Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "Femme Fatale"

Movie Production Notes: Femme Fatale

Notes provided by Warner Bros. Femme Fatale Seductress. Temptress. Siren. Production Information Evocative filmmaker Brian De Palma, the stylish director of the sexy thriller Body Double and the blockbuster action film Mission: Impossible, brings his uniquely edgy and sinuous Femme Fatale to the silver screen. Cool precision and venomous beauty entwine in the striking figure of Laure Ash (REBECCA ROMIJN-STAMOS), a woman who can only be expected to do the unexpected. A master of manipulation and guile, Laure plays a crucial role in a sultry jewel theft and then abruptly leaves her life of crime and her bloodthirsty cohorts behind her. In a surreal transformation, Laure refashions herself in the guise of a respectable married woman with a high-profile political life and soon captures the attention of Nicolas (ANTONIO BANDERAS), a soulful ex-paparazzo mesmerized by the elusive and enthralling adventuress. Attracted to the enigmatic Laure but serving an agenda of his own, Nicolas shatters her carefully crafted world with one shutter click of his seditious camera. Suddenly exposed to the world and vulnerable to her enemies, Laure is determined to use her considerable assets and Nicolas' voyeuristic instincts to reinvent her identity and once again escape her past. But as she ensnares Nicolas in her calculated seduction, Laure finds her quest for revenge complicated by their mutual attraction. Now that Nicolas has revealed Laure to the public, can he uncover who she really is before the inescapable threads of fate thrust them on a collision course between life, death, love and regret? Or will Laure's nightmarish schemes destroy her only chance for redemption? Tarak Ben Ammar presents a Quinta Communications production, Femme Fatale, starring ANTONIO BANDERAS and REBECCA ROMIJN-STAMOS. Written and directed by BRIAN DE PALMA, the film also stars PETER COYOTE, GREGG HENRY, RIE RASMUSSEN and ERIQ EBOUANEY. Femme Fatale is produced by TARAK BEN AMMAR and MARINA GEFTER. MARK LOMBARDO is the executive producer. The editor is BILL PANKOW A.C.E.; the director of photography is THIERRY ARBOGAST A.F.C.; the production designer is ANNE PRITCHARD; and the music is composed and performed by RYUICHI SAKAMOTO. This film has been rated "R" by the MPAA for "strong sexuality, violence, and language." Femme Fatale will be released domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures, an AOL Time Warner Company. www.femmefatalemovie.com / AOL Keyword: Femme Fatale The Cast and Concept The Femme Acclaimed writer-director Brian De Palma has long been highly regarded for his filmmaking finesse and ability to stimulate and surprise audiences. In addition to his blockbuster action film Mission: Impossible, De Palma's diverse catalogue of film credits include the thrillers Dressed to Kill, Sisters, Blow Out and Snake Eyes; the acclaimed police dramas Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito's Way; and the shocking story of Carrie, which garnered two Academy Award nominations (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress) and created a worldwide phenomenon founded on De Palma's provocative filmmaking and inventive cinematic style. Femme Fatale returns De Palma to his favored genre with a film that explores revenge and reinvention, flavored with an undercurrent of moral ambiguity and titillating corruption. A contemporary film noir about an alluring seductress suddenly exposed to the world and her enemies by a voyeuristic photographer who becomes ensnared in her surreal quest for revenge, Femme Fatale draws stars Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Antonio Banderas together in De Palma's licentiously complex narrative. "My goal as a writer is to build up the plot's intrigue, and as a director, to film the story in such a way as to make it impossible for the audience to anticipate what will happen next," says De Palma. The key to De Palma's criminally twisted story and distinctly noirish atmosphere is the film's manipulative, delectably wicked femme fatale. "I enormously enjoyed creating the character of Laure, our beginning point and backbone of the film," De Palma explains. "I wanted a heroine who would be funny, sexy and deliciously cruel, one who would arouse strong feelings in the audience. I intentionally drew upon the classic 'femme fatale' archetype common in films from the Forties and Fifties and adapted it to a modern day story." The precedent for beautifully shrewd, duplicitous predators has been set by extraordinary leading ladies such as Mary Astor as the gloriously untrustworthy Brigid O'Shaughnessy in John Huston's classic The Maltese Falcon, Barbara Stanwyck with her famously fetishized ankle bracelet in Billy Wilder's seethingly sexy Double Indemnity and Rita Hayworth embodying the mysterious temptress Elsa Bannister in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai. Modern