OK, so I just adore this little flop of a movie. The look, the acting (especialy Stone, Bates and Knight) and the screenplay all converge toward a distinctly campy second degree, sometimes close to comedy. Make it black comedy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Clouzot fan; Le Corbeau is one of my all time favorite, and his original Diaboliques, based on Boileau and Narcejac short story, ranks prominently in my list, too. And frankly, I was quite ambivalent about it being remade. And then I heard of the casting (Stone/Adjani), which is a once in a lifetime kinda thing and the choice of giving direction to then newcomer Jeremiah Chechick, still fresh from his well received debut Benny and Joon.
So I told to myself, "Hey, could be worse". But I wasn't entirely convinced. Of course, I didn't know then that Don Roos had penned the laced in acid screenplay with the tongue firmly in cheek.
Stone's Nicole: "You're dead, this is heaven and I'm the Vigin Mary. Can you swallow?" This is one of my favorite line, ever. That Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe homage with Shirley Knight is also priceless.
To appreciate this movie, I think you must be a camp addict, or a gay, or both. One way or the other, the audience for this kind of sophisticated junk seems to be timid, or easily convinced to doubt of its own tastes. Maybe that's why Basic Instinct 2, a very similar outing, flopped. Too bad.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Clouzot fan; Le Corbeau is one of my all time favorite, and his original Diaboliques, based on Boileau and Narcejac short story, ranks prominently in my list, too. And frankly, I was quite ambivalent about it being remade. And then I heard of the casting (Stone/Adjani), which is a once in a lifetime kinda thing and the choice of giving direction to then newcomer Jeremiah Chechick, still fresh from his well received debut Benny and Joon.
So I told to myself, "Hey, could be worse". But I wasn't entirely convinced. Of course, I didn't know then that Don Roos had penned the laced in acid screenplay with the tongue firmly in cheek.
Stone's Nicole: "You're dead, this is heaven and I'm the Vigin Mary. Can you swallow?" This is one of my favorite line, ever. That Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe homage with Shirley Knight is also priceless.
To appreciate this movie, I think you must be a camp addict, or a gay, or both. One way or the other, the audience for this kind of sophisticated junk seems to be timid, or easily convinced to doubt of its own tastes. Maybe that's why Basic Instinct 2, a very similar outing, flopped. Too bad.