I can still clearly remember the first time I watched the film Basic Instinct. I was about 13 or 14 years old, home alone, rummaging through the VHS collection, when I saw Sharon Stone’s enchanting gaze on the cover (she wasn’t even supposed to be on it, she was so unknown at the time). I immediately felt like I had to see this film. Little did I know at the time that it was going to be the beginning of a decade-long obsession; I was sucked right in.
The other day, for some reason, it occurred to me that it would be nice to re-watch it, and it indeed proved to be a great idea because even after all this time, it still has something new to say. In this essay, I would like to share these thoughts with you.
Erotic thriller as the new rebellion of Hollywood
The film was released in 1992 and starred Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone – it was also the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival that year. It is said to have received a huge ovation after a few seconds of stunned silence at the end of the screening.
In the late 80s and early 90s, the erotic thriller became a relatively fashionable genre. It was a reaction of the otherwise mostly conservative Hollywood to the values preferred by a more prudish, conservative administration in the country compared to the 70s. Take, for example, 1987’s Fatal Attraction. Interestingly, Michael Douglas also starred as the male lead in this film and Sharon Stone auditioned for the female lead – a role eventually taken by Glenn Close. These films were largely made to satisfy male fantasies, made by men for men.
Basic Instinct is unique in its category because the femme fatale, tailor-made for male fantasies, takes complete control against the will of men and becomes something bigger than herself. None of this is thanks to Joe Eszterhas’ script or Paul Verhoeven’s direction, but solely to Sharon Stone. Without her, this film, with its silly macho dialogue, sexism, homophobia, and unrealistic storyline, would be collecting dust with other dime-a-dozen erotic thrillers.
The rise of Sharon Stone
After all these years, it’s impossible to imagine this film with another female lead, even though Sharon was only the 13th on the list – with actresses like Michelle Pfeiffer, Demi Moore, Kathleen Turner, among others, having been offered the role before her. Although the filmmakers were keen on having a star alongside Douglas, they all thought it too risky and refused to do so much nudity and sex scenes.
Sharon Stone was already 34 years old at the time, too old to make it as a woman by Hollywood standards, so she felt this might be her last chance. By her own admission, she really wanted the role, but the filmmakers were having none of it, saying she was too unknown and not even “f*ckable”… They were very wrong about that, because Sharon became an instant sex symbol with this film, which in turn gave film history its most-paused scene ever.
Before Basic Instinct, Stone was in terrible movies, generally acting terribly. One of my “favourites” is Scissors (1991). It’s completely incomprehensible to me how it is possible for only a year to have passed between Scissors and Basic Instinct. I really recommend watching the two films back-to-back (sorry in advance for the scissor experience, but it’s worth it), it’s as if two different people are acting in these films.
After Scissors, Sharon Stone walks into film history as Catherine Trammell. The amazing development and much improved acting was thanks to Roy London, from whom Stone took acting lessons at the time, and who died of AIDS shortly afterwards in 1993.
Basic homophobia
The film was made right in the middle of the HIV/AIDS crisis, when there was still a lot of stigma and prejudice surrounding the disease, and it was mostly associated with the gay community. During the filming in San Francisco, gay rights activists were regularly protesting and were repeatedly arrested for it. They were protesting the portrayal of lesbians and bisexuals, the unprotected and overtly violent sex, since every single lesbian or bisexual character in the film – first of all Catherine Tramell – is a psychopathic (serial) killer.
Why is it worth watching anyway?
So why am I a fan of the film and why do I recommend watching it?
For all its faults, I think this film is one of the best of all time. Apart from being beautiful, Sharon Stone has taken a two-dimensional male fantasy of a character – who has no function other than to be what she is written to be – and created a woman who knows what she wants, is independent, autonomous, and liberated in her sexuality. Yes, it’s unfortunate that she could only present this as a psychopathic serial killer, but in the grand scheme of film history, it was worth it, because for one of the first times the female character has transcended herself, and not in the least because it brought us the fantastic Sharon Stone.
Both Scissors and Basic Instinct are available on Videa.
Translation by Zsófia Ziaja