noir films have starred sultry women such as Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasden's Body Heat, Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction and Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, for which she won an Academy Award. Producer Tarak Ben Ammar knew that, in the tradition of these notorious protagonists and the legendary women who have played them, the role of Laure was the pivotal component of De Palma's script and it was crucial to cast the right actress. "While casting for Femme Fatale, I met John McTiernan who had just directed Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in Rollerball. John thought she was incredibly talented and would be great for the role, so I called Brian and we agreed that Rebecca should do a test audition in Paris. After Rebecca's audition, the entire crew, from the director of photography to the sound engineer, were all swept off our feet." Producer Marina Gefter concurs. "The role of Laure is a formidable challenge, demanding that the actress portray two very different women, as well as assume several other identities throughout the film. Rebecca's very beautiful, very Hitchcockian and she'll be a complete surprise to audiences." Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who made the successful leap from international model to dynamic actress with starring roles in X-Men and Rollerball, completely immersed herself in the role of Laure. "Laure uses her beauty and sexuality like powerful weapons to obtain what she wants," Romijn-Stamos observes. "She's a born actress, using her talent for split second improvisation to get her out of any jam. She knows very well who she is she has to be extremely strong and focused to take on all the different identities she appropriates. I identified with this core part of Laure and was able to bring this aspect of the character into focus because I too have a very strong sense of who I am." De Palma explains the attraction of his iniquitous femme: "Laure's a born manipulator and her ability to change style and identity only heightens her fascinating aura. She captivates us as we try in vain to determine her true intentions. We fall under the spell of her charm and eroticism and willingly offer ourselves to her scorpion sting." Those lured into the black widow's web of intrigue inevitably find that their fate is in the hands of the femme and her machinations, an exercise of puppetry that propels the story to add texture and depth to the screenplay. "The screenplay is so rich that every day on set we were finding new layers to explore," reveals Romijn-Stamos. "I would periodically reread the script from cover to cover to fully grasp its different levels. Several elements changed once we began shooting, ideas we played around with, new ideas from Brian, ideas borne from collaboration. It was a fantastic experience to play a character that constantly evolves and changes." The Voyeur After the key role of the dangerously sexy Laure had been cast, the filmmakers then needed the perfect gentleman as her scandalous partner in crime. Antonio Banderas, a leading international actor currently starring in both Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, accepted the challenge of playing photographer Nicolas Bardo. "Who is Nicolas?" muses Banderas. "He's a fantasy, a professional voyeur, a projection of Laure's spirit and hopes and fears. Through her eyes, we see him as a dangerous individual dressed in black, always hounding her, trying to reveal her for what she really is." De Palma was thrilled that Banderas agreed to take on the role. "The role of Nicolas is difficult because the character's depth must be conveyed equally through his actions as well as the subtext of those actions," explains De Palma. "Antonio is able to express, without words, a layered nuance and meaning to his actions in the same way that Nicolas' camera captures more than solitary images." Fatalistic Associates A significant theme of Femme Fatale provokes the question of whether all things are subject to fate and human beings are powerless to change them. But people still have roles to play in fate's story... For key supporting characters, a critical cornerstone was the role of the cuckolded Ambassador Watts. Says producer Marina Gefter, "We needed someone who had allure and authority in important encounters with Laure. From the beginning, Brian wanted Peter Coyote to play the American Ambassador." Coyote, for his part, enjoyed playing the artless politico. "Watts isn't tremendously sophisticated and has a deplorable lack of savoir-faire. Because of his naïveté, he immediately falls for Laure's flattery and quickly succumbs to her will." Laure's shadowy life of deceit also spawned vengeful co-conspirators who will not forget, nor forgive her lies. "We needed two sinister villains whose hunger for revenge propel much of the plot through their pursuit of Laure," relays Gefter, "and Eriq