The femme fatale by all accounts and dictionary definition is a woman who is attractive and uses this to seduce men who unknowingly allow her to bring disaster into their simple lives, typically for money or criminal activity such as murder. This behavior of female characters in films can also be known as vamping in more modern terms. The femme fatale is a cornerstone of the cinematic category, or cinematic period, as some say, of film noir. The film noir genre is certainly defined by its criminal point of view, "the presence of crime that gives film noir its most constant characteristic "the dynamism of violent death" is how Nino Frank evoked it, and the point is well taken ... Sordidly and strangely, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey. In every sense of the word a film noir is a film of death.” Here, the meaning and necessity of such a dark woman character is not stated only by what defines the film, but also by the fact that the main point of reference in the history of previous cinema, the moral center of the audience, is completely distorted by the sympathetic villains and corrupt cops, as well as the addition of such radical women. In the film Double Indemnity, Phyllis Dietrichson's character is no different and in some ways more unique because she is behind the downfall of another "villain" with this ability to seduce and then control men just with her promiscuous appearance and her empty promises, Phyllis becomes one of the most important examples of the femme fatale. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, fits the role of the femme fatale as she cleverly recognizes the way she is viewed by the men in the film and uses this to her advantage. Her character is certainly objectified, as she realizes that men's lust for her is the key to their minds and uses it to get what she likes. Phyllis purposely presents herself as a sexual object. She uses her seductiveness to marry a rich man, then to make the once good man turn evil and kill him, to reap the benefits of the double insurance claim. She never directly attacks the men she meets to gain power over them, until the end, when she attempts to kill Walter, the man she used to kill her husband, when he discovers what she has cunningly plotted him. Her power over men in the film is not something her character physically demands, but is established the moment they look at her figure and allow her deceitful words to poison their minds. For example in the dialogue between Walter and Phyllis where she says: Walter: Why didn't you shoot again, honey? Don't tell me it's because you've been in love with me this whole time. Phyllis: [crying] No, I never loved you, Walter, not you or anyone else. I'm rotten at heart. I used you just like you said. That's all you've ever meant to me. Until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire the second shot. I never thought it could happen to me. In the dialogue, it's the way Phyllis comes clean, she tells Walter that he never meant anything to her and neither did the other men he used to put her in the position she found herself in. This quote directly incriminates herself as a classic femme fatale who uses her physical beauty to seduce men who then allow her to wreak havoc on their previously simple lives. First by having her future husband fall in love with her after she killed his sick wife, then by having Walter kill her husband, all.