Femmes Fatale: Gone Girl

Recently in my Stories of Diverse Media course we were talking about the archetype of the femme fatale. The archetype has appeared in many different forms throughout the history of stories and media. When translated from French, femme fatale means fatal woman.

Typically, these women are very attractive but they are only motivated by things that benefit them. Femmes fatale often place men in dangerous situations, hence their names.

I’m not completely sure why, but femmes fatale have always fascinated me. I think that they capture everything I would want to be, except a potential murderer.

There’s something so captivating about being beautiful and dangerous.

When my professor ask that we chose a femme fatale to talk about, I chose my favourite, Amy Elliot-Dunne from Gone Girl.

I feel as though this femme fatale goes beyond her looks and seduction. She knows what she wants and she gets it, even if that means momentarily framing her husband for her disappearance/murder.

Without going too deep into the film, another point that makes her so different is her monologue during the film. She calls herself a ‘cool girl’, and explains that’s who she became for her husband.

“He loved a girl who doesn’t exist. A girl I was pretending to be. The Cool Girl. Men always use that as the defining compliment, right? She’s a cool girl,” Amy said.

I think that line speaks a lot about her character because she uses her looks and seduction to get her way, like the other examples of the archetype, but is it because she deserves to get her way?

Or is it simply because we are made to believe that it’s her given right to get her way.

While other femme fatale examples are transparent and easy to figure out, like Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction, she wants what she can no longer have so she boils a bunny and wants to kill a lot of people. Her reasoning may not be rational, but we understand why she’s doing this.

Dunne isn’t like this at all, and I believe this was done purposely. She isn’t supposed to be transparent and easy to read, she’s supposed to be complex, and she’s supposed to infuriate us.

The way the book was originally written, and the way the film was adapted, it makes sense why we don’t understand this example of a femme fatale.