Ebouaney and Edouard Montoute are wonderful actors to portray this vicious villainy. We were also fortunate to cast Gregg Henry, an old friend of Brian's, in a small part as Mr. Shiff, the Security Chief to the Ambassador." Rounding out the cast in her feature film debut is international modeling sensation Rie Rasmussen as a beautiful bejeweled woman with a crucial role to play in the sizzling heist. Location and Filming Paris Femme Fatale, shot entirely in Paris and the surrounding areas, required the American-born director to investigate the hidden landscapes and concealed corners within the City of Lights to uncover the most interesting and appropriate locations to film. "The image many Americans have of Paris is Gene Kelly and Frenchmen wearing berets," says De Palma with a laugh. "The first thing I realized is that the city looked more like New York than I had imagined, it's very cosmopolitan. I spent much of my time in Belleville observing the Arab, Spanish and Chinese communities, which I thought would make an intriguing location for our budding artist, Nicolas. I took countless photos during the month of scouting, and from those, chose where I would film." "Femme Fatale has a uniquely Parisian flavor," Gefter agrees, who has lived in France for the past seven years. "I greatly appreciated Brian's adventurous spirit with the locations. He would take his scooter out at dawn every day to find places American filmmakers had never before shot, some of which even we had never seen!" Contemporary Film Noir Film noir, typified by its dark tone and gritty characterization, matches De Palma's thematic objectives of creating a look and feel that are as intrinsically important to Femme Fatale as the action itself. "Cinema is based on the visual. It's a voyeuristic art that spies on people who are spying on those around them," De Palma imparts. "For this film, we used a certain aesthetic bias unique to film noir, but my filmmaking is founded on having a very mobile camera, which is a direct contradiction to that styleexcept for Preminger and Orson Welles. Femme Fatale uses too much camera movement to be termed a classic film noir, but we do incorporate many noirish qualities in a contemporary way." Director of Photography Thierry Arbogast fused De Palma's progressive visual style with the deliberate static approach of film noir. "I've always especially liked the form of De Palma's films, his concept of playing on our visual memory," says Arbogast. "His use of recurring images and dabbing in different levels of reality can also be found in Femme Fatale. What was interesting to me about filming Femme is that we chose a very stylized frontal lighting that's reminiscent of films from the Forties, which embellishes the actors and creates a play of shadows on their faces, highlighting every emotion. "Another aspect of Brian's style is that he likes to film his actors in a relatively wide shot in order to allow the audience to look from one to the other as desired," discloses Arbogast. "Preparing scenes, Brian is absolutely systematic and sophisticated, yet with space for improvisation. He works like a craftsman and approaches complex sequence shots like a mathematical problem, while never losing sight of the style or aesthetic." Working On Set / De Palma's Direction De Palma's meticulous preparation paid off on-set with the actors. "Rebecca arrived three weeks before production was to begin," Gefter says, "and Brian worked extensively with her to prepare for the first day of filming." De Palma couldn't have been happier to work with Romijn-Stamos. "I was fortunate to work with an actress who knows all about lighting and is treated well by it. Her modeling experience has taught her how to stand in the light and she's so photogenic that even when she's not in the best position in relationship to the light, it always finds her." "While I learned a lot from my modeling background, it's a two-dimensional activity where you show the camera lens only what you want it to see and hide as much as you show," Romijn-Stamos discloses. "Part of what I learned from Brian is that I had to completely let go and live in the moment." "Rebecca threw herself into the work 100% and delivered a lot, like the incredible strip tease she perfected for a pivotal, climactic seduction," praises De Palma. Antonio Banderas also benefited from the scrupulous preparation De Palma and his crew exercise in their filmmaking. "Brian has a very strong relationship with the actors. He's always there and available," Banderas asserts. "I never felt like I was on my own, I always felt I was in the hands of someone who had a total vision of the film. From the moment I took on his concept of this character, I became fully available for him to paint his canvas, using me as the brush, no more, no less." Romijn-Stamos likewise put herself in De Palma's able hands. "A good deal of the film is already in Brian's head. Some of the scenes were extremely complicated