sets were the rule of the day. NOIR turned all this on its head, creating bleak but intelligent dramas tinged with nihilism and cynicism, in real-life urban settings, and using unsettling techniques such as the confessional voice-over or hero's-eye-view camerawork. Gradually the Noir style re-influenced the mainstream it had subverted.
(A still from "The Big Combo", 1955, an extreme example of FILM NOIR visual style)
FILM NOIR OUTSIDE OF THE U.S.
While many consider FILM NOIR to be a strictly American phenomenon, there have been a number of films made outside of the U.S. that have, from time to time, been considered FILM NOIR.
(Lauren BACALL and Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep", 1946)
Director Jules DASSIN [1911-2008] moved to France in the early 1950's as a result of the Hollywood Blacklist and made one of the most famous 'French Film Noir', "Du Rififi Chez les Hommes/Rififi" (1955). Other well-known French films sometimes considered to be Noir include "Touchez pas au Grisbi" (1954), "Les Diaboliques" (1955) and "Quai des Orfèvres" (1947).
Additionally, the British director Sir Carol Reed made "The Third Man" (1949), which is often considered a Noir Film. It is set in Vienna immediately after the war, with the collaboration of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, both prominent American FILM NOIR actors.
Certainly neo-Noir has not been limited to the United States.

The popularity and influence of FILM NOIR has expanded all over the world, and neo-Noir Films have been made in most countries with a prominent film industry. These include: "Insomnia" (Norway), "Alphaville" (France), "Der Amerikanische Freund/The American Friend" (Germany), "High and Low" (Japan), and "Blind Shaft" (China).
NEO-NOIR AND THE INFLURENCE OF FILM NOIR
In the 1960's American filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah, Arthur PENN and Robert Altman created genre films that broke the strict format of the genre's rule to convey social and political messages.
In "The Long Goodbye" (1973) Altman's hard-boiled detective is presented as a hapless bungler who can't help but lose the "moral battle". While not a direct descendant or derivative, the 'Spaghetti Westerns' of Italian director Sergio Leone incorporated the moral ambiguity and gritty characterizations of FILM NOIR, reviving the moribund genre of the American Western.
The genre has been parodied (both ruthlessly and affectionately) on many occasions, the most notable examples being Steve Martin's black-and-white "cut and paste" homage "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (dir. Carl REINER, 1982), and Woody ALLEN's "Play It Again, Sam" (1972).
Many of Joel and Ethan COEN's films are excellent examples of modern films influenced by the FILM NOIR genre - especially "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001), the comedy "The Big Lebowski" (1998), whose title recalls "The Big Sleep", and "Blood Simple" (1984), the title of which was lifted from the Dashiell Hammett story 'Red Harvest'.
The cynical, pessimistic worldview of Noirs strongly influenced the creators of the cyberpunk genre of SciFi in the early 1980's. "Blade Runner" (dir. Sir Ridley Scott, 1982) is among the most popular films coming from this era. Characters in these films are derived from 1930's gangster films and, more importantly, from Pulp Fiction magazines such as 'The Shadow', 'Dime Mystery Detective' and 'Black Mask' Magazine.
(Alan Ladd in "This Gun For Hire", 1942)
Recent development related to FILM NOIR-type media include the 2005 Comic book movie "Sin City", and even a video game, "Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne". Many films that contain FILM NOIR aspects but were not made in the 1940's or 1950's are called "neo-Noir".

CHARACTERISTICS
VISUAL STYLE
Film Noirs tended to include dramatic shadows and stark contrast in using low-key lighting and monochrome film, typically resulting in a 10:1 ratio of light to dark, rather than the more typical 3:1 ratio. FILM NOIR is also known for its use of dutch angles, low-angle shots, and wide angle lenses. A number of Film Noirs were shot on location in cities, and night-for-night shooting was common.
SETTING
FILM NOIR tends to revolve around flawed and desparate characters in an unforgiving world. Crime, usually murder, is an element of all FILM NOIR, often sparked by jealousy, corruption, or greed. Most Film Noirs contain certain archetypal characters (such as hard-boiled detectives, Femmes Fatales , corrupt policemen, jealous husbands, insurance agents, or down-and-out writers), familiar locations (downtown Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco), and archetypal storylines (heist films, detective stories, court films, and films about rigged boxing games).
(Ralph Meeker and Maxine Cooper in "Kiss Me Deadly", 1955)
OUTLOOK
FILM NOIR is at its core pessimistic. The stories it tells are of people trapped in a situation they did not want, often a situation they did not create, striving against random uncaring fate, and usually doomed. Almost all FILM NOIR plots involve the hard-boiled, disillusioned male and the dangerous Femme Fatale . Usually because of sexual attraction or greed, the male commits vicious acts, and in the end both he and the Femme Fatale are punished or even killed for their actions.
Directors associated with the NOIR style include:
John Huston, Billy WILDER, JULES DASSIN, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles.
The 'FEMME FATALE' .... in a nutshell.

