The femme fatale is the most powerful character in American hard-boiled crime fiction. In Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest and Curtis Hanson’s 1997 production of L.A Confidential the female protagonists are sexual beings who follow the stereotypical attributes of the ‘disastrous woman’ . Looking at Elisabeth’s Bronfen’s ‘Femme Fatale: Negotiations of Tragic Desire’ the position of the femme fatale is something other; something that exists outside the formerly set boundaries for women. ‘She is not only sexually inhibited, but also unashamedly independent and ruthlessly ambitious’ creating a powerful female figure that controls men rather than submitting to them. The femme fatale is a woman of power. Through her sexual wiles and her ability
