THE LAST SEDUCTION
US, 1993, 105 minutes, Colour.
Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman, J.T. Walsh, Bill Nunn.
Directed by John Dahl.
During the 1990s, John Dahl made a number of successful variations on the film noir. This is his most successful, although Kill Me Again, Red Rock West and Unforgettable received very good reviews. In the later 90s he made the film about gambling compulsions, Rounders.
This film follows the pattern of the film noir of the 40s, focusing especially on the femme fatale. As played by Linda Fiorentino, she is as one character describes her, a self-serving bitch. She allows her husband to make drug deals, takes his money, goes into hiding in a country town, uses an insurance agent who becomes besotted with her as a pawn in a plan to kill her husband. However, she misjudges the killer instinct in the insurance agent, even though she has taken every means to manipulate him emotionally. However, as in this kind of film, she seems to have conquered all before her and gets away scot-free.
It is intriguing to watch the behaviour of someone who is evil, who is supremely self-confident, who is able to achieve whatever she wants. However, she is a completely repellent character even though she is, especially to the men who encounter her, completely seductive. It is a tour de force performance from Linda Fiorentino.
Peter Berg is very good as the insurance agent. He moved into film directing in the late 90s with Very Bad Things. Bill Pullman, always a reliable actor, combines sleaze and determination as the husband who pursues the femme fatale.
The film is also a critique of the moral attitudes and bankruptcy of the 1990s. The American dream has become the American crime.
1. The tradition in the United States of the film noir, the crime film of the 1940s, the male victim, the femme fatale? The atmosphere of crime, manipulation? Detection? As transferred to the 1990s, the use of colour, light and shade, darkness? The focus on the characters, on the crime, interaction, sex and power, violence and seduction? A neatly-written screenplay?
2. The New York settings, the initial drug dealer, the apartment? The contrast with the smaller town, the bars, offices? Legal offices? Homes? An authentic atmosphere for this kind of crime story? The musical score?
3. The title, its reference to Bridget's behaviour? Her use of Mike? Her manipulation of Clay? Of her lawyer, Frank? The ultimate for her - and success?
4. The opening, Clay and the drug deal, his writing prescriptions, supplying drugs? The young men, frightening him, taking the money out of the case? His return home, Bridget and her indifference, his slapping her - and her using this as the argument for her behaviour? His apology, going into the shower, her using the situation to take the money and run? His threats to her?
5. The introduction to Bridget, on the stock exchange, the men working under her, her urging them on, competitiveness, the bonus for the deals, humiliating the men as she urged them on to success? Her return home? Her disappointment about the money? Her intention to run with the money or not?
6. Driving away from New York, the small town, going into the bar, her demands of the bartender, his ignoring her, Mike ordering the drink for her? Her treatment of him, ignoring him, telling him to go away? Her sexual language and frankness? His response, her decision to use him? The graphic sexual encounters? The impersonal nature of her attitude towards him?
7. Her decision to stay in the town, the phone calls for Frank, his legal advice, divorce proceedings? Her changing her name (and Clay recognising her flair for putting things backwards and her choice of name)? The interview, in the insurance office, the meeting with Mike?
8. Mike, his background, insurance agent, in the bar with his friends, helping Bridget? The sexual relationship? His wanting more, wanting to talk? The background of his marriage to Trish? The irony of Bridget using this information, the threat to Mike to make him commit the murder, the revelation that Trish was a transvestite? Mike's reaction? At work, the relationship, the apartment? The work in the office, the discussions about killing people who were unfaithful to their wives? The game with the phone calls? The setting up of the scenario, Bridget pretending to have murdered someone?
9. Clay, Harlan and his help, tracing the phone call and Bridget's shrewdness? Harlan going to watch Bridget, in the car, her driving with him, the sexual innuendo, the request, the crashing of the car and Harlan's death? Her presenting herself as a harassed victim in the hospital? Mike and his care for her?
10. The build-up to the confrontation with Clay? Her scenario and Mike's voice-over of all the details of the plan as he drove to New York? His going into the apartment, the confrontation with Clay, tying him up, the discussions? Clay and his shrewdness about Mike, Bridget's role, getting him to see the photo? Mike's inability to kill Clay? The plan, Bridget's coming to the apartment, her trying to pretend that she had not set everything up? Her killing of Clay? Her leaving Mike to be the victim and blaming everything on him?
11. Mike, in prison, talking to his lawyer, their trying to find some flaw in her plan? The evidence completely against Mike? The finale with Bridget burning the name of Cahill from the door? Destroying the final evidence that could convict her?
12. The portrait of the men as greedy, violent? Mike and his gentleness, his attraction towards Bridget, succumbing to her seduction, sexually, criminally, emotionally, especially with the note from Trish?
13. The femme fatale, the strong woman, dominant in a men's world, outwitting the men, seduction and manipulation? Complete self-centredness, cruelty, amorality, success?