and he had already made countless mental notes before filming. However, on several scenes he told Antonio and I to 'go ahead and show me,' which was also great because it allowed us freedom in our acting and a chance to see what felt most comfortable for us. I found this to be incredibly generous." Biographies About the Cast One of the leading international actors of his generation, ANTONIO BANDERAS (Nicolas Bardo) earned critical praise and a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination for his acting and vocal talents as Che Guevara opposite Madonna in Alan Parker's 1996 big-screen adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Evita. He earned a second Golden Globe nomination for the title role in the box office hit The Mask of Zorro, opposite Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In 1999, he made his directorial debut with Crazy in Alabama, starring Melanie Griffith. Banderas is currently starring opposite Lucy Liu in the explosive action adventure Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and in Robert Rodriguez' Spy Kids 2, and he also has a cameo in the biopic Frida, starring Salma Hayek. In 2003, he will star with Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek and Willem Dafoe in Rodriguez' western crime drama Once Upon a Time in Mexico and with Emma Thompson in Imagining Argentina. Born in Malaga, Spain, Banderas attended the School of Dramatic Art in his hometown and, upon graduation, began his acting career at a small theater company based there. He moved to Madrid in 1981 and became an ensemble member of the prestigious National Theater of Spain, where he remained through 1986. In 1982, Banderas was cast by writer/director Pedro Almodovar in Labyrinth of Passion, beginning a professional collaboration between the two that would continue through four more films: Matador, Law of Desire, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! During this time, Banderas also acted in more conventional Spanish dramas, including The Stilts, The Pleasure of Killing and Baton Rouge. The international success of Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! brought Banderas to the attention of American audiences and led to his American film debut in 1992 as a young Cuban musician in The Mambo Kings. At the time he was cast in the movie, Banderas spoke no English and had to learn all of his dialogue phonetically. The Mambo Kings provided Banderas with a springboard to significant supporting roles in four major productions in two years: Philadelphia, House of the Spirits, Interview with the Vampire and Miami Rhapsody. His first starring role in an American film was in the 1995's Desperado. Among his additional film credits are Never Talk to Strangers, Assassins, Four Rooms, Two Much, The 13th Warrior, Original Sin and Play it to the Bone. REBECCA ROMIJN-STAMOS (Laure / Lily) has made the successful leap from international model to busy actress. Making her big screen debut with a cameo in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Rebecca also starred in the hugely successful X-Men, Rollerball, opposite Chris Klein and LL Cool J and will soon be seen in Simone opposite Al Pacino. She will once again be donning the blue paint as "Mystique" for X2, which is currently shooting and scheduled for a May 2003 release. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Ian McKellan will also return for the highly awaited sequel to be helmed by Bryan Singer, who directed the original. Rebecca began crossing over from the modeling world with memorable appearances on the hit television shows Friends and Just Shoot Me, as well as hosting MTV's House of Style. In her career as a model, Rebecca graced covers such as Cosmopolitan (including their biggest selling issue of the 90's), People, Marie Claire, Glamour, Elle, FHM, Shape, and the 1999 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Her beauty and charm has not been lost on corporate America. She has been featured in numerous prestigious print and television ad campaigns including Tommy Hilfiger, Pantene, Miller Lite, Halston, a "Got Milk?" ad and is currently the face of Liz Claiborne. PETER COYOTE's (Watts) involvement in acting began in high school when he joined acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. After graduating from Grinnell College in Iowa with a BA in English literature, he moved to the West Coast to pursue a Master's Degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. After a short apprenticeship at the San Francisco Actor's workshop, Coyote joined the San Francisco Mime Troup, a radical political street theater group. In the Mime Troupe, he was acting, writing and directing, and directed the first cross-country tour of The Minstrel Show, Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel, a highly controversial piece closed by the authorities in several cities. The following year, the troupe toured again, and a play that Coyote co-wrote, directed