We’re celebrating the femme fatale here on Rialto Channel.

We’re celebrating the femme fatale here on Rialto Channel. A whole month dedicated to these ‘deadly women’ who are dangerous, seductive, scheming and irresistible, and concerned with little else than getting what they want.

The femme fatale has existed in film since the days of silent cinema; with actresses such as Louise Brooks and Theda Bara making names for themselves playing vamps in the early 20^th century. Their greatest influence though was during the film noir period of the 1940’s; think Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, Rita Haywood in Gilda, and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. These films were filled with strong female characters that women could fantasise about being, and who men could lust after - that is, when they weren’t worrying about how the woman around them were becoming increasingly confident and liberated after their involvement in the Second World War.

Femmes Fatales can be heroines, antiheros, vampires, and villains; but most importantly their main objective is to seduce and destroy. It is no surprise they make for some of the most memorable roles in film. Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (the original, not the ludicrous 2006 sequel) are two characters that immediately come to mind when you think of femmes fatales, but lets not forget Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction and Jennifer Tilly in Bound - all fabulous, naughty minxes.

This month Rialto presents a range of modern day femmes fatales, from Lisbeth Salender in Steig Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy to Kristen Scott Thomas in the French thriller Love Story, and Katrin Cartlidge as the high-class call girl in Clarie Dolan.

We even pay homage to the female stars of exploitation films in the documentary American Grindhouse (Thursday 27^th October, 8.30pm). Narrated by Robert Forster and featuring interviews with directors John Landis and Joe Dante, along with a number of film historians and critics, it’s a fascinating look at a cult genre which has been around since the early 20^th century.