Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Basic Instinct (5 Stars)
She's evil! She's brilliant!
These words, spoken by Dr. Elisabeth Garner in the film, are just two of Catherine Tramell's qualities. They're probably her most important qualities. I'd add to them:
She's beautiful! She's rich!
I've seen Sharon Stone in many films, made both before and after "Basic Instinct", but I've never seen her looking as attractive as in this film. She looks like the perfect femme fatale. I wouldn't call "Basic Instinct" an example of film noir, but it certainly has a lot of the characteristics.
It's a perfect film. I can't fault it in any way. Even down to the small details, like the detective's shirt when he goes to the night club. He's obviously trying to look cool, but doing things wrong. He's totally out of place among the ravers.
Click here for my last review.
I didn't get to see this one underage... :)
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't matter. I missed it in the cinema as well, despite not being under-aged. That's why DVDs were invented, so we can catch up later.
DeleteI first saw "Basic Instinct" on television in the late 1990's. In America a slightly different version was shown on television. I don't know if this version has been shown in England. Some of the dialogue has been dubbed to remove swear words. There are cuts to remove or shorten sex scenes.
Sharon Stone was just THE pin-up of the early 90s, and I was kind of young at the time to care. She deserved plaudits for this role and followed up very well too.
DeleteI can't remember Sharon Stone being much of a pin-up. She definitely wasn't mine, and I can't remember any of my friends caring much for her. For me she was just an actress like any other actress. My pin-up in the early 1990's was the singer Sabrina Salerno. Literally speaking, she was the only pin-up I had all my life, because she was the only woman of whom I ever bought posters and put them on the wall. In the mid-1990's my main pin-up was Julie Strain. I never had any posters of her. Shame. I also liked the model Traci Topps.
DeleteSince replying to your post I've been thinking about the women who I have admired from afar over the years. My "pin-ups". There were always many women I found attractive, of course, but at any time there was always one I liked more than any other. Maybe a couple. It's interesting to see how my tastes in women have developed over the years.
DeleteI grew up with the Sun's Page 3 girls, like most men over 40. My favourite model of the 1970's was Beverley Pilkington, alongside Gillian Duxbury.
In the 1980's I was obsessed with Grace Jones (the actress/singer), although I also liked Samantha Fox. In the late 1980's I discovered Sabrina Salerno, who became my only real pin-up.
In the mid-1990's I turned my attention to Julie Strain. Traci Topps as well. I used to hunt for magazines with photos of Traci.
Julie Strain probably remained my favourite throughout the 2000's. I bought every film starring her that I could lay my hands on.
Currently my main pin-up is Ai Shinozaki. I'm a member of her fan group, and I have a large collection of her photos. She began her career as a model and singer, but now she's also an actress. It's strange that I should like her so much at this point in my life. She's very "innocent", she's never been photographed naked, unlike all the pin-ups I've admired in the past. Maybe I'm becoming more prude in my old age.