The Black Femme Fatale in Xica da Silva

Abstract

The sexual danger the femme fatale represents in American film noir (which did not occur, however, only in this film genre) is “constructed through foreign, racialized, and exoticized others” (Fay and Nieland 171). Nevertheless, although foreignness in film noir relates to racial issues, this seems to be masked by the fact that the femme fatale is played by light-skinned actresses, such as Rita Hayworth and Greta Garbo. Indeed, the relationship of film noir with blackness, for instance, is mostly figurative and is implied by the symbols the films use such as “jazz music, the black-and-white cinematography, and even the darkness of the femme fatale herself” (Fay and Nieland 274)—the black body is absent from characters in leading roles, particularly those playing the femme fatale. The “visual blackness” suggested through symbols such as the ones above is, therefore, what stands out in the analysis of racial issues in the films (e.g., Oliver and Trigo’s study). For Oliver and Trigo, the femme fatale’s “darkness” and her “repressed racial blackness” are indications of her questionable maternal origin as this is likely to be the source of her evilness.