--- description: Find out why "Femme Fatale" is on TIME's list of the 50 most underappreciated movies of the 21st Century. title: 'Femme Fatale' Is on The 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef38b4132e667043/6998cbd693610ca3c5c30336/Underappreciated-Movies-Femme-Fatale.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 04, 2026 # _Femme Fatale_ Brian De Palma by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/) ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic  Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in "Femme Fatale", 2002. Antonio Banderas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in "Femme Fatale", 2002.Warner Brothers / Everett Collection The work of [Brian De Palma](https://time.com/collection/100-best-movies/6296072/carlitos-way-1993/ "undefined"), one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood of the late 1960s and 1970s, was for years derided—or hated—by people who deemed it too cheesy, exploitative, or violent. His reputation has been reclaimed in recent years, but in 2002, when his gorgeously structured, not to mention sexy, _Femme Fatale_ was released, the haters came out in full force, calling the film dumb, laughable, highly implausible. Actually, it’s a modern classic, playfully erotic and, as always with De Palma’s films, made with sly, glittering intelligence. Rebecca Romijn plays Laure, an American living in Paris who’ll do whatever it takes to get what she wants; she lives off her wicked ways as if they were secretarial skills. She steals the identity of a meek French widow who has tragically lost her husband and child; meets a rich, charming American (Peter Coyote) on an airplane and wheedles him into marriage; moves to the States and then, seven years later, returns to France and seduces a hot, clueless, underemployed photographer ([Antonio Banderas](https://time.com/5737198/best-movie-performances-2019/ "undefined")). Did I forget to mention the jewel heist she pulls off at the Cannes Film Festival? It involves a furtive bathroom-stall rendezvous resulting in the removal of a sinuous gold-and-diamond harness that winds, snakelike, up the otherwise naked torso of a slinky vixen, played by Rie Rasmussen. All that, and a lustrous score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, its central theme an affectionate riff on Ravel’s Boléro. 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