Kenneth A. Loparo 
The “Femme” Fatale in Brazilian Cinema 
Challenging Hollywood Norms

In film, the femme fatale has long been constructed as a beautiful heterosexual Caucasian woman. Da Silva shows the need to incorporate diverse ethnic groups and male homosexuals into the range of ‘femmes’ fatales and examines how the Brazilian representations cross gender, race, and class and offer alternatives to the dominant Hollywood model.

Table of Content

Introduction 1. The Black Femme Fatale in Xica da Silva 2. The Femme Fatale’s ‘Troubled’ Gender in Madame Satã 3. Social Class and the Virgin/Whore Dichotomy in Bonitinha mas ordinária 4. The Fetish ‘Dirt’ as ‘Social Pollution’: The Married Femme Fatale in A dama do lotação 5. The ‘Abject’ Lesbian Fatale in As intimidades de Analu e Fernanda 6. ‘Quoting’ the Film-Noir Femme Fatale in A dama do Cine Shanghai Conclusion

About the author

Antônio Márcio da Silva is Coordinator of Portuguese Studies at the University of Kent, UK.