Fatal Attraction + Basic Instinct
Sunday August 2nd
Michael Douglas heads up two of the most talked-about thrillers ever made, back to back on the big screen.
Michael Douglas is the thread running through this one. By the late 80s he was one of the biggest stars in the world, and he spent that power in a way almost nobody else at his level did. He kept choosing men who are weak, compromised, morally suspect.
Most stars protect their image. Douglas went looking for characters who lie, who fail, who get found out. No vanity, no hero polish. That willingness to look bad is exactly what makes these two films work.
So that’s the shape of the night. Two of the defining thrillers of their era, back to back, on a big screen with a crowd.
At 6pmFATAL ATTRACTION
First, Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction (1987). A married lawyer has a weekend affair while his wife is away, and it will not stay a weekend.
Glenn Close is extraordinary as Alex Forrest, the editor who will not be ignored. Six Oscar nominations, a fortune at the box office, and a thousand arguments on the drive home.
For a few months it was the biggest film in the world, and it plays even better with a crowd.
BASIC INSTINCT
Five years later Douglas went further. Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992) is the erotic thriller at full throttle. A San Francisco detective investigates a murder, and the chief suspect is a crime novelist whose latest book describes the killing exactly.
Verhoeven had cast Sharon Stone in Total Recall two years earlier, then handed her the part every actress in Hollywood wanted. It made her a star overnight, and the interrogation scene became one of the most famous single scenes in cinema.
Put the two films side by side and you can see what Douglas was up to. 1987 was quite a year for him: Fatal Attraction in September, Wall Street in December, and a few months after that the Best Actor Oscar for Gordon Gekko. He was as big as a film star gets, and he kept using it to play men in over their heads.
Two films, one actor, five years apart. Bring someone who likes their thrillers grown-up and make a night of it.
