DOMINATION AND ASSASSINATION

JACK RHODES is a salesman that attempts to wear many disguises to get what he wants: women. One day, he gets a video letter from a mysterious video-artist, MONIQUE (Shannon Tweed), who challenges him to meet her. She plays him like a fiddle and takes advantage of him. Now the tables are turned and Jeff can't escape, not even with his life.

Domination and assassination... good post title for a Femme Fatale Blog.


I missed this series on HBO. 1984 and on... The Hitchhiker.  I must look for it, but in the meantime, I love what snippets I have found on the internet.  

And if you see it, does it scare you that I love it? (-:

FELINE FEMME FATALES

Just for a moment, let’s go beyond the primary layer of the seeming femininity of our furry friend, the cat, and its alternate name, the pussy. Yes, I know it’s difficult, asking you to go beyond your hypothalamus and your fight, flight, fear, and fuck impulses. Let’s move up a bit into your more, well, socially informed areas of your dopamined mind, yes?

Dogs, as we all know, are loyal, easily trainable, and need to please.

Cats, on the other hand,  are fickle, independent, and indifferent. So the stereotyping says. Let’s draw a parallel. What are some of the more common complaints men have about women, aside from being late? Well, one is that they’re unpredictable (read fickle). Another is that, despite all the media blather about women needing to communicate, they actually don’t, at least when it comes to their relationships with the opposite sex. And, well, what’s to say about indifference, particularly when a man really, truly wants something? The surest route to rejection, whether at a pick up spot or in the marital bed, is for the man to go down the path of being very clear about his hypothalamine desires. Swish of the tail, as she meanders away.  Reject, reject...

It’s just sooooo much fun being a Woman!

Seemingly so warm and cuddly, and then suddenly indifferent. Changeable. Yes, men do like to reduce it to hormones and menstrual cycles, which would seem to leave them off the hook: she can’t help it, she’s on the rag. Did I ever tell you about the time a man actually had the gall to say that to me? What a lovely evening that became. I seduced him, bound him, blindfolded him and had him open his mouth wide. And, can you – I mean, really, can you? – just take one little guess about what I popped in, followed by tape across his mouth? LOL. Honestly, I’m a very caring and compassionate person. Truly. But his remark was just so distasteful to me, and it seemed an important part of his education to learn just how distasteful I found it by having him experience that sensation of distastefulness. And so, as I straddled his crotch, with him straining against the slightly undersized briefs I enjoyed seeing him in, and removed the blindfold – visual contact is very important during training – I explained that the word “rag” in that context is entirely inappropriate. And I calmly, as I shifted my hips just a bit, explained that one of the most important part of our relationship, of the dynamic between us, is that if either of us ever felt we truly knew the other person, and their responses to things, and could anticipate that, it would be lovely… but it would come to feel stale and boring quite quickly – that should he feel that I was entirely predictable, he would be terribly disappointed. And, again, I reminded him of how distasteful the word “rag” is and went on to explain that my being capricious really had nothing to do with hormones – I could just as easily manipulate him into the very position he was in right now when I wasn’t having my period—on his back and rather helpless, though I’d need to find something equally distasteful for him to chew on.

Which, of course, I later did, merely to prove the point. He wasn’t a fan of Chopped Liver. Never did acquire a taste for it, despite my effort. Oh, well.

The point here, my dears, is that being unpredictable is a source of strength, and power. Yes, it’s the nimbleness and quickness of the cat that makes them so elusive to dogs, with their hunting instinct. And, yes, it’s the hiss and the arched back that warn dogs off. But it’s the sudden, entirely unexpected and unpredicted swipe of the claws across the snout that reinforces it.

Which is why, dear reader, Batman – the strong, mysterious male and his transparent ego – can never quite subdue Catwoman, and her feral understanding of arousal, desire, and manipulation. Sure, he’s stronger. And, he has all those nifty man toys at his disposal. But Catwoman is a continually elusive being, beyond his control.  (Like the man’s penis.)

Surely you don’t need proof, but let’s just consider something. What’s the best way to minimize and control something? To mock it, of course. Back in the repressed ‘50s, Catwomen were often flat out goofy – ineffectual little things that flocked around each other to no effect, a source of amusement and naughtiness.
Example: some fun films of that era:

CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON

CAT GIRL the UK film

CAT PEOPLE. Actually a fun film.

Later, as taboos lifted, Julie Newmar in the ‘60s Batman television series was more than naughty – she was bloody well hot.

Michelle Pfeiffer was hardly buttoned down, though her Catwoman was the polar opposite of the passive, mousey designer she was in her mortal life.

