MELANIE BELL Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UKANN DAVIES Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Newcastle University, UKKAREN L. EDWARDS Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at the University of Exeter, UKJULIE GROSSMAN Professor of English and Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, USASUSAN HAYWARD Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Exeter, UKOLGA KOURELOU PhD student at King's College London, UKJOHN L. MARAMBIO Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the University of San Diego, California, USASTEVE NEALE Professor of Film Studies at Exeter University, UKGRISELDA POLLOCK Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds, UK JOY RAMIREZ PhD Comparative Literature, has taught Italian literature and film at the University of Colorado, the Colorado College and Vanderbilt University, USAMARCIE RINKA taught most recently the University of San Diego, USAJESS SULLY MPhil in Comparative Literature and History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK ROSIE WHITE Senior Lecturer in English at Northumbria University, UKMARY WOOD Professor of European Cinema at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

'These bracing essays offer many fresh insights into the well-known trope of the femme fatale, a subject that has received much recent critical attention, but seldom with the skill and perception that characterizes this volume. [...] An excellent book for women's studies, film noir classes, or any course that studies the female protagonist in film history. [...] Highly recommended.' - G. A. Foster, Choice

• List of Illustrations Introduction: 'Cherchez la femme '; H.Hanson & C.O'Rawe Ecoutez la Femme : Hear/Here Difference; G.Pollock   PART ONE: LITERARY AND VISUAL ARCHETYPES  The Mother of All Femmes Fatales : Eve as Temptress in Genesis 3;  K.Edwards  Challenging the Stereotype: The Femme Fatale in Fin-de-Siecle Art and Early Cinema; J.Sully   Silent Divas: The Femmes Fatales of the Italian Cinema muto; J.Ramirez  You'll be the Death of Me: Mata Hari and the Myth of the Femme Fatale; R.White   PART TWO: FILM STARS  Diabolically Clever - Clouzot's French Noir Les Diaboliques (1954); S.Hayward  Fatal Femininity in Post-War British Film: Investigating the British Femme; M.Bell Put the Blame on…Mei: Zhang Ziyi and the Politics of Global Stardom; O.Kourelou Gender, Genre and Stardom: Fatality in Italian Neorealist Cinema; C.O'Rawe PART THREE: FEMME FATALES IN EUROPEAN AND WORLD CINEMAS  The Femme Fatale of Spanish Retro Noir : the Recuperation of a Repressed Voice; A.Davies Chiaroscuro : the Half-glimpsed Femme Fatale of Italian Film Noir; M.Wood A Myth is Born: The Femme Fatale in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema; M.Rinka & J.Marambio PART FOUR: HOLLYWOOD 'I Can't Tell Anymore Whether You're Lying': Double Indemnity, Human Desire and the Narratology of Femmes Fatales; S.Neale 'Well, aren't we ambitious', or 'You've Made up Your Mind I'm Guilty': Reading Women as Wicked in American Film Noir; J.Grossman The Big Seduction: Feminist Film Criticism and the Femme Fatale; H.Hanson Notes Bibliography Index