Basic Instinct

*"Tell me Nicky, were you frightened last night?" "That's the point wasn't it? That's what made it so good."* Basic Instinct plays totally different than the typical noir. It is its differences that make it so remarkable and so much more memorable. Consider the first appearance of Roxy; she descends the staircase like so many starring femme fatales, but she's just a red herring. She's even mistaken for the real suspect, Catherine Tramell. Catherine Tramell is first shown, not in the city, but at the beach. Typically, corruption in noir films is contained in the city, but here the corruption is found in nature. To be more specific, it lies at the beach. Like Aphrodite rising from the sea foam or the crashing waves behind Stewart and Novak in Vertigo as they kiss, Catherine Tramell exudes raw sexuality. Obviously, Tramell is the true femme fatale. Paul Verhoeven argues that corruption does not lie in the dark city. San Francisco is far from dark for the majority of the picture. In fact, in typical noir fashion, all the crime takes place at night. Not only crime, however, takes place at night. All the sexual activity is committed after dark. One may say that getting involved in something, romantically or otherwise, that one shouldn't is normal for a noir film, but seeing as Basic Instinct prides itself in being a sexual thriller as well (the film even opens with a sex scene), one should consider sex to be a major theme. Is sex corrupting? Does sex exude control over others? Another thing. Film noir has ties to psychotherapy. The therapist (the detective) is hired by the client (the client) to solve their problems and mustn't get involved (romantically or sexually) with the client or anyone involved with the case. In Basic Instinct, not only does the detective become involved with someone in the case, but he returns to sexual relations with his psychologist. Just a sort of clever acknowledgement to the genre as well as how far down the spiral of corruption Detective Nick Curran goes. The sexual tension between Curran and Tramell is so palpable (it's easily my favorite aspect of the film) that Curran, not only, returns to an unprofessional and genre-acknowledging relationship, but also returns to his other vices (ie: alcohol, cigarettes, and cocaine) as well as his more violent tendencies. All noir hinges on a choice and Basic Instinct's Nick Curran has an existential choice that, naturally considering the film, about sex. Nick makes the choice to continue seeing Catherine and to engage her sexually, giving into his, wait for it, basic instincts. It isn't just a choice between sex with Sharon Stone and sex with Jeanne Tripplehorn, but rather a choice between returning to his reckless and violent past or to a brighter future. As the film progresses, he shows that he has no desire to do anything but to regress back to his former self. Again, to regress back to is baser instincts. The first time watching this I did not enjoy it much. I found it trashy and needlessly excessive, even for Verhoeven. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to understand it. Especially after seeing Gone Girl and seeing its influence, I decided to return to it. Although it's a lot smarter than I remember it being and the sexual tension (mostly generating from Sharon Stone) is still electrifying, Basic Instinct's effectiveness slowly dissipates the morning after Catherine and Nick's first night together. With Nick now totally sucked into the bottom of this malignant pit, the mysterious moody atmosphere gives way for just dark and desperate actions of a man whose lost all morality. Still, I have to give it so much credit for the exhilarating cat-and-mouse game between the two leads, the intellectual meat, and Sharon Stone's fearsome performance that all prove that sex is pretty scary.