Our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Scene's Anatomyhas been rebranded as Anatomy of a Nude Scene, but nothing else has changed. We're still going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Sharon Stone takes a poorly misguided stab at reviving her brand with Basic Instinct 2!
When Sharon Stone was launched to superstardom with herturn as femme fatale Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct, she was staring down a crossroads. She had toiled in the business for nearly a decade, landing small but unmemorable parts in small, unmemorable movies. Her highest profile roles to date were in the Cannon Films Allan Quatermain movies of the mid-80s, and as the 90s approached, they seemed more and more like her professional peak. Then she landed a not-so-small and totally memorable role opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi smash Total Recall.
She then threw herself completely into the business of landing the lead role in Verhoeven's next flick, Basic Instinct. While she had soldthe directoron her talents, co-lead Michael Douglas was also serving as a producer on the film and vetoed Stone's casting. He was absurdly pursuing Julia Roberts for the role, which would have never worked, but when he finally tested opposite Stone, he too saw that she was really the only choice to play Catherine. Stone owns the role from the moment we first meet her and, unsurprisingly, are as taken in by her wiles as Douglas' character. It's a true "Star is Born" role for an actress who was in her mid-30s and well over a decade into her career.
For more on the first Basic Instinct, check our in-depth analysis of it right here
As the 90s waned on, Stone continued to demand high salaries and earned her first Oscar nomination for Scorsese's Casino, but for whatever reason she kept wanting to come back to this character. It's no doubt a great part and the role that made her famous, but it was hardly a film crying out for a sequel. In 2001, Stone filed a lawsuit against Carolco Pictures honchos Andrew Vajna and Mario Kassar, claiming that they had violated an oral agreement to make another film centered aroundthe murderous bisexual bestselling author and her renowned "Magna Cum Laude pussy."
After passing through the hands of many directors—including David Cronenberg and Die Hard's John McTiernan—the project seemed to have died a slow painful death when Stone filed her $100 million lawsuit in 2001. Three years later, just before the case was set to go to trial, Stone dropped the lawsuit and an agreement was struck to go into production on Basic Instinct 2with Kassar and Vajna producing. It's fascinating, particularly considering the outcome, how much of a fuss was made over this movie. A cinema studies graduate student could conceivably write a thesis on the number of terrible movies with protracted lawsuits more interesting than the films themselves. They shouldn't, but they could.
The film should have been an instant camp classic, all the elements are there: Stone and Charlotte Rampling together for the first time, characters with names like "Dicky Pep" and "Kevin Franks," not to mention the fact that the original film was something of a camp classic—though not overtly campy. Unfortunately, both the limp-dicked script by Leora Barish and Henry Bean, as well as the fact that director Michael Caton-Jones (Doc Hollywood) was not exactly known for stylish thrillers, both let the premise down a bit by not delivering any of what made the first film great—beyond lots of Sharon Stone nudity.
Speaking of which, Stone looks amazing as she's knocking on the door of 50—she was 47 at the time of filming. As you can see, her hard work on her body paid off as she looks as good as ever, even if the nudity here isn't anywhere close to being as iconic as the original...
Shortly after the film's release in March 2006, Stone floated the notion of potentially directing a third installment in the series, but it turns out that Basic Instinct was never meant to be a franchise. The sequel grossed a little over $5 million in North America, which, when combined with an additional $29million overseas, still doesn't equal even half the film's budget of $70 million. In case you're wondering, that $70 million is nowhere to be found on screen, and it's likely that—like Superman Returns and John Carter before it—the budget was inflated due to absorbing the film's many false starts. Still,the film can't hold a candle to the original, and it's probably best to just pretend it doesn't exist outside of MrSkin.com.
Stir Up More Controversy with These Other Notorious Editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct
—Showgirlsand the Dangers of High Camp
—Lisa Bonet's Bloody Nude Debut inAngel Heart
—Monica Bellucci Gets Brutalized in Gaspar Noé'sIrréversible
—Chloë Sevigny Goes Down in History forThe Brown Bunny
—Anne Hathaway Wreaks Havoc on Her Disney Image
—Analyzing the Dream Logic of Eyes Wide Shut
—Isabella Rossellini's Intentionally Unsexy Nude Debut in Blue Velvet
—The Strange Sexual Dynamics of Dogtooth
—How the Remake of Oldboy Stacks Up Against the Original
—Madonna Touches On Her Basic Instincts in Body of Evidence
—Barbara Crampton Gets Head From a Severed Head in Re-Animator
—Two Highly Respected Actors Have Real Sex in Intimacy
—Meg Ryan Goes from America's Sweetheart to Pariah with In the Cut
—Oscar Winner Ang Lee Goes Full NC-17 with Lust, Caution
—Examining Nymphomaniac's Dubious Claims of Digital Double Trickery
—Did Sienna Miller and Anakin Skywalker Really Do It in Factory Girl?