A FEMME FATALE is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of Literature and Art.
The phrase is French for "Fatal (or "Deadly") Woman". A FEMME FATALE tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Typically, she is exceptionally well-endowed with these qualities. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm.
She may also be (or imply to be) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; "The Lady from Shanghai" (a 1948 FILM NOIR) giving one such example. Her characteristic weapon, if needed, is frequently poison, which also serves as a metaphor for her charms.
Her ability to entrance and hypnotise her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic FEMME FATALE today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon. The ideas involved are closely tied to fears of the female witch.
Although typically villainous, FEMMES FATALES have also appeared as antiheroines in some stories, and some even repent and become heroines by the end of the tale (see, for example, "Bell, Book and Candle", 1958).
In social life, the FEMME FATALE tortures her lover in an asymmetrical relationship, denying confirmation of her affection. She usually drives him to the point of obsession and exhaustion so that he is incapable of making rational decisions.
The FEMME FATALE archetype exists, in one form or another, in the folklore and myth of nearly every culture in every century. The early examples are Ishtar, the Sumerian goddess, and Lilith, Delilah, and Salome from the Judaeo-Christian Bible.
In ancient Greek literature, the FEMME FATALE is incarnated by the Siren, the Sphinx, Scylla, Circe, Lamia (mythology), Helen of Troy, and Clytemnestra.
Beside them is the historical figure Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, with her ability to seduce the powerful men of Rome. Roman propaganda attacked Cleopatra as a FEMME FATALE; resultingly, she became the legendary archetype of the attractions and the dangers inherent to the powerful, exotic woman.
In the Middle Ages, the idea of the dangers of female sexuality, typified by Eve, was commonly expressed in medieval romances as a wicked, seductive enchantress, the prime example being Morgan la Fay.
The FEMME FATALE flourished in the Romantic period in the works of John Keats, notably "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Lamia". Along with them, there rose the Gothic Novel, "The Monk" featuring Matilda, a very potent FEMME FATALE. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and as the Vampiress, notably in "Carmilla" and "Brides of Dracula".
"The Monk" was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade, for whom the Femme Fatale symbolised not evil, but all the best qualities of Women, with Juliette being perhaps the earliest novel wherein the FEMME FATALE triumphs. Pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the FEMME FATALE as a subject.
In the Western culture of the late 19th and early 20th century, the FEMME FATALE became a more fashionable trope, and is found in the paintings of the artists Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, Gustave Moreau, and the novels of the Frenchman Joris-Karl Huysmans. In "À rebours" are these fevered imaginings about an image of Salome in a Moreau painting:
"No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning".
In Fin-de-Siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde re-invented the FEMME FATALE in the play "Salome": she manipulates her lust-crazed uncle, King Herod, with her enticing 'Dance of the Seven Veils' (Wilde's invention) to agree to her imperious demand: bring me the head of John the Baptist. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Richard Strauss, was popularized on stage, screen, and peep-show booth in countless reincarnations.
FEMME FATALE have also existed in the east. In Chinese myths, stories and history, certain concubines have been accused as being responsible in part for the weakening and downfall of dynasties, by seducing her lover into neglecting their duties or twisting him to her will.
Another enduring icon of womanly glamour, seduction, and the presumed moral turpitude of the early 20th century, was Mata HARI [b. 1876-1917], an alluring oriental dancer, accused of German espionage and put to death by a French firing squad. As such, she realised the FEMME FATALE archetype, and, after her death, became the subject of much fantastical imagining and many sensational films and books.
The FEMME FATALE has been portrayed as a sexual vampiress; her charms leach the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling was inspired by a vampiress painted by Philip Burne-Jones, an image typical of the era in 1897, to write his poem "The Vampire".
Like much of Kipling's verse it was incredibly popular, and its refrain: 'A fool there was' . . . , describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular film "A Fool There Was" (1915) that made Theda BARA a star, the poem was used in its publicity. On this account, in early American slang the FEMME FATALE was called Vamps, short for vampiress.
"Jules et Jim" fall in love with the same woman Jeanne Moreau in a classic French film by François Truffaut from 1962.
From the American film audience perspective, the FEMME FATALE often was foreign, usually either of an indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry. She was the sexual counterpart to wholesome actresses such as Lillian GISH and Mary PICKFORD.
Notable silent cinema Vamps were Theda BARA (who started the Vamp craze), Louise GLAUM, MUSIDORA, Nita NALDI, Pola NEGRI, and in her early appearances, Myrna LOY.
(HEDY LAMARR, called 'the Most Beautiful Woman of the 20th Century')
During the FILM NOIR era of the 1940's and 1950's, the FEMME FATALE flourished in American cinema. Examples, the over possessive narcissistic wife Ellen Brent Harland as portrayed by Gene TIERNEY in "Leave Her to Heaven" (dir. John M. Stahl, 1945), who will stop at nothing to keep her husband's affections. Another fine example is Brigid O'Shaughnessy as portrayed by Mary ASTOR who uses her acting skills to murder Sam Spade's partner in "The Maltese Falcon" (John Huston, 1941).
Yet another is the cabaret singer as portrayed by Rita HAYWORTH in "Gilda" (dir. Charles VIDOR, 1946), who sexually manipulates her husband and his best friend.
Another quintessential NOIR FEMME FATALE is Phyllis Dietrichson as played by Barbara STANWYCK, who seduces a hapless insurance salesman and persuades him to kill her husband in Billy WILDER's "Double Indemnity" (1944).
(The Divine.....)
In "The Paradine Case", a HITCHCOCK movie from 1947, the character played by Alida VALLI is a classic poisonous FEMME FATALE who is responsible for the deaths of two men and the near destruction of another. One often referred to example is the character of Jane in "Too Late For Tears" (dir. Byron Haskin, 1949), as played by popular FEMME FATALE actress Lizabeth SCOTT. During her quest to keep some dirty money from its rightful recipient and her husband, she uses poison, lies, sexual teases and a gun to keep men around her finger.
Some notable FEMMES FATALES of NOIR (see also the 'NOIR' Photo Album) :