 Ditto for Halley Berry in Catwoman, who literally had no need for Batman: she was her own woman.

And now comes Anne Hathaway in the next installment of the Batman movies. Dark glasses, inscrutable, impenetrable leather skin.

When it comes to men, let me ask you this. Who needs claws, when there are so many other weapons at our disposal?

Spies, Lies, and Anna Chapman

Sex, lies & female spies

By Gayle Schoales

July 18, 2010

Move over James Bond. It's out with shaken Martinis and in with Cosmos. Like suspected Russian spy Anna Chapman, 28, just under half of the UK's 3,500 'spooks' are women and, according to experts, it's feisty, fearless females who make the best spies. With pistols concealed in their designer handbags and lipsticks doubling as listening devices, women are putting their feminine skills to good use, forging careers in what has traditionally been a man's world.
"Female spies like Anna Chapman use their sexuality to their advantage," says Claire Thomas, co-author of Spooks: The Unofficial History of MI5. "An attractive, intelligent woman can ensnare a man and get him to lower his guard. She'll turn him into putty in her hands and get the information she needs. She doesn't have to use sex - but it's a powerful weapon."
While us girls might lack the physical strength of our male counterparts, in the world of spying, that's not a problem.
"Espionage is more about gathering intelligence than getting into Jason Bourne-style fist fights," explains Claire. "Male agents don't have an advantage. If anything, women are mentally much stronger than men. They can cope with pressure better, and the demands of leading a double life."
One German WW2 spy, code-named 'Mrs Amos', was so deep undercover in London, not even her husband of 20 years knew she was an agent. "Her cover story was that she worked in the War Office," says Claire. "She was an unassuming, middle-aged woman, yet she spied on people and gave information to the Nazis. She even recruited other women to the service. Her husband never suspected a thing."

The sexier the spy, the better

 As for Bond-girl looks, traffic-stopping beauty can actually be a hindrance rather than a help. "Depending on the mission, the agent might want to be unremarkable and fly under the radar," says Claire. "If it's a honey-trap however, the sexier the spy, the better."
When he founded the British Security Service (MI5) in 1909, Sir Vernon Kell stipulated that female agents had to be "well bred and have good legs". And in the '30s and '40s, MI5 spymaster Maxwell Knight recruited sexy women to go on missions to ensnare men with German or Russian links.
One of them was Olga Grey. A blonde bombshell codenamed 'Miss X', she infiltrated a spy ring in the Woolwich Arsenal during WW2. Despite falling in love with her communist target, Olga never abandoned her mission. "She'd sneak into his bathroom late at night and photograph his top-secret plans for weapons. He didn't suspect her and, after his arrest, he was devastated at her betrayal," says Claire.
Like Olga, Joan Miller used her sexuality as a weapon too. Another WW2 agent, glamorous Joan infiltrated a secret anti-Jewish society called the Right Club. Made up of everyone from politicians to the Fifth Duke of Wellington, the group met in the swish Russian Tea Rooms in London, where they drank vodka, ate caviar and discussed how to remove Jews from positions of power in politics and the press. By gaining their trust, Joan busted the ring.
"Once, Joan needed to get her apartment searched for taps," says Claire. "Special Branch officers said they couldn't do it, so she bribed them with a picture of herself in a bikini!"
But how do women get to work in the Secret Services in the first place? Everyone's heard the story about getting a tap on the shoulder, but MI5 started open recruitment 10 years ago. Gone are the days of being covertly approached and invited to apply, like Jennifer Garner's character in US TV series Alias.
The reality is less exciting. After completing a competency test, successful candidates embark on a series of interviews and vetting procedures. Interviewers delve into the backgrounds of family and friends, as well as their sex lives and personal relationships to ensure the credibility of would-be spies.
"Women are more likely to be sent on corporate missions these days, where they can get jobs in offices that allow them access to files, or have drinks with well-connected people," says Claire. "But the essence of their work is still the same.
"They can exploit men's vanity, seducing them into telling them what they want to know. Men don't suspect women asking strange questions in the same way they would a man."

Why women make better spies

"Women are used to taking on many roles - being one person at work, one with friends, and another with our bloke or kids," says psychologist
Dr Funke Baffour. "We manage these seamlessly and almost have 'double lives' already. Women are also better at lying and keeping secrets than men. We think through possible problems and outcomes before speaking, so are less likely to be caught out."

One who did get caught out is ANNA CHAPMAN, Russian Spy 2010

Anna Chapman was kinky and 'great in bed,' says ex husband Alex

BY LUKAS I. ALPERT

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, July 05, 2010

She may have been a true Cold Warrior, but Anna Chapman is red-hot in the sheets.