and performed in, Olive Pits, won a Special OBIE from New York's prestigious newspaper The Village Voice. After more than 15 years of political activism coupled with theatre involvement, including acting as Chairman of the California State Arts Council, Coyote began his film career at age 39. Since then, he has performed as an actor for some of the world's most distinguished filmmakers, including Barry Levinson (Sphere), Roman Polanski (Bitter Moon), Pedro Almodovar (Kika), Steven Spielberg (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), Walter Hill (Southern Comfort), Martin Ritt (Cross Creek), Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich), Diane Kurys (A Man in Love) and Sydney Pollack (Random Hearts). Earlier this year, Coyote was seen in the breakout hit A Walk to Remember, starring Mandy Moore. Currently, Coyote is in production on Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Bon Voyage, starring alongside Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani. He also recently wrapped the ABC two-hour pilot Phenomenon and the indie film Hebrew Hammer, starring Adam Goldberg. Coyote will soon be seen in the Polish Brothers film Northfork, co-starring Nick Nolte and James Woods, to be released in early 2003. Coyote has written a memoir of his diverse adventures, Sleeping Where I Fall, which received universally outstanding reviews, sold five hardback printings and is in its second paperback printing after being released by Counterpoint Press in 1999. A chapter from the book, "Carla's Story," won the 1993/94 Pushcart Prize for Excellence in Non-Fiction. Coyote is currently writing a screenplay, doing research for a novel and preparing to direct his original screenplay, Crimes of Opportunity. Coyote also recently sold an original script for a series pilot, 5150, to CBS-TV. Well-known for his voiceover work, Coyote has done numerous documentaries and television specials, including the nine-hour PBS special The West. In 1992 he won an Emmy Award as host of the nine-hour series The Pacific Century, which also earned the extremely prestigious duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. In 2000 he was the announcer for the Academy Award ceremony, broadcast live to an estimated one billion viewers worldwide. Coyote continues his varied involvement in political and entertainment pursuits. GREGG HENRY (Shiff) starred opposite Mel Gibson in the hit crime drama Payback, with Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Insurrection and with William Hurt in The Big Brass Ring. Henry made an indelible impression as the drill-wielding villain in Brian De Palma's Body Double and later appeared in Scarface and Raising Cain. Current and upcoming films for Henry include the explosive action adventure Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, co-starring with Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, the drama Sin, with Gary Oldman and Ving Rhames and the independent film noir Purgatory Flats. The star of numerous television movies and series, Henry includes among his favorites The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom opposite Holly Hunter for HBO, Bodily Harm opposite Linda Fiorentino and Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes, opposite Steven Weber and Swoozie Kurtz for Showtime. When his schedule permits, Henry plays keyboards and sings his original songs at the happening Los Angeles music club Genghis Cohen where he has developed a large following. Henry also maintains a strong connection to theatre, performing in both Los Angeles and New York. Among his many stage credits, the most recent include The Education of Randy Newman at South Coast Repertory, The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite at the Mark Taper Forum and Manhattan Casanova, in which he played the title role opposite Mercedes Ruehl at the John Drew Theatre in East Hampton. A Broadway run is expected. The lovely Denmark-born RIE RASMUSSEN (Veronica) is an international modeling sensation and is most often recognized in the United States as a Victoria's Secret and Gucci's model. Femme Fatale is her first feature film foray. ERIQ EBOUANEY (Black Tie) has over fifteen theatrical roles to his credit ranging from classic tragedies such as Medea to the farcical 1900, and including such modern classic as Genet's Les Bonnes, Le Roi Jones, Le Metro Fantome directed by Jean-Pierre Maurin, Koltes' Quai Ouest and more recently, Dale Wasserman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In 1999, Ebouaney played the lead role in Raoul Peck's Lumumba, has also worked with Cedric Klapisch, Benoit Jacquot, Jean Becker and Claire Denis and can currently be seen in the indie hit Ma Femme est une Actrice (My Wife Is an Actress) for French director Yvan Attal. About the Filmmakers BRIAN DE PALMA (Director) has showcased his filmmaking talents in diverse films ranging from thrillers such as Sisters, Obsession, Dressed to Kill, Body Double