Basic Instinct: the immoral leg crossing that changed Sharon Stone's career

TCM reveals in a documentary the keys to this great success, despite the disagreements between the director, the screenwriter and Michael Douglas Michael Douglas openly said that he didn't love her because she was a stranger, but no star was willing to shoot as many scenes as they appeared in the "Basic Instinct" script. Actresses who turned down the role include Kim Basinger, Geena Davis, Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Emma Thompson and Debra Winger.

Sharon Stone, who was not named, did fight for the role, but even after filming began she was close to losing it due to the nerves she showed in the first scenes. She never felt comfortable with her co-star, although she later confessed that this "tension" between the two was good for the final result.

She became a star in the blink of an eye.

The result is that "Basic Instinct" became the most watched film in 1992, something unusual for the title chosen to open the Cannes festival. After fascinating and scandalizing the American public, in its official presentation at the French competition little was said about the depth of field and other aspects of the "filmic event", according to Oti Rodíguez Marchante.

Not many will remember that the film opted for two Oscars, for its soundtrack and for its editing, perhaps because the use of scissors when cutting (or not) the scenes was almost as daring as that of the ice pick by its protagonist. The ABC critic defined her character as "a woman capable of liquefying an igloo".

Almost three decades later, TCM premieres this Sunday (at 10:00 p.m.) a self-produced documentary about Paul Verhoeven's film, "Dismantling Instincts". Written and directed by Jacinto Carvalho, the work reviews the keys to this title, the reasons for its success and why it remains in the collective memory of viewers so many years later.

Before "Basic Instinct", Sharon Stone's most important role had been that of "Total Challenge", also under Verhoeven and alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. Previously, she had appeared in low-budget titles like Wes Craven's "Deadly Blessing" and a rather forgettable remake of "King Solomon's Mines." She had even shot in Spain the no less expendable revision of «Blood and sand», under the orders of Javier Elorrieta.

In fact, Woody Allen was the first to give him a role, albeit as an extra, in "Memories." It premiered in 1980, when Stone was 22 years old. Paul Verhoeven chose her to star in "Basic Instinct" eleven years later.

TCM will broadcast "Disassembling instincts" on Sunday, at 10:00 p.m. Right after, at 10:50 p.m., viewers will be able to enjoy “Basic Instinct” again. The documentary reunites the director, Paul Verhoeven, and the two main protagonists, Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, with the screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, who also went on to become one of the highest paid in Hollywood, without later being able to justify his cache.

Michael Douglas explains that the film came at a time when the cinema had become very conservative (it was the time of AIDS) and that when he read the script it reminded him in some ways of "Fatal Attraction", another of his great successes, which he had played in 1987 together with Glenn Close.

Paul Verhoeven recalls that the story had something immoral about it, it was aggressive. "All the things that I like," adds the Amsterdam-born director. The screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is of Hungarian origin, for his part, one of the explanations offered for the daring and audacity of his text, especially in the  scenes, in contrast to what other American screenwriters did not have. 

An independent production company, Carolco Pictures, responsible for titles such as the "Rambo" saga, "Total Recall" and "Terminator 2", bought the script for four million dollars and sold the distribution rights to Columbia. The film's budget was around 50 million dollars. It ended up raising close to 350 million.

The documentary narrates the disagreements between Joe Eszterhas, Paul Verhoeven and Michael Douglas over some scenes in the film and over how the film should end. Sharon Stone talks about how nervous she was at the beginning of the shoot. So much so that they even thought of replacing it. Finally, as Paul Verhoeven says, she brought out the "more diabolical and seductive" side of herself.

One of the aspects in which the documentary dwells the most is commenting on the shooting of the erotic scenes, very risky and daring for a commercial film aimed at the general public. And specifically, that of the famous interrogation of Catherine Tramell at the police station, with that crossing of legs that made it very clearthat Sharon Stone was not wearing anything under her skirt.

The actress maintains her version that she was deceived by the director. According to her, her initial idea was that in the scene only the lack of underwear would be intuited. At the time of shooting, however, Paul Verhoeven told him that there was some shine on it and asked him to take it off. When the actress reviewed the shot on a small monitor, she took it for granted but, when she later saw the scene on a big movie screen, she was shocked. 

Dismantling Instincts also mentions the problems the film had when it was released in the United States and the attempted boycott attempted by several LGTB associations due to the negative image. But both Paul Verhoeven and Sharon Stone maintain that Catherine Tramell is a character who became an ideal woman in the post-feminist era, and that "Basic Instinct" is a film of empowered women.

On Sunday, December 20, viewers will be able to check if everything that is said about it is true or not and if, almost 30 years after its premiere, it continues to maintain all its strength and validity.

"Basic Instinct 2"

In 2006, a second part was released that did not generate controversy, despite the fact that it was preceded by an intense film campaign. “Basic Instinct 2: Addiction to Risk” was directed by Michael Caton-Jones (“Rob Roy, the passion of a rebel”) and in the reviews of some great media words like “garbage”, “horrible” “degrading” could be read ». The second part is halfway between the original and our time, but memory only has room for the first.