Gene TIERNEY, 'the Divine'
Veronica LAKE, 'the Heights and Depths'
Rita HAYWORTH, 'the Goddess'
Lizabeth SCOTT, 'the Icy'
Audrey TOTTER, 'the Bad Girl'

Carole LANDIS, 'the Beauty'
Barbara STANWYCK, 'the Queen'

Linda DARNELL, 'the Heroine'
Yvonne DE CARLO, 'the Canuck'
Faith DOMERGUE, 'the Dangerous'
Peggy CUMMINS, 'the Spirited'
Cathy O'DONNELL, 'the Innocent'
Gloria GRAHAME, 'the Siren'
Marie WINDSOR, 'the Queen of "B"'

(.... GENE TIERNEY)
Other American cultural examples of such a deadly woman are in espionage thrillers and juvenile adventure comic strips, such as "The Spirit" by Will EISNER, and "Terry and the Pirates" by Milton Caniff. Today, she remains the key character in films such as "Body Heat", "Fatal Attraction", "The Last Seduction" and "Basic Instinct".
Kiss, Kiss... Bang, Bang!!
A classically portrayed literary FEMME FATALE is the "Justine" heroine of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet". In opera, the FEMME FATALE is usually played by a dramatic mezzo-soprano. More often in musical theater, the FEMME FATALE is played by an alto. The FEMME FATALE is sometimes the foil or the enemy of the ingenue or the damsel in distress.
(CYD CHARISSE)
Despite usually being portrayed in religion as symbolic of corruption and moral turpitude to justify societal misogyny, in contemporary times the FEMME FATALE is symbolic of women of free will and unrestrained passion. She survives as heroine and anti-heroine, in "Nikita" and "Moulin Rouge", and video games and Comic books. Elektra, a character from Marvel Comics, Catwoman from the "Batman" stories, and EVA from "Metal Gear Solid 3".
The woman Ninja (the 'Kunoichi') is legendary for being a trained seductress and a martial artist. The protagonists of the American TV series "Sex in the City" and "Desperate Housewives" use sexual allure to get what and whom they want.
A modern example of the archetypal FEMME FATALE is Xenia Onatopp, the character from the James Bond movie "GoldenEye" (1995) who seduced men and then murdered them by crushing them between her thighs.
(© Saul A.)
'New York and its Belgian origins' - Legend and Reality.
(Read all about it in my BLOG !!)
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