As our film will contain a female killer I have undertaken some research on previous films with the same basic plot. The female character set out to be innocent but it turns out that she is the killer overall.
Some of the films I have researched include:
Nikita 1990 directed by Luc Besson:
Nikita is a French film 
also known as La Femme Nikita. Anne Parillaud plays the teenage Nikita, at the beginning she is nothing more than a drug addict, but after a pharmacy robbery goes wrong she results in shooting a police officer. Nikita is then arrested, trialled and convicted of murder, with a life imprisonment and a parole considered in thirty years.
After being drugged in prison to simulate a death sentence, she wakes up in a nondescript room with a mysterious hard man Tchéky Karyo. He explains to her that she is considered dead to the public and is now property of the DGSE which is the French intelligence agency. Karyo gives her the choice of working for them as an assassin or actually occupying her fake grave. She chooses to work for the DGSE and proves to be a talented killer. One of Nikita’s trainers, a lady called Amande (J
eanne Moreau) results in transforming her from a druggie to a proper femme fatale. The films highlight is Nikita’s initiation mission which is to kill a diplomat in a particular crowded restaurant and escape back to the Centre. She is then graduated and works as a sleeper agent in Paris with her boyfriend played by Jean Hugues Anglade, who is a supermarket worker oblivious to her real profession.
After a successful period of killings, it all goes wrong when an embassy document-theft goes awry. Victor, or also referred to as ‘The Cleaner’ is made to intervene to rid of the missions evidence and all of the corpses. However all does not go to plan after The Cleaner is wounded and dies. The finishing scenes show Nikita abandoning the Agency, Paris and her boyfriend.
Although she is not portrayed to be innocent the film still relates to our 5 minute one as she is a female killer.
Overall the gross revenue for Nikita was $
5,017,971 but received some poor reviews
by critics in France and abroad.
In 1993 Warner Bros remade Nikita in English as Point of No Return directed by John Badham which stars Bridget Fonda. The original Nikita also inspired the 1991 film Black Cat in Hong Kong, which closely followed the storyline.
There was also two television shows were also based on the film later on.
Double indemnity 1944 directed by Billy Wilder
Double indemnity is an American film noir; the term double indemnity refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that double the payout only when death is accidental. The entire film is told in flashback.
The film stars Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, a successful insurance salesman for Pacific All Risk. Barbara Stanwyck plays a provocative housewife who wishes her husband was dead, also
Edward G Robinson as a claims adjuster who finds phoney claims.
It begins with Walter returning to his office clearly in pain there is a memo on his Dictaphone machine which is intended for Barton Keyes (Robinson). This in which becomes the story of the film, which is told in flashback.
Neff meets Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) during a routine house call to renew an automobile insurance policy for her husband. In time a flirtation between the two happens, untill Neff is outstanded by Phyllis after she asks how she could take out a policy on her husband's life without his knowing it. Obviosuly to Neff he realises she might be planning to kill her husband, and he does not want to get involved. After following him back to his home Phyllis continues to pursuade Neff to help kill her husband. Neff's gullibility and libido quickly overcome his caution and he agrees to help her.
With his area of proffession Neff is able to create an idea so tha
t Phyllis’s husband dies ‘acidentally’. The "accidental" nature of his demise will trigger the 'double indemnity' clause of the policy, forcing Pacific All Risk to pay the widow Phyllis twice the normal amount.
His death revolves around him falling from a moving train. After investigating the scene Keyes does not suspect foul play, until his instincts act up. He soon then suspects Phyllis killed her husband along with an accomplice.
However Keyes is not Neff’s only worry as she comes to Keyes claiming that her stepmother killed her father, as we learn that Lola's mother also died under suspicious circumstances with Phyllis as her nurse. Over time of being with Phyllis and her deamonous ways Neff turns more tenacious and doesn’t care what happens Lola.