The flame-haired Russian hottie accused of being a deep-cover mole in the U.S. was a wild woman in the sack, her ex-hubby says.

"Anya was great in bed and she knew exactly what to do," said Alex Chapman, who married the then-Anya Kushchenko in 2002. "The sex was great and she had this incredible body."

Chapman told the British newspaper News of the World that he met the stunning spook at a rave in England in 2001 and immediately fell in love.

"I hadn't met anybody like her before," he said. "I was infatuated with her."

They began a torrid affair, which Alex Chapman says quickly veered into kinky territory.

The randy Russian had a penchant for whips and nipple clamps and once joined him in a mile-high sex romp aboard a Moscow-bound flight, he said.

The poor hubby never thought he was married to a spy -- except for that one time a Persian prince got them into a nightclub, and now that you mention it, she was friends with a wealthy guy called Sergei who had a Green Card for no apparent reason. Other clues: Anna loved watching James Bond movies and Benny Hill. 
Apparently, Anna left Alex on account of her expensive tastes, picking some guy who could buy her a Cartier watch over him -- which perhaps explains the ultimate payback of him selling their sex pics to The News of the World.
How nice of him to release such intimate photos to the media.  Obviously, no ill-feeling on his part, just... GREED.   They had something in common, didn't they?

After the divorce, Anna moved to New York City and there ran a successful real estate company, living the high life and garnering some influential and rich Russian and International clients, as well as lovers.  
All was going well, until an undercover FBI agent attempted to draw her into a trap at a Manhattan Starbucks. The FBI agent offered Chapman a fake passport with the instructions to forward it to another spy. He asked, "are you ready for this step?", to which Chapman replied, "Of course." She accepted the passport. However, after making a series of phone calls to her father, Vasily Kushchenko, in Moscow, Chapman ended up heeding her father's advice and handed the passport in at a local police station, but was arrested shortly after. After her arrest by the FBI for her involvement with the Illegals Program, she was formally charged with nine other detainees and became part of a spy swap deal between the US and Russia.

Back in Russia, she has gained celebrity status and is seen more as  a heroine rather than a femme fatale. In the Russian edition of Maxim magazine in October, she stated: "Seduction, like love and friendship are the same everywhere," when asked which men are easier to seduce, Russians, British or Americans.
"Most men are divided in three categories: primitive, those that only want sex; smarter, those that want to be loved and [the] last group -- those that not only want to be loved, they also need that this love will be the biggest and most amazing feeling in your life," she said.
Chapman, who once claimed to be a wealthy realtor, has since been hired as an adviser to the president of FundServiceBank, an authorized bank of the Russian space agency, and hosts a TV show. 

And these photos might explain US Vice-President Joe Biden, when jokingly asked by Jay Leno on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, "Do we have any spies that hot?", replied in a mock serious tone, "Let me be clear. It was not my idea to send her back."

For more in depth reading, just Google Anna Chapman.  

The Femme Fatale

Definition of FEMME FATALE

1   a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or compromising situations

2   a woman who attracts men by an aura of charm and mystery

Origin of FEMME FATALE

French, literally, disastrous woman

First Known Use: 1912

There are some men who just cannot resist the power of Femme Fatale.  She glides, she moves, she manipulates, she seduces, and the victim (the man) for the most part is trapped by the vision she chooses him to see.

Having been beguiled and seduced, he becomes too weak to resist, with no thought of the consquences attached.

Welcome to my blog. 

Film Review 1 - Matador

Matador, Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Stars: Assumpta Serna  Antonio Banderas  Nacho Martinez

Year: 1986.  Spanish with English subtitles
Purchase through  The Londoncalling Store link to Amazon on this blog.

What do a particular matador and a female sadist have in common?
Blood lust.

It isn’t everyone whose adrenal glands are so blocked that they need to ride roller coasters endlessly or sky dive without parachutes or whatever. But in this wicked and wickedly clever 1986 movie, viewers get to nuzzle up to the twisted inner workings of some characters I find quite lovely and charming.

A retired matador whose aged reflexes keep him out of the ring. And a quite fetching woman who, early on, wraps herself around her casual lover and leaves the most perfect, round lipstick imprint on the base of his neck. Having somewhat similar sympathies and a dislike of protracted agony without ecstasy, I’m quite glad that her hatpin is sharp as she imitates the ritual of life and death in the bullring with an estocada. The moment that she plunges the estoca in, the moment that he’s paralyzed, inflamed and erect and beyond reason – that final, fleeting gasp of breath – how priceless. It sends her quite over the edge.

I do admire a woman who knows what She wants.

Black comedy. Thriller.  Erotic.