Film noir was a movie genre that fell into relative obscurity for a couple of decades. Like the Western, it had seen a lot of play in the Golden Days of Hollywood, and overexposure burned it out until a modest return in the 1980s. The 1990s saw it come back with a vengeance, buoyed by a decade of experimental writing and the discovery of anime and dark science fiction.
With the return of the film noir came its most famous and infamous character, the femme fatale. This implies a dangerous woman, and that is what it means, but it doesn't mean that the woman herself is dangerous. This is the person that lures the protagonist into a perilous situation and is often what gets the plot started in the first place.
7 Norma Desmond, Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Norma Desmond is one of the most notorious characters in all of cinema history, and the image of her twisted face as she descends that curved staircase is iconic. The plot of the former silent-film star who had faded into obscurity and was hoping to make a comeback appeared in other movies, but it was never as chilling nor as tragic.
The movie even starts with a typical film noir trope, with a shot of the main character in the final scene only to flashback to all the events that led up to that point. The mystery in this case is not for the main character to solve but for the viewer to discover, and it's because of the femme fatale.
6 Evelyn Mulwray, Chinatown (1974)
The California Water Wars were a real thing, and the plotline of this movie is partially based on the messy politics and ruthless dealing of how certain people in Los Angeles gained control of the water in the Owens Valley. Evelyn hires Private Investigator Jake Gittes to watch her unfaithful husband, an engineer connected to a damn project, and he finds out the project itself is crooked, to say the least.
Chinatown has a reputation for being one of the most visceral and unforgiving movies ever made when it comes to human drama. This goes beyond crime to just pure evil. It's the banal indifference to all of this suffering that makes it so chilling, as that famous line so perfectly sums it up, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."
5 Rachel, Blade Runner (1982)
It was the sultry image of the mysterious and beautiful Rachel that helped bring the film noir genre back in the early 1980s. It was also one of the earlier attempts at combining the genre with science fiction, and although the result was exactly a hit with everyone it left a profound legacy.
Deckard is a Bladerunner, which means he hunts down and retires wayward replicants. When Rachel first appears, both he and the audience are deliberately confused as to whether or not she's a human or a replicant, and that's the main theme of the movie.
4 Mia Wallace, Pulp Fiction (1994)
Mia doesn't appear in much of this story, but she's talked about a lot, and that's part of what builds her character into a femme fatale. Vincent Vega finds himself in what seems like a helpless situation he can't escape, assigned to a certain task by his boss but drawn by Mia's charm into something that might be more compromising.
The plot thickens when Mia gets into Vincent's heroin stash and overdoses, which just goes to show there are worse things to happen than touching someone's feet. As far as the film noir genre goes, this is a creative problem for the protagonist to solve, and the scene is an unforgettable one that only Tarantino could write.
3 Dorothy Vallens, Blue Velvet (1986)
As it would have to be with David Lynch, this is as much film noir as psychological horror, and could even be a candidate for the New Weird genre. It was a controversial movie, with critics citing some of the scenes as pointlessly cruel or gory, but it still got Lynch a nomination for Best Director and has a dedicated fan following to this day.
The movie starts with the discovery of a severed ear in a field, so it's obvious where this is going from the start. Jeffrey Beaumont isn't a PI or a cop, but just a college student, and becomes obsessed with Dorothy Vallens, which leads to a variety of compromising positions.
2 Lynn Bracken, L.A. Confidential (1997)
A movie that recalls the classic film noir days as opposed to trying something more futuristic, L. A. Confidential did bring a big Hollywood budget to a genre that's known for being gritty. The setting juxtaposes the light and dark sides of Holly wood in a literal way, using costumes and dialogue to instill suspense and create the mood.
Two rival cops to discover a plot to force prostitutes to get plastic surgery in order to make them resemble movie stars, with Lynn Bracken, the woman who lures them into this sordid world, as the Veronica Lake doppelganger. The basic premise is about enforcing the law versus the money and power behind Hollywood celebrities, and that can be applied to any time period.
1 Trinity, The Matrix (1999)
A unique take on the film noir genre, retaining the mystery part and adding another dimension of dystopian science fiction to the plot and storyline, Trinity was also another kind of femme fatale in the sense that she was actually fatal and not in the Norma Desmond way, either.
The first scene of this movie actually introduces Trinity as she kills a bunch of cops, making her role obvious from the start. She's the one that meets Neo in the bar after he follows "the white rabbit" and is ultimately the one that leads him into the world of the Matrix.