The phrase "film noir" was first used to describe genre of black and white films first made during the 1940s and 1950s. The basic characteristics of these films were dark themes played out by weak male characters and female characters out to deceive them. The universe was depicted as essentially cynical. These films particularly lent themselves to the filmmaker in an artistic frame of mind, who could use shades of black and white to accurately depict the darkest in human and universal nature. The black and white nature of the films during this time was therefore specifically suited to the worlds depicted: devoid of color and life, and yet terribly alive.
             Because of the traditions established by the original film noir, it is rather difficult to accomplish a good form of the genre today. The main problem is that color is presumed for modern-day films. The limitation is that adding color to cinematographic images tends to detract from the surreal nature of the traditional film noir.
             This occurs to some extent in Brian de Palma's film "Femme Fatale". The garish color of the opening scene is an example of the film's failure to be truly "noir" in nature. The film also however shows the possibilities involved in using color for this genre. Dark, shadowy, or even erotic scenes take on many different hues of a subtlety not possible when filming in black and white. Dark red in the film is for example suggestive of both eroticism and death.
             The film shows the ambiguities involved in attempting a color film in the film noir genre. In black and white, even sunlight takes on a certain degree of darkness. Color, on the other hand, struggles not to be bright. I do not believe that "Femme Fatale" entirely succeeds in its genre, for more reasons than only its balance of color and darkness. The complexity of its themes, along with its lack of originality tends to defeat it. Still...