38 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Thunderball and Never Say Never Again have many things in common, including the evil femme fatale characters of Fiona Volpe and Fatima Blush, both which I have found are many fan's favorites. They both share many of the same aspects. They have sex first, kill later, they both really dislike James Bond and some consider that both films lack something after the death of each character.
The question is: Which one do you like better?

I find both of them to be excellent characters, and I think both were extremely fine casting. With some great line such as:

"Do you like wild things Mr Bond, James Bond?"
"But of course! I forgot your ego..."
"You're quite a man Mr James Bond, but I am a superior woman, guess where you get the first one..."
Plus many more...

I find it very difficult to choose, and still really don't consider one of the other, but, Fiona Volpe is a slightly better character due to her great amount of screen presence, however Fatima Blush is slightly more wicked, I come to deadlock, it's so hard to choose. Which do you prefer?

[Turn]

I choose Fiona. TB is my favorite film and NSNA just doesn't rank very highly for me.

The thing with the Fatima character is she's just way over the top. That's not a bad thing, but she always seems to teeter on being campy rather than villainous, whereas Branauer's Largo could fall into the same category but doesn't. He makes a more convincing psycho and is not so comic by being more subtle. When Domino calls him crazy and he answers "Yeah, maybe." That's a great line and Brandauer nailed it.

Fiona, on the other hand, is deadly cool the whole time. Her dressing down of Bond when he is captured is a lot more potent than Fatima's when she has him at gunpoint. That scene is almost played for humor's sake.

A more interesting comparison may be Fatima vs. Xenia Onatopp, since those two characters seem more cut from the same cloth.

[DLibrasnow]

Fatima Blush wins -- no contest!

[Qwerty]

See, it's so hard to choose between them all. If there's one thing the Bond series does almost all the time perfectly, is creating wicked femme fatales, you never grow tired of them!

[Turn]

Good point, Qwerty. Although I think Ms. Brandt from YOLT is pretty weak. She's a direct steal of Fiona.

[Turn]

Originally posted by DLibrasnow
Fatima Blush wins -- no contest!

Come on, DLSnow, you're not gonna get off that easy. I gave my reasons, gimme yours.

[DLibrasnow]

Fatima Blush, Xenia Onatopp, Magda and May Day are my favorite femme fatales.

[Turn]

Would a Rosa Klebb or Irma Bunt be considered a femme fatale? Or are they just plain nasty villains?

[Qwerty]

Well, Turn, I think we can place them in the villains category, because they never really use their sex appeal to lure Bond to his death, whereas Fiona Volpe, Helga Brandt, Xenia Onatopp and Fatima Blush do.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Qwerty
Well, Turn, I think we can place them in the villains category, because they never really use their sex appeal to lure Bond to his death, whereas Fiona Volpe, Helga Brandt, Xenia Onatopp and Fatima Blush do.

True, but its obvious that Rosa Klebb wanted to jump Tatiana's bones!

[Qwerty]

Ha Ha. I love the scene in the novel even more. It goes something like: Klebb comes out in a new nightgown and asks Tatiana if she likes it. Tatiana is all the while thinking that she is a hideous woman. Then Klebb sits down next to her and says "Now we can really get to know one another", and Tatiana runs from the room. It's perfect, very funny. One wonders what would have happened if they put the whole scene in it's entirety in the film...

[Blox]

Turn: Would a Rosa Klebb or Irma Bunt be considered a femme fatale? Or are they just plain nasty villains?

...Main Entry: femme fa

[zencat]

I love these black widow Bond Girls... It's a very close call between Fiona and Fatima, but, for me, chest size tips the scale toward Fiona. (Yes, ladies, I'm a pig).

But Xenia blows both these babes out of the water. As far as bad Bond Girls go, she's my one and only.

[ChandlerBing]

If they promised not to kill me in the AM, could I have em both? At the same time? Decision, decisions....this could take some time!

[Triton]

There's no contest. Fatima Blush is more wicked than Fiona Volpe as demonstrated by:

• Her assault of Jack Patachi for smoking and her administration of heroin injections.
• Throwing a live boa constrictor into a moving vehicle to distract Jack Patachi.
• Leaving the Monte Carlo casino singing with delight when she was ordered to kill Bond.
• Drowning Nicole in the water bed.
• Attaching the radio transmitter to Bond's scuba tank so that the tiger sharks would attack him.
• Requiring Bond to write an endorsement of Fatima's sexual prowess at gun point.
• All that remained of her when she was shot with the pen gun was a pair of high heels similar to the ruby slippers of the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz.

Fiona Volpe just seems like a who orders her henchmen to kill Bond.