Neff discovers Phyllis is seeing Lolas boyfriend Nino behind Lola and his back. Phyllis's unfaithfulness wakes Neff from his romantic haze and he decides to save himself from his dire involvement with her and with murder. He reasons that the only way out is to make the police think Phyllis and Nino did the murder.
Neff and Phyllis meet only to argue about killing Lola and Nino and after trying to kill her she shoots him. Wounded he waits for her shoot again only for her to say she never loved him untill a minute ago when she couldn’t kill him. After desparatly trying to get him to change his mind Neff shoots
Phyllis twice, killing her. He leaves her house to be confronted by Nino who he advises not to go in and return to the woman that loves him.
Neff then returns to his office where he is seen reciting into his Dictaphone, when Keyes enters having overheard everything. Neff tells Keyes he is going to Mexico rather than face a death sentence but he unexpectly sags to the floor before he can reach the elevator where the film ends.
The overall budget for Double Indemnity was $980,000. Double Indemnity opened on September 6, 1944 and was an immediate hit with audiences. Many of the review from critics were largely positive, though the content of the story made some uncomfortable. While some reviewers found the story implausible and disturbing, others praised it as an original thriller. In his mixed review of the film in The New York Times, film critic Bosley Crowther called the picture "...Steadily diverting, despite its monotonous pace and length." He complained that the two lead characters "...lack the attractiveness to render their fate of emotional consequence," but also felt the movie possessed a "...realism reminiscent of the
bite of past French films." The film's critical reputation has only grown over the years. In 1977, notably terse critic-historian Leslie Halliwell gave it an unusual 4-star (top) rating, and wrote: "Brilliantly filmed and incisively written, perfectly capturing the decayed Los Angeles atmosphere of a Chandler novel, but using a simpler story and more substantial characters."
Basic Instinct 1992 directed by Paul Verhoeven
Basic instinct is an American thriller written by Joe Eszterhas which stars Sharon Stone and
Michael Douglas.
Douglas plays homicide detective Nick Curran while Stone plays crime writer Catherine Tramell. The film starts with a murder scene, when a former rock star is brutally stabbed to death, detective Curran is sent to investigate, and the only suspect is Catherine Tramell who was the last person to see the rock star before he died. After searching everywhere Curran and his partner G
us Moran find Catherine at one of her many houses, this is where they question her about her relationship with Boz (the rock star), she shows little remorse hearing that he’s dead.
Along with their superiors Nick and Gus discover that Catherine wrote a book about a former rock star that was killed the same way Boz was: tied to the bed and stabbed with an ice pick. We learn that Nick attends counselling after shooting a tourist accidentally in an earlier case. His counsellor, Beth Garner is the police psychologist and the woman who he happens to be having an affair with. After discovering some gruelling facts about Catherine which includes her parents murdered at an early age, her counsellor at college stabbed with an ice pick, her fiancé killed in a boxing ring and her strange friendships with murderers. Catherine taunts Nick with information that is possibly confidential; however Beth is the only one with access to that information. After confronting Beth she admits to him that she has given his file to Lt Marty Nilsen an Internal Affairs investigator with a grudge against Nick. Nilsen threatens to discharge Nick if he couldn’t evaluate Nick directly.
Nick is then suspended after attacking Nilsen and spends the evening drinking and arguing with Beth when she arrives only to be thrown out. Nilsen is then found dead later that night in his car. As Nick assaulted him earlier, he is the prime suspect.
After this a torrid affair between Nick and Catherine begins, her lesbian lover Roxy is green with envy and attempts to run Nick over but is killed in a car crash. We learn she had a murderous past.
Catherine reveals to Nick that a previous lesbian encounter at college went wrong after the girl became obsessed with her. After digging around Nick discovers that the woman was Beth, when confronted she claims it was Catherine who became obsessed. Nick checks Beth’s background and learns that her husband was shot several years ago which wasn’t solved, and then Beth began another lesbian affair which Nilsen had investigated before.
