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In our weekly series Anatomy of a Nude Scene, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sex scenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Kirsten Dunst goes topless for the first time in a mostly forgotten film that led to the conviction of one of the most notorious criminals of the 20th century!
Nearly six years ago, the television viewing world was held firmly in the grip of HBO's riveting miniseries The Jinx, examining the involvement of real estate magnate Robert Durst in the 1982 disappearance of his wife, as well as two subsequent murders. The series lit the cold case on fire and eventually led to the arrest of Durst for those crimes, with his trial set to resume this coming April. The weird thing about all of this, however, is that it all began with a little seen film from a decade ago that had fictionalized Durst's life story called All Good Things. The only reason pretty much anyone remembered that film, of course, was because it was the flick where Kirsten Dunst made her nude debut!
Moviefone co-founder Andrew Jarecki is one of those directors who must subscribe to the notion of kismet. He decided to segue into filmmaking after wanting to make a documentary about New York City birthday clowns. One of the clowns he interviewed for this project, David Friedman, turned out to have a fascinating backstory involving his father and younger brother. Jarecki then followed that story thread until it turned into his masterful 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary Capturing the Friedmans.
If that weren't enough, Jarecki's next film saw him segue once again, this time into the world of narrative filmmaking. All Good Things was a slightly fictionalized version of Durst's life with his first wife Kathleen McCormack, who vanished without a trace in February, 1982. Like Durst, Ryan Gosling's David Marks is the son of a wealthy real estate investor, eldest heir to a massive fortune, who falls for working class gal Katie (Kirsten Dunst) and flees with her to Vermont in the early 70s to escape his tyrannical father (Frank Langella). Together, they open the titular health food store and try to live a quiet, secluded life.
Over the years, he is constantly lured back into the family business by his father, while also physically and emotionally abusing Katie to the point of her leaving him to return to college. After accidentally discovering some potentially incriminating illegal dealings by David and his father, Katie disappears without a trace in February 1982. Eighteen years later, New York's district attorney reopens the case when he is given an unpublished manuscript by David's best friend Deborah Lehrman (Lily Rabe) featuring a murder eerily similar to the circumstances surrounding Katie's disappearance.
Just as the case is reopened, however, Deborah is found murdered, execution style, in her home. This is also based in fact, with Deborah Lehrman being a hilariously on-the-nose stand-in for Durst's best friend Susan Berman, who was also found murdered, execution style, in her home. Marks—and Durst—were also tried and acquitted of the murder of an elderly neighbor found dismembered in the Gulf of Mexico.
All Good Things was released in November, 2010, and went largely unnoticed by the public, grossing less than a million dollars at the box office. One person who did catch the film, however, was Robert Durst. He contacted Jarecki and expressed admiration for the film, eventually ending up recording an audio commentary alongside Jarecki for the film's DVD release. Durst also had his complaints about the film and over the course of the next few years, agreed to sit down with Jarecki and tell his side of the story.
The hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the next several years formed the basis of what would become The Jinx, with Jarecki once again falling from one unsuccessful product right into a hugely successful one. Not only was The Jinx a cultural water cooler word-of-mouth phenomenon, it led to Durst's arrest after he made incriminating statements while in the bathroom, unaware he was still wearing his microphone. It's increasingly common in this day and age that a documentary leads to the re-opening or re-trying of a case, but this was certainly one of the more high profile examples of that phenomenon.
Of course, we mustn't let all of this distract from the fact that this was Kirsten Dunst's topless debut—she bared her buns in Marie Antoinette four years earlier—with the actress going topless to join Gosling in the shower 43 minutes in...
In a candid interview with Vanity Fair at the time of the film's release, Dunst talks about a much longer nude scene that was shot but has yet to surface, even as part of any supplemental materials...
Kirsten Dunst: What happened in the shower scene, she comes in and we start making out, and I gesture that I’m going to go down on him. And then I do.
Vanity Fair: Wow. How Brown Bunny of you.
KD: Well, it didn’t go that far. (Laughs.) But the scene did get cut out. Not that we showed everything, but you saw what I was doing to him. I thought it really made sense. In her own way, she’s being as manipulative as he is. She’s trying to get what she wants. They both are. That’s what the scene was about for me. It’s her gesture of coming into the shower and making him feel good, and in doing so, trying to get what she wanted. So I thought it was appropriate.
VF: Well that blows my theory.
KD: What was your theory?
VF: I thought you went topless as a way of distracting everyone from the fact that Ryan Gosling is always taking off his shirt... He’s even shirtless in the All Good Things poster!
KD: That’s true. But so am I.
VF: Yeah, but it’s not a recurring motif for you. Nobody says, “Oh look, Kirsten Dunst has a new movie. Can’t wait for all that gratuitous nudity!”
KD: Well, they can start. After this, I also have a nude scene in Melancholia. So they’ll get used to seeing me naked. Trust me, they’ll be over it by the next film.
I don't think we'll ever get tired of seeing Kirsten nude, even though she does seem to have put nudity in her rear view mirror for now. Also, shout out to Vanity Fair's Eric Spitznagel for intimating that Dunst really sucked off her co-star. Thank goodness she's got a sense of humor. Just a small glimpse into what women in Hollywood put up with every single day.
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Catch up with our most recent editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene
—Kristen Stewart Pops Her Top Off in On the Road
—Uma Thurman Steals Dangerous Liaisons Out From Under Her More Famous Co-Stars
—Did They Really Kill a Chicken During That Infamous Pink Flamingos Sex Scene?
—A Naked Julie Michaels Kicks Keanu's Ass in Point Break
—Alexis Dziena Gives Aging Lothario Bill Murray an Eyeful in Broken Flowers
—P.J. Soles Establishes a Key Horror Movie Trope in John Carpenter's Halloween
—Can We Talk About Linnea Quigley's Barbie Doll Crotch in Return of the Living Dead?
—Innocent Blood Finds John Landis Trying to Get His American Werewolf Mojo Back
—The Insane Japanese Horror Movie House Features Equally Insane Nudity
—Howard Stern's Private Parts Lives Up to Its Titular Promise
—Neve Campbell Wastes No Time Making Her Nude Debut in When Will I Be Loved
—Amy Locane Gets Carried Away from Melrose Place to Bang Dennis Hopper
—The Shape of Water Opens with Sally Hawkins Masturbating in the Tub
—Jennifer Jason Leigh Gets the Drop on Bridget Fonda in Single White Female
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Click Here to Read All Past Editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene/Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy
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