[007luvchild2]

Klebb and Bunt are such manish characters IMO, you can't picture them seducing other men. Though it did creep me out seeing Klebb, attitude towards Romanova when they first encountered, especially when she refers to Romanova's job as a "Labour of Love." I noted there's a different reaction between Fatima and Fiona. Fiona kills people because she's just doing her job, she seduces 007, because it was her duty. She was the, professional "b*tch", but Fiona was more charming and elegant. She was likeable. Nevertheless, Fatima Blush her killings were sadistic, and brutal, (Bond assistant's death for example in NSNA and Domino's brother.) She was a psycho. I didn't mind seeing her exploding(which was cheesy special effects, but it was funny). Femme fatale in movies we like, and as a end result you want to say, "I wish they lived." Witches, are the ones you can't stand, and wish they would just die. Just saying that, I would say Fatima Blush. Depends on how one sees it.

Ha Ha. I love the scene in the novel even more. It goes something like: Klebb comes out in a new nightgown and asks Tatiana if she likes it. Tatiana is all the while thinking that she is a hideous woman. Then Klebb sits down next to her and says "Now we can really get to know one another", and Tatiana runs from the room. It's perfect, very funny. One wonders what would have happened if they put the whole scene in it's entirety in the film...

I do like the character Klebb, but that would scare the crap out of the movie audience.

[Blox]

Triton: Fiona Volpe just seems like a who orders her henchmen to kill Bond.

...Aside from how they were drawn, ie: sexy vs. couture-creepy, both Volpe & Blush were black widows who slept with their prey before killing them. One bumped off her prey on the back of a motorcycle; the other bumper her prey off of a motorcycle.

[Triton]

Originally posted by Blox
Triton: Fiona Volpe just seems like a who orders her henchmen to kill Bond.

...yah baby...

That's not to say that I don't enjoy watching Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe. She's a fun character. It's just that she cannot win the wickedness contest with Barbera Carrera's Fatima Blush. Fatima is much more wicked!

PS-- I forgot to mention that Fatima Blush cakles when she was shot by the pen gun.

[Qwerty]

Originally posted by 007luvchild2
[B

 

I do like the character Klebb, but that would scare the crap out of the movie audience. [/B]

Yes, it most certainly would've. ( Considering the time, 1963) It just proved that Fleming had no boundaries! He would write about anything!

And yes Triton, when Fatima laughs after she just got shot, that was just perfect! I love it!

[Blox]

They probably tried to give Volpe some of Bond's qualities, and was more a reflection than a contrast as a character. Hands down, Blush was the creepiest, nastiest of the two.

Beyond this, they've yet to feature a female heavy as the lead villain who is homely in a Klebb/Bunt sort of way. As I mentioned before, someone like Shirley Stoller in Wertmuller's Seven Beauties.

[A Kristatos]

I know it's been years since this topic was last visited, but having watched both TB and NSNA a lot lately, I have to vote for Fatima Blush, hands down. Although Fiona Volpe is excellent as a Femme Fatale, Blush's goofiness along with her nastiness makes her the best Femme Fatale of any Bond film, official or not.

However, I'm surprised no one ever mentioned Electra King as a good Femme Fatale. I put her a strong third, right behind Volpe.

And as far as I'm concerned, Xenia Onatopp is the one that is way over the top (pun intended)!

[Strangelove]

Fiona Volpe wins to be sure. That other film is terrible, and that other girl is ridiculus. Who throws a snake into a moving car? It's like something out Austin Powers.

[A Kristatos]

Fiona Volpe wins to be sure. That other film is terrible, and that other girl is ridiculus. Who throws a snake into a moving car? It's like something out Austin Powers.

Yeah, but it was a very creative way of killing someone!

[Bondesque]

Volpe by far! Far better an actress and far, far better looking. Fatima was a cartoon and way OTT. Volpe had the seductive sensuality to seduce Bond.

I found her extremely sexy.

[Harmsway]

Fiona Volpe, without a doubt. She's sexier, has the better material, gives Bond one of the best rebuttals in the series, and has one hell of a death scene. Perhaps the finest femme fatale the series ever had.

[Johnboy007]

Fiona all the way!

[Qwerty]

Decided to add a poll.

[Righty007]

I voted for Fiona Volpe because Never Say Never Again is hot garbage on a summer day.

[MarcAngeDraco]

Fiona! This one's not even close for me...

[Strangelove]

Fiona Volpe wins to be sure. That other film is terrible, and that other girl is ridiculus. Who throws a snake into a moving car? It's like something out Austin Powers.

Yeah, but it was a very creative way of killing someone!

It was always lame to me.

I vote for Fiona Volpe!