Nick then visits Catherine who explains she has finished her book about a cop falling for the wrong woman only to be killed by her; she then ends the affair between herself and Nick. Left feeling dejected Nick accompanies Gus on a meeting with Catherine’s old roommate from college. Because he is suspended Nick waits in car. However Gus enters the elevator only to be stabbed by a hooded figure much like the one described in Catherine’ book. Nick rushes in the building to find Beth there claiming she received a message to meet Gus. Suspecting that she murdered Gus and as she moves her hands in her pockets he shoots her. After declaring that she loved him with her final breath Nick checks her pockets to only find her keys.
The police arrive, and in a staircase they discover a blond wig, a SFPD raincoat, and an ice pick, the weapon used to murder Gus, concluding that Beth ditched the items when she heard Nick coming up. After searching her apartment there is evidence that she is the killer of Boz, Gus and presumably her own husband, the matching revolver, a stash of Catherine’s novels and photos encircling the writer’s life resulting in Beth actually being the one obsessed with Catherine.
Nick then returns to his apartment where he is met by Catherine. They discuss there future as a couple and while turning his back Catherine reaches for something under the bed, just in time
Basic instincts overall gross revenue was $352,927,224.
The film's critical reaction was mixed. Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the film, saying "Basic Instinct transfers Mr. Verhoeven's flair for action-oriented material to the realm of Hitchcockian intrigue, and the results are viscerally effective even when they don't make sense”.
Femme Fatale in reality
A femme fatale is a mysterious seductive woman, who uses her charms to ensnare men in connections of irresistible longing; these can lead to compromising, dangerous, and life threatening situations.
She also has the ability to entrance her victims. This was one of the earliest stories seen as being somewhat supernatural in real life. The most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having the powers similar to an entrantress, vampire, female monster or a demon.
The name Femme Fatale is french for “deadly woman” as a femme fatale hides her purpose that she wishes to achieve, she uses her beauty, charm and sexual allure to do this. Being well endowed is also a useful quality. Some situtions femme fatales can use lying or coercion rather than her charm. There are also possibilites that she is a victim, caught in a situation which she cannot escape, this is portrayed in The Lady from the Shanghai which is a 1947 film noir.
Femme fatales are not only villainous however, they are also antiheriones in some stories. Some repent and become heriones in the end. In social life, a femme fatale can torture her lover in an asymmetrical relationship. In which she denies any confirmation of her affection. She is able to drive her lover into the point of obession and exhaustion so he is incapable of making rational decisions.
In the Early Western culture to the 19th century the femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages in which they show signs of dangers of unbridled female sexuality. For example the bibical figure of Eve is typified in Morgan le Fay as a wickid and seductive enchantress.
Mata Kari (1876-1917) is another icon of femme fatale and moral turpitude. She was an oriental alluring dancer who was accused of German espionage, and then was put to death by the French firing squad. Hari embodied the femme fatale archetype. After her death she became a subject of fantastical imagining. She has since been based in many sensational films and books.
20th century film and theatre
Femme fatale has also been popular in 20th century film and in theatre. Actress Theda Bara starred in A Fool There Was in which she defined the word Vamp. A femme fatale can be portrayed as a sexual vampiress in some films, she is able to use her charms to leach onto the virility and independence of her lovers, she can leave them shells of their former selfs. Rudyard Kipling was inspired by a vampiress shown in the painting by artist Philip Burne Jones. This was an image that was typical in the 1897 era. Kipling then wrote his poem “The Vampire” it describes a seduced man and its verse “ a fool there was” inspired the 1915 film A Fool There Was. In early American slang the femme fatale was named a vamp.
Femme fatale is also known in popular culture and contemporary culture. The femme fatale is the one to survive as the heroine and anti heroine in stories, Nikita and Moulin Rouge are examples of this along with many video games and comic books. Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a parody of the femme fatale.
ecognised by the emotional effect it has on the audience. It intends to frighten, shock, disgust and repel the viewer. 