and Snake Eyes, to the blockbuster action film Mission: Impossible, the acclaimed police dramas Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito's Way to the unique visions in Carrie and Phantom of the Paradise. De Palma, a director without limits on his range, has also directed war films, comedies and science fiction. Born in Newark, New Jersey on September 11, 1940, De Palma grew up in Philadelphia where his father was an orthopedic surgeon. Early on, De Palma became fascinated by physics and went to Columbia College to study the subject. He soon changed paths and began studying first theater, then cinema. In 1960, he made his first mid-length feature, Icarus, followed by 6601224, The Story of an IBM Card and Wotan's Wake, for which he received several awards. De Palma undertook his first full-length feature, The Wedding Party, while studying at Sarah Lawrence College. The Wedding Party, a semi-improvised comedy, would be Robert De Niro's and Jill Clayburgh's film debuts. After this first film, De Palma went on to do several documentaries and short films, including The Responsive Eye, and put on an exposition of Op Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1967, he made his second full-length feature, Murder à la Mod, a sophisticated thriller packed with Hitchcockian references. The anti-establishment fever of the sixties led him to make the satirical comedies Greetings (Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival) and Hi Mom, which lifted him into the ranks of young American filmmakers. The big Hollywood studios began paying attention to De Palma, but it was his modest independent production Sisters, which brought his first big success. Breaking away from the semi-improvisational style of his previous films, he made apparent that his talent for writing, his sense of construction, his framing and rhythm were worthy of the best Hollywood directors. Two years after his success, De Palma made the musical thriller Phantom of the Paradise which came away with the Grand Prize from the 1975 Avoriaz Film Festival. In 1976, he (with Paul Schrader) wrote and directed Obsession, a romantic thriller starring Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold, followed by Carrie, which triumphed worldwide and earned Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie Oscar nominations. The film, which also featured Nancy Allen, John Travolta and Amy Irving, remains one of the most brilliant adaptations of a Stephen King novel. Its famous last scene, as well as others, has been widely imitated over the years. In 1977, De Palma directed Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes and Amy Irving in The Fury, a spy film that combined the occult with political fiction. In 1978, he made Home Movies, a semi-autobiographical comedy starring Kirk Douglas and Nancy Allen, with the assistance of fellow film students from Sarah Lawrence. In 1980, De Palma returned to suspense with Dressed to Kill, starring Michael Caine, Nancy Allen and Angie Dickinson, then went on to write and direct Blow Out, which explored two of his major themes: voyeurism and politics. In 1982, Brian De Palma directed a baroque, hyper-violent remake of Scarface from an Oliver Stone screenplay, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1984, he made Body Double, which gave Melanie Griffith her breakthrough role. Leaving behind the film genre which had made him famous, Brian went on to direct The Untouchables, a huge spectacular saga about prohibition which earned its star, Sean Connery, an Oscar, and launched the careers of Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia. In 1989, Brian directed Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn in the war film Casualties of War and in 1990, he adapted Tom Wolfe's satirical novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, which starred Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis. In 1992, De Palma returned to thrillers with Raising Cain, which starred John Lithgow and Lolita Davidovich, as well as directing Al Pacino in Carlito's Way. In 1996, he brought together Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart and Jean Reno in Mission: Impossible, a tribute to the cult television series. Mission: Impossible became an enormous international success and was followed by Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage and Gary Sinise, as well as his first science fiction film, Mission to Mars, which starred Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle and Connie Nelson. TARAK BEN AMMAR (Producer) was appointed advisor to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2001 for the Middle East and North Africa. His friendship with the Prime Minister dates back to 1983 when the two became partners, and in 1989 they formed Paris-based production and distribution company Quinta Communications, S.A. In 1991 Leo Kirch joined the company, which distributes the KirchMedia and Mediaset catalogues in