| Fatale is also the
title of a comic book published in the mid-1990s by Broadway Comics.
Damage is
Damages. For a discussion of the legal concept of damages,
refer to that article.
The first person narrator of the novel is Dr Stephen
Fleming (Irons in the movie), a medical doctor turned politician whose
promotion from MP to cabinet member is imminent. Just then
Fleming is casually introduced to his grown-up son's enigmatic girlfriend Anna (Binoche) and helplessly falls for her. For as long as it lasts, Martyn, his son, has no idea that his
father is having an extra-marital affair with his girlfriend (and later fiancée), and Anna does not seem to mind being a young
man's partner and simultaneously his father's lover and object of desire. Fleming enjoys a brief period of sexual bliss meeting
Anna in various European cities and having sex with her in unlikely places. Eventually, she buys them a small flat in central
London where they meet on a regular basis.
One day Martyn happens to get hold of that address and, curious, goes there to investigate. He climbs up a flight of stairs to
the top floor, opens the unlocked door to the apartment, and is shocked to see his father making love to his fiancée. Dazed and
utterly confused, he tumbles backwards, hits the low banister and falls down the stairwell. Fleming runs down the stairs
completely naked, finding Martyn dead, sprawled out on the ground floor. He kneels on the floor and clutches Martyn's body to him
until the police arrive. In the final scene, we see Fleming, stripped of his political office and living abroad as a recluse,
sitting in his solitary room staring at an oversized photograph on the wall of himself with Anna and Martyn.
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