Ok, so this is my first assignment that I have in my Film Cla$$ and I have to compare and contrast the femme fatale Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to the femme fatale character Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct Please be aware that this is a topic of a mature nature and that you shouldn't read it if you can'thandleit. That being said, here is my essay that I wrote on it. It's a total of 1470 words, but I would reallyappreciateany and all feedback from you guys. Maybe i can fix anything that you guys see that it's wrong. Thanks in advance.

_________________________________________

The Darkness of Films

In the world of film there are many kinds of genres that make up that world. It ranges from Action movies to Cartoons, but there is one genre that is much deeper and mysterious than all the others. I'm referring to Film Noir which literary means "black film" and it usually has a dark feeling to it since it usually involves characters that are very pessimistic and cynical. Along with the Film Noir there is one key person in the film that is the representation of evil but is a woman, this key character is called the Femme Fatale and it literary means "disastrous woman" because any man who gets involved with her (it's usually the hero of the movie that makes this mistake) ends up in ruin and misfortune. Movies that fall under this topic share a lot of things in common such as the plot and events. I will be focusing in two films, which are: Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) and Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, 1992).

Both these films have similar characters, but this doesn't mean that they are the same story or that every film in the Film Noir genre is the same. Most film in that same category use a similar story line but each is unique in its own way. In the film of Sunset Boulevard, a scriptwriter named Joe Gillis (William Holden) becomes involved with an actress named Norma Desmon (Gloria Swanson) that is obsessed with going back to making more movies even if she is old. The scriptwriter starts getting all the things that he wants and then when he sees that she is becoming to attach to him, he tries to leave but is shoot and killed. In Basic Instinct, a detective named Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) in charge of a murder chase gets involved with a book writer named Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) who is the prime suspect in the murder case. The investigator doesn't die at the end, but it's assumed that Catherine will kill him at a later time.

Both of these films have a femme fatale, but I think that it's interesting to take a good look at them because even if they are playing similar roles you can see that there is a huge difference. Norma and Catherine are both evil women and to a certain extend they can both get anything that they want because they are both rich. But it's interesting how they go about doing it because they both do it in a unique fashion. Norma tries to get Joe to stay with her against his will, and she does this by buying anything and everything that he wants. Norma doesn't care how much she spends on Joe as long as he stays by her. I tend to look at this sort of like a bribe or like having a pet; as long as she spends money on him, Joe won't go anywhere. An example of this can be at the end when Joe is trying to leave and Norma tells him "What do you want? More money?" She tells him this as if offering more money would please Joe and make him stay. On the other hand, Catherine can get anything that she wants but instead chooses to do this people, but in particular with men. In the movie, after a guy is found dead in his apartment, Nick and his partner go see Catherine at her mansion and ask her is she is sorry that he's dead (meaning the murder victim) and she replies "Yeah, I liked f***ing him." This shows how she loved to manipulate people and used them as she wished, whether it was to gather information for a new book or to just entertain her self.

Both women characters are in need of something because all their money can't fill that whole in their life. Norma tries to fill her emptiness with love, but she tries to make Joe love her to the point that if Joe can't be with her then he can't be with anyone else. Norma expected Joe's love in exchange for all the fancy stuff that she got him. I think that Norma thought that it was Joe's responsibility to love her. On the other hand, Catherine also had a hole in her life that she admitted. During the film Catherine told Nick "I can't be with you because everyone that I get close to I always lose." I think that this is also a need that she has to be loved but she is trying to resist that need because due to her past experiences it has never ends well. So as a result of all that tragedy in her life she has developed a defense mechanism of separating her self from everyone and being as cold hearted as possible so that way people won't get close to her and she won't have to lose anymore people that she cares about. I think that even in real life there is people that actually do this to protect their feelings and their sanity, just that some take it a little to far and end up killing that people that they love like in Norma's case.

I have always had this picture of femme fatale in my head and somehow Norma doesn't really fit into it. In my mind, a femme fatale should be very sensual and use her looks to get what she wants. I'm not sure if the idea of a femme fatale has changed over the years, but as far back as I can remember women in film have always had that "feminine" touch. This is where I feel where the biggest difference is between both women. Gloria Swanson was a good actress but her role as a femme fatale just doesn't quite fit that image that I have. She did a great job at trying to be a seductress in Sunset Boulevard but somehow it just doesn't really portray how evil and cunning women can be when they really want to. Even in real life, women can be very poisoning and cruel. But Norma just didn't quite come across as being poisoning; she was more of an obsessed actress that was trying to hang on her past.

In my opinion, Sharon Stone was wonderful in her role as Catherine Tramell. In her role as Catherine, she shows that she is a very smart woman and that they can't intimidate her just because they are cops. And one of the places that she shows this is when they finally take her in to the Police Station to question her regarding her relationship with the murder victim. It even looks like she enjoys making the men inside that room feel uncomfortable and acts in a way that gives her the upper hand. An example of this can be seen as soon as she walks in the room she lights up a cigarette and when a cop tells her that she can't smoke in the building she answers: "What are you going to do? Charge me with smoking?" I think that this line really shows that she isn't intimidated by anyone and that she will do as she pleases even if it means break some rules. There is more occasions during the interrogation that really show that she can seduce just about everyone in there by the way that she is dressed, acts, and even responds to the questions that they ask her. It's because of these and many more reasons that Sharon Stone makes a great femme fatale and so far it's been the best that I've ever seen. I think that Catherine is more of a daring person and she just likes the excitement and pleasure of toying with people's minds, sort of like to see if she can get away with and how far she can go before she gets caught.

Film has always been a big part of our culture because it's the way that we entertain ourselves. But there is more to films that just your usual action film that show how some celebrity saves the world from certain doom. Some films deal with something that is much more deep and dark in character, this is known as Film Noir. And it's this same genre that it's the most life like and truthful because it talks about things that normally we wouldn't see in films. It's films like Sunset Boulevard and Basic Instinct that open people's eyes to reality and show that life in not some happy adventure where the good always triumphs, but rather and more realistic view of life and how things don't always turn out the way that we picture them.

__________________________________

Thanks for reading and I reallyappreciateany and all help that I can get. Thanks guys.