Paul Verhoeven made a name for himself in the 80s and 90s, especially with his cult sci-fi action films ‘RoboCop’ and ‘Total Recall’. While these were about the utopias of a violent society in the future, the Dutch director devoted himself to the erotic thriller genre for the first time with ‘Basic Instinct’.
With success, as is evident from the number of visitors at the box office. While the highly anticipated comedy adaptation “Marvel’s The Avengers” attracted approximately 2,261,000 film fans to cinemas in Germany alone in 2012, “Basic Instinct” attracted as many as 4,476,000 visitors in this country in 1992, according to InsideKino.
The mega-successful erotic thriller ‘Basic Instinct’ continues to impress. You can do that today, January 5, 2023 at 10:25 PM on 3sat.
If the date does not suit you, there are of course alternatives. At MagentaTV, “Basic Instinct” is available as a fixed-rate subscription. Also in the program of It is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video* – with the Film Legends Channel, which can be tested for free for seven days for all Prime users, even without additional costs – otherwise for a small rental fee. The FSK-16 title is of course also available as (4K/UltraHD) Blu-ray and DVD:
A frigid ice pick murder
After the brutal murder of musician Johnny Boz (Bill Cable), the main suspect is quickly identified. For example, Johnny’s girlfriend – the famous writer Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) – described the murder of a rock star with an ice pick in her last novel. She was also the one last seen with Johnny.
Detectives Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) and Gus Moran (George Dzundza) of the San Francisco Police Department can’t prove anything to her. But Nick in particular does not give up and increasingly falls into the clutches of the manipulative author, who knows how to use not only her sharp mind, but also her feminine charms…
Bold insight that wrote film history
The basic essence of ‘Basic Instinct’ is typified by a scene at the police station in which a whole gang of somewhat dusty-looking tie wearers eagerly discuss how dangerous Catherine really is, since she had already committed the real murder in her announced novel. . It seems as if a woman keeps the entire male world on edge with her erotic-morbid fantasies.
This impression is amply confirmed later in the interrogation room when the main suspect – sensually smoking a cigarette – muses exuberantly about sex, drugs and violence, causing many of the police officers present to sweat profusely. The moment when Catherine gives the police officers – and therefore also the viewer – a look between her thighs is burned into the collective cinematic memory. A real commotion that probably still irritates the moral guardians of the rather prudish American mainstream cinema to this day.
Summit meeting of the cinema giants of the 90s
But the tension is not neglected either. The treacherous game of the main character with detective Nick and the unexpected twists keep the viewer constantly on their toes. The fact that the main character of the writer’s new novel, which is currently being worked on, is supposed to be based on Nick is the final straw.
The duel between the leading actors is also an acting treat between two Hollywood heavyweights in the prime of their careers. Michael Douglas initially appears as the usual cool macho cop like in ‘Black Rain’ – even though Nick already has unstable tendencies as a dry alcoholic – but he is replaced by Sharon Stone, who in her eyes is apparently superior. role as femme fatale and then broken down into its individual mental parts.
Yet behind the perfect facade, Stone’s character is anything but psychologically stable. This is also evident from the dysfunctional lesbian relationship with her friend Roxy (Leilani Sarelle). This ambivalence means that the viewer can never be completely sure who will emerge victorious from the destructive competition.