In our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Scene's Anatomy, we're 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 them, and their legacy. This week, Madonna goes to see Basic Instinct and decides she wants one of those movies for herself, bringing Body of Evidence into the world.
Two weeks after Basic Instinct roared onto the scene in the spring of 1992, Last Exit to Brooklyn director Uli Edel's camera began rolling on Body of Evidence, a new erotic thriller starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe. The movie was rushed into production to try and capitalize on the heat coming off Verhoeven's vastly superior film, and to better position itselfbehind the release of Madge's upcoming book and album, Sex and Erotica, respectively.
Though she had been acting for nearly a decade at this point, Madonna herself would not truly gain respect as an actress for a few more years when Evita was released in 1996—coincidentally just one year after Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone achieved likewise in Martin Scorsese's Casino. Madonna had proven herself a capable performer in films like Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy,A League of Their Own, and even Truth or Dare, but when asked to carry films like Shanghai SurpriseandWho's That Girl?, the results were mixed at best.
This put her in a precarious position going into Body of Evidence, a film that ostensibly had a lot riding on it relative to Madonna's ability to carry a film. It was a terrible choice of vehicle for Madonna heading into 1993, and after thesame year's Dangerous Game, she would only cameo in films until Evita. Body of Evidence tanked her shot at movie stardom, not least because it's a fairly terrible movie. That doesn't mean it's not without merit, particularly to boys who hit pubertyright around the same timethe movie came out on VHS.
Body of Evidence's greatest sin is that it didn't ride the wave of Basic Instinct's success in the realm of sexually explicit thrillers for grown-ups. It basically became the first in a long line of imitators that attempted to prove their films could be just as hot and steamy even in the absence of decent material, i.e. a script that doesn't insult one's intelligence. It's a shame, too, because Edel assembled one hell of a supporting cast including a wet-behind-the-ears Julianne Moore—who would go on to make the subject of last week's article, Short Cuts, not long after wrapping on this film.
Willem Dafoe, Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Jürgen Prochnow, Frank Langella, and a whole host of "that guy" character actors lend a wholly fruitless air of legitimacy to the whole endeavor. Rather than playing like an intelligent thriller with some explicit sex scenes, Body of Evidence was more akin to a feature length episode of Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries. A rich old bastard dies during a sexual encounter with Rebecca Carlson (Madonna) involving autoerotic asphyxiation. She is accused of murder and appointed attorney Frank Delaney (Dafoe), with whom she enters into a sadomasochistic affair despite him being married to Julianne Moore's character. And despite him being her attorney in acapital case. And also despite the fact that he and Moore have a very healthy sex life as we see earlier in the film.
The film is paint-by-numbers dime store erotic trash: He calls the shots in the courtroom, but she's in charge in the bedroom! There's also absurd reveals of double crosses and, most importantly, the promiscuous female characters all pay with their lives while the philandering men come off as the heroes. Body of Evidence's problems all stem from the fact that it's just got a rotten story, that might make for a mindless beach read but plays as vacuous on the big screen, particularly in the wake of such well-made trash as Basic Instinct.
Then the film made its way to VHS where—like Verhoeven's own Showgirls a few years later—it found its proper audience of horned up fourteen year old boys like yours truly. Despite being a quasi-cinema nerd at the time, I didn't have to sit there and "watch" Body of Evidence. Just one or two scenes. I was too young to get my hands on a copy of "Sex" but I could use my two-VCR set-up and rip a copy of those good scenes long before MrSkin.com existed.Madonna doesn't get to flex her acting muscles much in the movie, but she does deliver two quasi-iconic nude scenes. The first involves her pouring candle wax on Dafoe's dong, but the more interesting scene is the later one where she attempts to one-upSharon Stone's iconic leg-crossing scene.
56 minutes into the movie, Rebecca and Frank find themselves feeling frisky, first in an elevator, and then in a parking garage. The erotic tension has gotten so heated in the elevator that as they bust out, they find the nearest car, and Rebecca mounts the car to knock out the overhead light, before hiking up her skirt to flash Frank...
Of course, he can't resist her powers of persuasion and eventually takes off her panties, exposing her bush, before treating himself to a good old fashioned box lunch...
The sadomasochism rears its ugly head once more when, as she's about to climax, she lets go of the rafters, lowering Frank onto the hood where the broken glass from the light she shattered has accumulated. To make matters kinkier, a car drives by, briefly illuminating their rendezvous...
Of course it can't outdo Stone's bush shot, because that was all about the tease, all about the woman holding sway over every man in the room. This is about a woman forcefully asserting her female dominance over this poor schmo by grinding his back into broken glass. There's little subtlety to be found in either scene, but it's more disappointingly portrayed here by a long shot.
Madonna's story obviously had a happy ending as she achieved critical respect in Evita three years later, and then flushed that right down the toilet a further six years on with Swept Away. But that's a story for another day.
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy...
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—Scarlett Johansson's Nude Debut inUnder the Skin
—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct
—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball
—HowMulholland Dr.'s Legendary Lesbian Scenes Deepen the Film's Mystery
—Showgirlsand the Dangers of High Camp
—Rosario Dawson Laid Bare for Danny Boyle'sTrance
—Katie Holmes MakesThe GiftWorth Remembering
—Jennifer Connelly Comes of Age inThe Hot Spot
—Lisa Bonet's Bloody Nude Debut inAngel Heart
—Monica Bellucci Gets Brutalized in Gaspar Noé'sIrréversible
—Stanley Kubrick, The William Tell Overture, and A Clockwork Orange
—Wild ThingsPresents Every Man with His Dream Threesome
—Chloë Sevigny Goes Down in History forThe Brown Bunny
—Helen Hunt Does Her Best Nudity at 48 in The Sessions
—Anne Hathaway Wreaks Havoc on Her Disney Image
—Body HeatBrings Noir Into the 80s, Sexes Up the Genre
—The Master Gives Serious Drama its Horniest Protagonist Ever
—Analyzing the Dream Logic of Eyes Wide Shut
—Isabella Rossellini's Intentionally Unsexy Nude Debut in Blue Velvet
—Margot Robbie MakesThe Wolf of Wall Streeta Skinstant Classic
—Angie Dickinson Steams Up the Opening Credits ofDressed to Kill
—The Strange Sexual Dynamics of Dogtooth
—How the Remake of Oldboy Stacks Up Against the Original
—Bob Fosse's Dancers Take It Off inAll That Jazz
—Lindsay Lohan Finally Goes Topless inThe Canyons
—Noir Takes a Trip to the Isle of Lesbos in Bound
—Brian De Palma Gets Cheeky with the Opening Scene of Blow Out
