Male Protagonist
The moral ambiguity of this main character who is neither a knight in shining armour nor completely bad. He usually mistreats or ignores his 'good women' and got hooked on a femme fatale who more often than not according to the preferred reading, is the perpetrator of all his troubles. This 'hero' often obsessive and neurotic and equally capable of betrayal of his femme fatale. The ambiguity of his character is paralleled by the contortions of the plot, whose complexities seem irresolvable, particularly by the hero who seems confused and unclear about what is happening. The power the femme fatale exerts overt the hero is his own doing, because he has over-invested in his construction of her sexuality at the expense of his own subjectivity.
Joe Gillis (William Holden)
Male protagonistin Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Good Women
The females in film noir were either of two types (or archetypes) - dutiful, reliable, trustworthy and loving women; or femme fatale. Film noir's subversive view of family life and women's accepted role in society extends to its portrayal of the "good" or "normal" woman. The good woman embraces her traditional "place" in the family. Although she offers the hero a chance to escape from the sexy, destructive femme fatale and the dangerous noir world, the good woman often proves to be a mirage that the hero cannot reach. She functions as a foil for the femme fatale, not as a realistic alternative or a prescription for female behaviour.
Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson)
Good women in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Femme Fatale
Femme fatale - mysterious, duplicitous, double-crossing, gorgeous, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible, manipulative and desperate women. Usually, the male protagonist in film noir wished to elude his mysterious past, and had to choose what path to take (or have the fateful choice made for him).
Invariably, the choice would be an overly ambitious one, to follow the dangerous but desirable wishes of these dames. It would be to pursue the goading of a traitorous, self-destructive femme fatale who would lead the struggling, disillusioned, and doomed hero into committing murder or some other crime of passion coupled with twisted love. When the major character was a detective or private eye, he would become embroiled and trapped in an increasingly-complex, convoluted case that would lead to fatalistic, suffocating evidences of corruption, irresistible love and death. The femme fatale, who had also transgressed societal norms with her independent and smart, menacing actions, would bring both of them to a downfall.
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson)
Femme fatale in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950).
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