France. Since 1995, Ben Ammar has overseen media investments for Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Company, including News Corp, KirchMedia and Mediaset and he launched Italian broadcast outlets R.A.I. and A.R.T. in North and South America, in association with Prince Alwaleed. Additionally, Ben Ammar structured the $1-billion Project Wave, in which the prince, KirchMedia and Nethold acquired minority stakes in Mediaset. In 1998, he assisted Rupert Murdoch's re-acquisition of MCI and subsequently became advisor for Murdoch's European investments, serving as architect of his B Sky B interest in KirchMedia's Pay TV "Premiere." He orchestrated Project Traviata, in which Mediaset and Prince Alwaleed joined KirchMedia in creating the largest pan-European television network. In 2001, Ben Ammar represented News Corp in its 50% acquisition of Italian digital platform Stream from Telecom Italia and subsequently structured the merger between News Corp's Stream and Vivendi's Telepic. Quinta co-produced, with Ettore Bernabei's LUX, 24 episodes of the Bible TV series. In the past two years, in association with KirchMedia and Mediaset, Quinta has produced and financed a growing number of major U.S. motion pictures. In 1997, Quinta managed and produced Michael Jackson's international "History" concert tour and produced his multi-platinum album, "Blood on the Dance Floor." Ben Ammar was an executive producer on the recently released action adventure Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever, starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu. He began his career as a film producer providing production services for more than 60 films in his native Tunisia, including Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He built the first film studios in Tunisia and produced Franco Zefferelli's La Traviata and Tosca as well as Roman Polanski's Pirates. Ben Ammar's Carthago Films is one of the largest independently owned French libraries with more than 100 titles. Ben Ammar was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1984 by President Mitterand for his cultural contributions. An alumnus of Georgetown University, Ben Ammar speaks five languages fluently and currently lives in Paris. MARINA GEFTER (Producer) is the driving force behind Femme Fatale, which she has supported and followed from the beginning, from the writing stage through casting and selection of the technical and artistic crew. Born in Trieste, this Italian of Austro-Hungarian descent knew from youth she did not wish to become a lawyer like the rest of her family. At 18, she went to Milan to study at the Pavia University of Political Sciences and became a journalist. She wrote for Corriere della Sera, Panorama and Vogue. In the early '70s, Marina worked for Vogue New York where she met Tonino Cervi, the producer of Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert. He took Marina back to Italy, where she discovered the world of cinema with his friends, Bertolucci, Pasolini, Fellini and Rosi, a world she would never leave. At 26, Marina Gefter produced her first film in Italy: a parody of 1001 Nights by Anthony Dawson, directed by Pasolini. With her production company, Moonlight Pictures, and in association with RAI, she produced and directed more than twenty hours of documentaries dedicated to great American filmmakers like Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Bob Fosse. Gefter returned to feature films in 1985 with Good Morning Babylonia by the Taviani brothers for American producer Ed Pressman, followed by Ken Russell's Lady Chatterley (associate producer), Margarethe Von Trotta's Three Sisters and Gabriele Salvatores' South, for which she was the executive producer. When Francis Coppola decided to shoot The Godfather III in Rome and Sicily, Marina Gefter became his associate producer. In 1995, Marina Gefter left Italy for France and England where she co-produced nine films in five years, including Malcolm Mowbray's The Revengers' Comedies starring Helena Bonham Carter and Sam Neill; Gilles MacKinnon's Marrakech Express starring Kate Winslet; Chris Menges's The Last September with Maggie Smith and Jane Birkin; Divorcing Jack with David Tewlis and Rachel Griffith and Khaled El Hagar's Room to Rent starring Juliette Lewis and Saoud Taghmaoui. MARK LOMBARDO (Executive Producer) studied journalism in the United States before traveling to Europe, where he soon began working with Tarak Ben Ammar's company, Carthago Films. Beginning as an AD for, among others, Roberto Rosselini and Claude Chabrol, Lombardo has been an executive producer or producer on most Carthago Films and Quinta Communications productions since the '70's. Among his credits are The Knights of the Quest, La Traviata, Foreign Student, Pirates, Young Toscanni, Voyage, Mayrig and Protocol. BILL PANKOW's (Editor) collaborative relationship with Brian De Palma dates back several years, and he's edited virtually all De Palma's films