La Femme Fatale in PULP FICTION

We’re not introduced to Mia right away like how most characters usually are. Instead, Jules and Vincent talk about her first. We learn that Vincent will take Mia on a date later that night. Jules tells a story of how a previous man who went on a date with Mia had been permanently disabled because he gave her a foot massage. Although a foot massage doesn’t seem sexual to Jules, it certainly does to Vincent. He knows physical interaction with another man’s wife, if even just a foot massage, warrants a violent reaction. 

The reactions from Jules and the bartender Paul foreshadow that a date with Mia won’t be normal. So, now that the audience has been primed to know of Mia’s likely charged sexuality, we finally meet her. Right from the first time we hear Mia’s voice, it’s with implications of sex. The note Vincent reads is not of his narration, but of hers. She mentions she getting dressed, suggesting her nakedness.

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“Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield plays over the scene as Vincent walks through the house. The sexual lyrics foreshadow the night Mia and Vincent will have together. Mia playfully speaks with Vincent over the intercom as she watches him from the home camera. We only see a closeup of her lips and the microphone, symbolically implying fellatio. This focus on Mia’s lips becomes even more obvious during the Jack Rabbit Slim scene when she drinks the milkshake. If she and Vincent were to finalize their night with sex, the implication is that she would have gone down on him, if not more. 

As Vincent wanders around the living room, he stares at a portrait of Mia on a couch, smoking a cigarette, barefoot, before he lounges near it, as if he feels comfortable around her presence. He’s not afraid of her like the others warned him he should be. He’s already letting his guard down. After she prepares for the date with a few lines of coke, what do we see next? A low tracking shot of her infamous feet. 

When we first see Mia’s whole face in the car, she discusses the restaurant with Vincent. She uses her fingers to draw a square to playfully entice Vincent to accept the restaurant. It's one of the very few moments of special effects used in the whole film. And the only time one is used by a character. She possesses a supernatural power, the story implies, which she uses against men. Mia is a woman of myth in the crime world, like the sirens or mermaids of Greek mythology.

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She represents more than just the pretty wife of a gangster. She’s a temptress and a villain in her own right. Men in that world know to stay away from her. The men who don’t know or who do know, but are easily entranced by Mia’s sexuality, succumb to her temptations. 

In the film noir genre, the femme fatale character is a woman who gets what she wants by manipulating others, primarily men, which is typically done by seducing them. Mia’s a femme fatale of the truest form. She’s arm candy for her gangster husband and a warning to others they’ll suffer the consequences when dealing with her. 

In the Jack Rabbit Slim scene, Mia flexes her flirtatious skills against Vincent. She uses playful nicknames with Vincent, as if she already has a close rapport with him, referring to him as an “Elvis man” and “daddio” and “cowboy.” In return, he calls her “kitty cat” and “cowgirl.” When Vincent removes her straw to sip the milkshake, she opposes, saying she’ll accept his germs, basically outright implying she welcomes him sexually. 

Once the conversation dies down, Vincent and Mia have an awkward moment. Her eyes are laser-focused on him and she seductively plays with the cherry in her mouth. She even implies she found that special someone in Vincent, which is obvious flirtation. 

When she returns, she vehemently denies that she and Antoine, who she acts as if she doesn’t know at first, had any sexual interactions. Mia then ridicules Vincent for the foot massage and overall sexual accusation she might have had with Antoine. But her actions speak louder than her words, as we’ve already seen and will see more of. 

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The choice for the 1964 Chuck Berry song “You never can tell,” tells a story of newlyweds in love. If there wasn’t any sexual tension there before, which there certainly was plenty, it’s surely there now with them dancing. When they return to her house, they enter dancing, holding one another, laughing. They've developed close rapport now to the point it’s nearly physically sexual. 

And then they have another awkward moment. This is when Vincent realizes he’s been smitten by her. He goes to the bathroom and talks to his reflection about loyalty. He has a moment of clarity and plans on going home. If it weren’t for Mia finding and using Vincent’s heroine, he might have stuck around and taken his chances with her. The sexual tension was there because that’s Mia’s natural state. She’s a femme fatale and most likely a cuckoldress, too.