Chapter 25 A mixture of pornography, fairy tales and Hitchcock: Instinct, 1992

A mixture of pornography, fairy tales and Hitchcock: Instinct, 1992 1. Director Paul Verhoeven grew up in Holland under the violent Nazi rule in his childhood. It is said that he studied oil painting when he was a college student, and he has a lot of research on Dutch oil paintings in the 16th century.At the same time, he also studied film, but finally won the title of double doctorate in mathematics and physics.The films he made in the Netherlands in his early years were very "frank and honest", with a strong sense of adventure. His films are not lacking in logic and imagination, but at the same time they are more rigorous.Later, I saw an interview with the famous New Wave director Jacques Rivett. His favorite American work by Verhoeven was "Showgirls". He thought it was a "frank and honest" movie and insisted that it must be With a screenplay he wrote himself (not what Joe Eszterhas), this is one of the best American films in years.Rivett also loves "Starship Troopers" (Starship Troopers) (Starship Troopers), which he saw twice (most movie fans would probably think it was a bad movie).Rivett believes that Verhoeven has a "comic strip side", "his madness is so wonderful and interesting, much better than Spielberg's dinosaurs." Verhoeven's madness and frankness, perhaps in "Instinct" It's more obvious at a glance.

Verhoeven mentions in the commentary track on the DVD that "Basic Instinct" was an original script by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, and that it was filmed with little modification, which is only possible with an independent studio. (This company is called "Carloco". It once made blockbuster movies such as "Terminator 2" and "Total Recall", but because of the two disastrous failures of "American Dancer" and "Cutthroat Island", it eventually went bankrupt. Verhoeven At the beginning of the title with Jane de Bont, I really felt a lot of emotion, when a controversial director is hired by a big film company, he is often very uncomfortable).But the style and story of this original "Instinct" happened to have some ties to Verhoeven's 1983 work "The Fourth Man" (DeVierdeMan). The protagonist of "The Fourth Man" is also a writer, but the gender is male.While speaking in a different place, he met a beautiful widow whose three husbands died in accidents.And when the writer met a handsome man who was pursuing the widow at the same time, the two men had an ambiguous relationship.

"The Fourth Man" has a surreal part, that is, the male writer always dreams that a woman's vulva turns into a sharp scissors and cuts off his genitals.Therefore, some people say that this is a "weird work full of fear of female bodies and full of gay ambiguity." Verhoeven himself said that "Basic Instinct" is ""The Fourth Man" and a Hitchcock movie." mixture. 2. Rewatching "Basic Instinct" today, the biggest feeling of fans is that it can be completely regarded as a "Hitchcockian movie", or more precisely, it is a "modern version".This "modern" is mainly reflected in the gender position of the film. In all Hitchcock's works, women are always in a position of being peeped and abused, and Hitchcock obviously suppresses desire; In Wen there, this desire is released. Although women are still peeped, this peeping is often expressed as a means of oneself.In "Instinct", it is clear that women use their beauty and intelligence to completely control men-individuals and the police station representing the collective of men.

"Basic Instinct" was filmed on the stage in San Francisco, including the famous Golden Gate Bridge.Verhoeven used a large number of low-angle and close-up shots of characters, making the film full of ominous and mysterious, which is also the most commonly used shooting method by Hitchcock.And what has the most "blood connection" is the scene where Douglas drives to Sharon Stone's residence, taking a panoramic view from a distance, and then the scene of following the car, plus Jerry Goldsmith's similar scene The blurred soundtrack is simply reliving the feeling.And Sharon Stone has all the characteristics of "Hitchcock Girl": blonde, tall and plump, sexy, mysterious, and glamorous.

The way Paul Verhoeven shoots "Basic Instinct" is very rigorous.For example, there is a shot of Sharon Stone talking to Douglas in a moving car. Douglas asks her about the idea of ​​a new book, and Sharon Stone replies that "a policeman fell in love with someone who shouldn't be loved" (which happens to be Also the content of the plot).Verhoeven asked that when Sharon Stone answered this sentence, a ray of sunlight (light) happened to hit her in the face to show the danger and evil of her answer. Many scenes of driving and chasing cars in "Instinct" are very successful. Verhoeven uses a large number of shots shot inside the car to make the audience seem to be sitting in the car with the protagonist-this is also Hitchcock's shooting method.However, contrary to Hitchcock's extensive set-up, Verhoeven mostly used real-life shooting, except that the police station part was shot in a studio.Generally speaking, he lets the camera move with the actor's position, and the lens reveals the various spaces and actions with the characters, which makes "Instinct" full of inner sense of movement.Cinematographer Jan de Bont (who went on to direct the famous Speed) even invented a floating camera rig to capture those "subtly unsettling" scenes.

3. After the release of "Basic Instinct", there was great controversy, but one kind of comment was very mainstream.For example, the American film magazine "Box Office" made such a comment: ""Instinct" explores the relationship between the sexes in American society. People live in an abnormal and perverted society. Men are soulless and poor animals. Being used by women; and women are always insatiable for sex. In terms of explaining that people have this kind of morbid psychology, the film seems to be convincing enough." Obviously, whether it is praising or denouncing this film, the topic is "sex "superior.It is well known that Verhoeven is "obsessed" with sex scenes, but he has a clear estimate of the sex scenes. He said that if the sex scenes are as long as "sex realistic films", it will actually affect the tension of the film.

Audiences are often confused: "Why do so many movies need bed scenes?" I remember a director who answered roughly like this: "Movies are much shorter than TV dramas, and people must believe how strong and intimate the relationship between lovers on the screen is." , bed scenes may be the best way.” So the excessive nudity scenes and overly passionate sex scenes in "Basic Instinct" at first glance emphasize the degree to which the characters are seduced and controlled by evil.Although I don't think "Basic Instinct" has anything to do with American society, and it doesn't have this kind of magnified projection ability, but to some extent it reflects a certain "psychological mechanism" deep in the human heart, such as the desire for voyeurism, The temptation of mysterious danger, the desire for control of violent tendencies, etc., these are actually the consistent themes of Hitchcock's movies.It’s reminiscent of Truffaut’s statement that “love is like murder” in Hitchcock’s films, while “making love is murder” in Verhoeven’s.

One of Verhoeven's most daring and sexually provocative scenes is Sharon Stone's interrogation at the police station, where she crosses and swaps her bare-pants legs (but in fact, as we know through some insider revelations, There were also a lot of people on the film crew who couldn't tell what they saw).In that potentially boring and procedural scene, Verhoeven calculated the desired effect from all aspects.For example, the interrogation room looks very depressing because the crew deliberately lowered the ceiling, making this space seem to be the personal activity space of the female writer Catherine played by Sharon Stone.The lighting arrangement is also unconventional, using colored fluorescent lamps to light up from the ground, which is very dramatic, a so-called "neoplasticism" lighting method.And Catherine was in the light, while the police were in the dark, Catherine completely controlled the heads of all the men with provocative and calm words.And she is dressed in a white suit that symbolizes innocence in traditional movies (the director even said it reminds of Grace Kelly).

In "Basic Instinct", every exposure of a woman is not peeped by the man himself, but the woman deliberately shows it to the man, thus using the body to attack the man and lay a trap.Maybe that's the difference between this frank "porn movie" and those that aren't. "Basic Instinct" finally provides an ending similar to a fairy tale-the murderer put down the weapon and lived with his lover-although they do not want eternal happiness, but they also want eternal "sex happiness". Although it looks very scary and strange, But it's still a fairy-tale happy ending.