since Dressed to Kill including Body Double, The Untouchables, Casualties of War, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Carlito's Way and Snake Eyes. A native New Yorker who graduated from NYU's Film School, Pankow has spent over twenty years in films. After an apprenticeship in documentaries, video clips and commercials, he moved on to feature films, working on films such as Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers; Robert Benton's Still of the Night; Christopher Crowe's Whispers in the Dark; Daniel Algrant's Naked in New York; Joseph Rubin's Money Train; Gary Winick's Sweet Nothing; Tsui Hark's Double Team; Ringo Lam's Maximum Risk and Abel Ferrara's The Funeral and 'R Xmas. THIERRY ARBOGAST (Director of Photography) is equally comfortable filming intimate romances, stylized thrillers, period pieces or lyric adventures. Arbogast has worked on Luc Besson's Nikita, The Professional, The Fifth Element and Joan of Arc; Andre Techine's I Don't Kiss and My Favorite Season; Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Horseman on the Roof; Patrice Leconte's Ridicule; Mathieu Kassovitz's The Crimson Rivers; Nick Cassavetes's She's So Lovely and Gilles Memouni's The Apartment, a direct tribute to Brian De Palma's screen direction style, which he knows so well. Awarded a Cesar for both Horseman on the Roof and The Fifth Element, he also won the Technical Commission award for She's So Lovely at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. ANNE PRITCHARD (Production Designer), winner of five Genie Awards in Canada, has collaborated with acclaimed directors: Brian De Palma on Snake Eyes; Louis Malle on Atlantic City; Paul Schrader for Affliction, as well as several Canadian directors including Ted Kotcheff for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Joshua Then and Now and Switching Channels; Norman Jewison's Best Friends; Paul Almond's Act of the Heart; Yves Simoneau's Perfectly Normal; Francis Mankiewicz's The Revolving Doors and Stuart Cooper's The Disappearance. Anne Pritchard has also designed the sets for several teleplays and mini-series. Award-winning composer and musician RYUICHI SAKAMOTO has made a career crossing musical and technological boundaries. Sakamoto has experimented with, and excelled in, many different musical styles throughout his career, making a name for himself in popular, orchestral, and film music. In 1978, Sakamoto released his first solo album and formed Yellow Magic Orchestra along with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Y.M.O.'s second album sold well over a million copies, led to a world tour, and made them, along with Kraftwerk, the kings of technopop. Releasing eleven albums over the next five years, Y.M.O. developed a following that continues to the present day. Sakamoto's best-known film work is probably the soundtrack to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, but in 1987, his score for Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won him an Oscar, a Grammy, a Golden Globe, as well as the New York, Los Angeles and British Film Critics Association awards for best original soundtrack. Since then he has worked with Bertolucci twice (Little Buddha), Oliver Stone (Wild Palms), Pedro Almodovar (High Heels) and Brian De Palma twice (Snake Eyes and Femme Fatale). Sakamoto also maintains a career as an actor, having starred with David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Last Emperor, and Madonna's Rain music video. Sakamoto has also appeared as a celebrity model for Barney's New York, fashion designer Antonio Miro, the Gap, and from time to time has appeared as a menswear model in the world's most prestigious magazines. Sakamoto made his debut as a DJ in 1997 at Stephen Sprouse's spring '98 show, which also marked Sprouse's triumphant return to the fashion world. In 1999 Sakamoto's first opera, Life, premiered with seven sold-out performances in Tokyo and Osaka. This ambitious project featured contributions and performances by over one hundred performers, including: Jose Carreras, Salif Keita, Salman Rushdie, Pina Bausch, His Holiness Dalai Lama and members of the Frankfurt Ballet. Recently Sakamoto joined his frequent collaborators Jaques and Paula Morelenbaum at the home of the late Antonio Carlos Jobim in Rio to record Casa, a collection of hidden treasures and some previously unrecorded material written by Jobim under the group name Morelenbaum2/Sakamoto. Casa was released internationally in August, 2002 by Sony Classical and has already been named a Top 10 Album of the Year by Billboard magazine. With Ryuichi Sakamoto the only constant is change. The sheer breadth of musical styles he explores - even within one album - is central to his being as an artist. He feels no need to exist within musical boundaries, and he celebrates tearing them down. Official Web Site: http://www.femmefatalethemovie.com/ Back to main movie page Showing Today at: Click here for other showings